Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Suspense was on holiday Tuesday at City High’s regional final against Dubuque Hempstead.

The Little Hawks scored the first 24 points of the game, scored on 13 of their 16 first-quarter possessions and held the Mustangs to two first-quarter baskets.

The rest of the game was just bookkeeping.

City High’s 70-21 victory qualified it for the Class 5A state basketball tournament for the fourth consecutive season. The Little Hawks (22-1) will play ninth-ranked Cedar Rapids Prairie (20-3) Monday at 10 a.m. at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

“It’s so fun,” junior Ella Cook said in the post-game scrum in the middle of the court.

The Little Hawks were unbeaten and ranked No. 1 all year until their loss at Waukee late in the season.

Getting to the state tournament seemed like a forgone conclusion, but senior Aubrey Joens wasn’t so quick to dismiss the regular season as mere overture to the feature event.

“Every game counts because you don’t know what can happen,” she said. “So now that it’s out of the way we’re just ready to play at state.”

“When you’re up there the scores and the records don’t matter,” senior guard Rose Nkumu said. “All the teams are playing their best, and they all want to lift the trophy at the end.”

The Little Hawks beat the Mustangs 80-32 in the second game of the season, but that was 2-1/2 months ago.

“We were expecting a close game,” Joens said. “Every team comes ready to play. This time of the season you want to play your best every game.”

“We knew from the get-go we would have to come out full force and everybody playing their best,” Nkumu said.

“We focused on not overlooking them,” Cook said. “We obviously had a big win over them earlier this season, but we just kind of forgot about that. We watched film, and we thought they were playing well.”

City forced 20 turnovers in the first half alone.

What did that mean?

The Little Hawks took 34 shots (making 17), while Hempstead took 12 (making four).

The Little Hawks made 10-of-19 threes in the first half, while the Mustangs were 0-for-3. City High led 52-10 at halftime and the second half was played with a continuous clock.

“We talked a lot about defense and rebounding, and I think we executed super well. Like in the first half they had only 10 points,” Cook said. “We know that we can score on offense, but sometimes our defense gets a little shaky.

That was our game plan to really execute on defense, and I think we did a really good job of that.

“We really focused on ball pressure and making sure we were in the passing lanes and making it difficult for them to pass the ball.”

“We talked on defense, we switched (on screens), we identified their shooters,” City High coach Bill McTaggart said.

The 21 points Hempstead scored were by far its fewest of the season.

This was certainly one of City’s better games, but of course Hempstead isn’t representative of any of the teams that will be competing at the state tournament.

“We had a lot of ball movement,” Joens said. “Everyone was knocking down shots. When we move the ball like that it’s hard to guard.”

 “When we’re passing like that we’re a pretty good team,” McTaggart said.

Aubrey Joens led all scorers with 17; Paige Rocca had 15 and Kelsey Joens had 13. Senior guard Sydney Paulsen had seven for the Mustangs (14-10).

City High, ranked second to Waukee, will be one of the favorites in Des Moines but the 5A field looks like a free-for-all.

The Little Hawks believe they are ready to compete.

 “I was kind of worried since we beat (the Mustangs) pretty bad the first time that we might be overconfident,” McTaggart said. “But we came out businesslike. I’m very pleased with them.”

“This is a great step forward for us,” Nkumu said. “Our defense took a step up. Our offense has everybody on the same page and everybody is excited to get back to the Well.”

Dubuque Hempstead            4   6   6  5  –  21

City High                               33  19  9  9  –  70

Dubuque Hempstead (21) – Kaylie Springer 2-7 0-0 4, Sydney Paulsen 2-3 1-2 7, Corinne Meier 1-6 0-0 2, Riley Kay 1-4 1-2 3, Morgan Hawkins 1-1 -0 2, Carleigh Hodgson 0-0 0-0 0, Ella Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Lindsay Coble 1-2 1-3 3, Abby Kallaher 0-0 0-0 0, Aaliyah Waggoner 0-0 0-0 0, Natalie Onderick 0-0 0-0 0, Kaydiane Schadel 0-1 0-0 0, Ashley Glennon 0-1 0-0 0, Olivia Fester 0-2 0-0 0, Totals 8-27 3-7.

City High (70) – Rose Nkumu 4-7 1-2 9, Kelsey Joens 5-8 0-1 13, Ella Cook 1-6 0-0 2, Paige Rocca 4-10 3-4 15, Aubrey Joens 5-10 4-4 17, Eviyon Richardson 1-4 2-4 5, Andie Westlake 2-4 2-2 7, Georgia Kimm 1-2 0-0 2, Carey Koenig 0-1 0-0 0, Mia Driscoll 0-1 0-0 0, Lauren Koch 0-0 0-0 0, Anna Knoche 0-0 0-0 0, Jae Dancer 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 23-54 12-17.

3-point field goals – Dubuque Hempstead 2-12 (Springer 0-2, Paulsen 2-3, Meier 0-2, Kay 0-1, Schadel 0-1, Glennon 0-1, Fessler 0-2); City High 12-27 (Nkumu 0-1, Kelsey Joens 3-5, Cook 0-2, Rocca 4-8, Aubrey Joens 3-6, Richardson 1-1, Westlake 1-3, Koenig 0-1). Total fouls – Dubuque Hempstead 14, City High 11. Fouled out – None.

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