Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – With five division one signees including two of the four scorers in Class 5A the Class 5A quarterfinal between second-ranked City High and No. 9 Cedar Rapids Prairie featured some heavy hitters.

It was a softball standout that sparked City High on Monday.  

All-state softball player Ella Cook scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds as City High returned to the 5A semifinals for the second time in three seasons with a 59-40 win over Cedar Rapids Praire at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

“This is especially something where being a multi-sport athlete I feel helps me because I have been to state in two other sports,” Cook said. “I feel like that experience really helped me to be calm and collected here and not get too nervous.”

A three-sport athlete who is also a state track qualifier Cook does her best work on the softball field as a first baseman and pitcher.

In a state quarterfinal filled with some of the state’s top talent Cook picked the perfect time to show she isn’t half bad on the basketball court either.

Cook hit five of six field goal attempts on her way to 13 points and her nine rebounds helped City High hold a 28-21 rebounding edge over the Hawks.

“She was a huge part of us,” City High senior Rose Nkumu said. “Her rebounds for us are key, her offensive rebounds were amazing and we had good put backs from her and just a really great effort.”

City High (23-1) scored the first 12 points of the game and never trailed on Monday while advancing to the 5A semifinals for the second time in three seasons.

The Little Hawks will face fourth-ranked Johnston (22-2) on Thursday at 10 a.m.

“We are going to focus on the next game and get prepared for them because they are a great team,” City High senior Aubrey Joens said. “No matter who you play here they are going to be good.”

Aubrey Joens scored 16 of her game-high 18 points in the second half as City High pulled away but it was Cook who sparked the Little Hawks early.

The 5-foot-11 junior entered averaging 5.6 points per game but hit that mark by halftime, scoring seven points and grabbing five rebounds as City High took a 27-17 halftime lead.

“She was huge,” Joens said of Cook. “Giving us another scoring option like that they have to come out and guard her and she was huge on the boards. She got a lot of offensive rebounds and that was big.”

Cook and Joens each had four offensive rebounds as City High turned 13 offensive boards into 18 second chance points.

City High limited the Prairie senior backcourt tandem of Sidney McCrea and Mallory McDermott to 26 points and just 11 in the second half.

McCrea and McDermott entered averaging a combined 40 points per game.

“I thought our defense was tremendous,” Joens said. “I thought our rebounding was big part today, our offensive rebounding was huge, we got a lot of second-chance points.”

Joens, who had 32 points in a 32-point win over Cedar Rapids Prairie last month, went 6-of-8 from the field in the second half after missing five of six shots in the first half.

City High shot 54 percent from the field in the second half and 49 percent for the game.

“I thought we played a much better second half,” City High coach Bill McTaggart said. “We wanted to get the ball in the second half and we did a better job in the second half, we were shooting too many deeps threes in the first half.”

City High forced four turnovers in the opening three minutes while jumping to a 12-0 lead.

The Little Hawks turned 14 Prairie turnovers into 19 points.  

“We were really hot the first time we played them so we knew this was going to be a tough game because they are a really good team,” McTaggart said. “I was pleased that we got up 12-0. Both times we got up on them early and that was huge. That’s what we wanted to do.”

Nkumu finished with 12 points and four assists while Kelsey Joens had eight points and Eviyon Richardson came off the bench to score five points and grab three rebounds.

“We really keyed in on playing good defense, we know our defense turns into our offense,” Nkumu said. “We made sure we keyed in on their top scorers, we may have had some mishaps in the game that didn’t go our way but I think that togetherness and being on the same page really helped us out.”

City High       17  10  18  14  –  59  

CR Prairie     10   7   11  12  –  40

City High (59) – Rose Nkmum 5-6 0-0 2-2 12, Kelsey Joens 3-8 0-0 8, Ella Cook 5-6 3-4 13, Paige Rocca 1-9 0-0 3, Aubrey Joens 7-14 3-5 18, CeCe Kelly-Harvey 0-1 0-0 0, Eviyon Richardson 2-3 1-2 5, Totals 23-47 9-13 59.

CR Prairie (40) – Sidney McCrea 6-12 1-2 13, Kamryn Grissel 4-7 0-0 9, Malloy McDermott 4-8 4-5 13, Jenna Leggat 0-3 1-2 1, Hailey Cooper 1-5 0-0 2, Natalie Bennett 1-2 0-0 2, Totals 16-37 6-9 40

3-point field goals – ICH 4-16 (K. Joens 2-6, Rocca 1-5, A. Joens 1-5), CRP 2-9 (McCrea 0-2, Grissel 1-2, McDermott 1-4, Bennett 0-1). Rebounds – ICH 28 (Cook 9), CRP 21 (Leggat, Cooper 6). Assists – ICH 10 (Nkumu 4), CRP 5 (McCrea 3). Turnovers – ICH 8, CRP 14. Total fouls – ICH 11, CRP 13. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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