Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Two-time defending state champion Cedar Falls never led in its showdown with top-ranked West High on Saturday.

Until it mattered most.

Class 4A sixth-ranked Cedar Falls took its only lead of the game on a game-winning 3-pointer by Josh Ollendieck as time expired as the Tigers snapped a 12-game West High winning streak with a 41-38 win in a Mississippi Valley Conference cross-divisional matchup in Iowa City.

“We figured it would be a game with long possessions and kind of a grind it out battle so we were a little worried when we got down,” Cedar Falls coach Ryan Schultz said. “I was really proud of how our kids battled back, that’s what I am most proud of.”

West High (15-2) took its biggest lead of the game at 30-21 on an Even Brauns put back with 5:34 left in the third quarter.

However, the Trojans would only score eight points over the final 13 plus minutes while dropping their first game since a one-point loss to Dubuque Senior on December 17.   

“We didn’t get a couple of rebounds that we needed to get and we didn’t guard quite as well but it’s frustrating to handle the end of games the way we have,” Bergman said. “Our two losses this year that is exactly how we lost both games with a lead late and just made bad choices or bad plays. For me it’s been a priority and we seem better in practice but we aren’t better obviously when we need it.”

Cedar Falls closed the third quarter on a 10-2 run, trimming the West High lead to 32-31.

The Tigers pulled even for the first time since the opening tip on a Trey Campbell driving layup with 4:28 left.

Brauns answered with a bucket in the paint on the ensuing West High possession to put the Trojans up 38-36.

It stayed that way until Ben Sernett scored on a drive with 1:39 left to tie the game at 38.

West High was poised to play for the last shot but turned it over with 23.8 seconds left.

“This is a long line of really good teams we are playing where we don’t handle the last two minutes worth a darn,” Bergman said. “We have worked our butts off on it but we just had some guys just mentally do somethings they are not supposed to do and made some bad choices.”

Cedar Falls took a timeout with 12 seconds left to set up a final play and Ollendieck made the late Trojan turnover smart.

Ollendieck curled off a screen and hit a 3-pointer from the wing as time expired to give the Tigers the win.

The leading scorer for Cedar Falls at 13.3 points per game and a 42 percent 3-pointer shooter on the season Ollendieck was just 2-of-6 from the field and had missed his last four 3-point attempts before the game winner.

“It was set up for Josh, he’s our senior leader,” Schultz said. “We had two shooters coming off and obviously one is usually the one that is going to come open he’s our starter back from last year and he’s been in those moments before so he was the guy we wanted taking that last shot.”

Nick Pepin hit a 3-pointer on the opening West High possession 44 seconds into the game but the Trojans missed their final nine shots from beyond the arc including both 3-point attempts in the fourth quarter.

West High

“We are a little bit offensively challenged and people pack it in and we’ve got to make a few shots,” Bergman said. “That’s the bottom line.”

Brauns had a game-high 18 points on 9-of-11 shooting and Tate Crane had 11 points going 4-of-6 from the floor but the rest of the Trojans combined to make just 3-of-16 field goal attempts.  

Landon Wolf led Cedar Falls with 11 points while Ollendiek finished with eight as the Tigers scored less than 55 points for just the second time this season.

“By and large I thought we guarded fine,” Bergman said. “That was just not a very good offensive game for us.”

West High      15  10   7    6  –  38

Cedar Falls     7   12  12  10 –  41

Cedar Falls (41) – Joshua Ollendieck 3-7 0-0 8, Trey Campbell 3-6 0-0 6, Jaxon Heth 0-4 2-3 2, Landon Wolf 5-7 0-0 11, Ben Sernett 2-5 0-0 4, Cael Locher 2-2 1-1 5, Carter Janssen 0-1 0-0 0, Joe Knutson 0-1 0-0 0, Chase Courbat 2-5 0-0 5, Totals 17-37 3-4 41.

West High (38) – Christian Barnes 0-1 0-0 0, Tate Crane 4-6 3-4 11, Joey Goodman 1-1 0-0 2, Nick Pepin 2-7 1-2 6, Marcus Morgan 0-3 0-0 0, Ben Vander Leest 0-4 1-2 1, Even Brauns 9-11 0-1 18, Totals 16-33 5-9 38.

3-point field goals – ICW 1-10 (Barnes 0-1, Crane 0-1, Pepin 1-3, Morgan 0-2, Vander Veest 0-3), CF 3-13 (Ollendieck 2-6, Sernett 0-1, Heth 0-2, Wolf 1-2, Courbat 1-2). Rebounds – ICW 20 (Brauns 7), CF 19 (Courbat). Turnovers – ICW 12, CF 9. Total fouls – ICW 9, CF 11. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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