Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – The opportunities were there.

For the fourth consecutive season City High and Johnston each came to the state tournament with a shot at a title.

In their Class 5A semifinal on Thursday both teams had opportunities to advance.

It was the Dragons that seized those opportunities.

Fourth-ranked Johnston (23-2) opened the second half with a 7-0 run and never let City High get closer than three the rest of the way advancing to the 5A title game for the second time in program history and first since 2016 with a 71-61 win over the Little Hawks at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

“The effort was definitely there from us, we went on some runs, they went on some runs and it was just a really good basketball game to watch,” City High senior Rose Nkumu said. “They are a really good team and it’s tough guarding players that can hit shots like that.”

Johnston will seek its first ever state title when it takes on top-ranked Waukee in the 5A title game on Friday at 6 p.m.

Second-ranked City High ended the season 23-2 and saw the career of three stellar seniors end with the semifinal loss.

Seniors Nkumu, Aubrey Joens and Paige Rocca were the first City High players to ever play in four consecutive state tournaments.

“I love those three girls dearly, it’s not two out of three here, when you get up here if you don’t bring you’re a game you go home and we didn’t shoot the ball well tonight,” City High coach McTaggart said of the seniors. “They are going to remember this but there are other times that they should remember too because they set team records and individual records and they were tremendous asset to our team and a huge part of our program the last four years.”

The similarities between the two teams were evident.

Both are led by senior trios making their fourth consecutive state tournament appearance without a title.

The line between the two teams was razor thin and the six starting seniors on both teams all had moments of brilliance.

However, it was the Johnston supporting cast that provided the difference.

Sophomore Anna Gossling scored 15 points and freshman Molly Noelck came off the bench to hit three consecutive 3-pointers in the second quarter as Johnston avenged a 58-52 loss to City High in the 2018 semifinals.

“Anna Gossling stepped up big and knocked down a lot of shots at the beginning and a lot of their bench players came up big,” Joens said. “Not only did Kendal (Nead) and Maya (McDermott) hurt us but they had other players come up big.”

City High had its opportunities.

The Little Hawks led 21-16 after senior Paige Rocca banked in a jumper to end the first quarter.

City High still led 21-16 when Johnston leading scorer Kendall Nead went to the bench with her third foul with 6:34 left in the first half.

Rather than extend it’s lead City High saw the lead evaporate thanks to Noelck.

“When you come up here everybody plays their best and I think we underestimated a little bit on their other players,” Nkumu said. “We missed an opportunity to capitalize when a player like Nead is out of the game. If we could go back we would probably do a lot of things different but we are proud of the way we played and with the seniors being our last game I’m glad I got to end it with my friends.

Noelck, who entered averaging 4.8 points per game and with 20 3-pointers on the season, made triples on three consecutive possessions to turn a five-point City High lead into a 25-21 Johnston advantage in just 70 seconds.

“Once you get to the state semifinals you have to have other players step up,” Johnston coach Chad Jilek said. “We put Molly in there and she hit back-to-back-to-back threes and that’s what she can do. We put her in there to shoot the ball and she came through big with those threes because if she didn’t hit those threes that could have snowballed on us.”

Johnston took a 33-31 lead into halftime after Gossling hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

The Dragon then took control with a 7-0 run to open the third quarter capped by a 3-pointer by Gossling.

“I think the start of the second half was the difference,” McTaggart said. “We did a nice job coming back but I think when we look back at it when we had Nead with three fouls and we were up six we thought we could increase in our lead but we actually did worse.”

City High battled back to within three points three times in the final 4:15 but could get no closer as Johnston made 11-of-13 free throws in the final 3:04.

Nead scored 12 of her team-high 16 points in the second half to lead four Dragons in double figures.

Senior point guard Maya McDermott had 14 points, eight rebounds and six assists and senior Maddie Mock had 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Dragons.

“We keyed in on Kendal and Maya their two main players but their role players stepped up and knocked down some shots,” Nkumu said. “There were a lot of things that probably didn’t go our way but we fought through some adversity during the game but it didn’t come out the way we wanted it to.”

The City High senior trio had its own stellar performance.

Joens was fantastic in her final prep game posting a 24-point, 16-rebound double-double.

Nkumu had 11 points, five assists and five rebounds and Rocca had 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting.

“They are my best friends, I love playing with them they gave we so many memories,” Joens said. “We didn’t get done what we wanted but it was super fun to be able to play with them.”

City High        21  10  12  18  –  61

Johnston        16  17  19  19  –  71

City High (61) – Rose Nkumu 3-9 4-4 11, Kelsey Joens 1-6 0-0 3, Ella Cook 4-10 0-0 10, Paige Rocca 5-7 0-0 13, Aubrey Joens 9-24 4-5 24, Eviyon Richardson 0-3 0-0 0, Totals 22-59 8-9 61.

Johnston (71) – Maya McDermott 5-11 4-5 14, Kinsey Jilek 0-3 2-2 2, Anna Gossling 6-10 1-1 15, Kendall Nead 5-10 6-8 16, Maddie Mock 3-6 5-7 11, Zoey Buchan 0-1 4-4 4, Molly Noelck 3-7 0-0 9, Totals 22-48 22-27 71.

3-point field goals – ICH 9-24 (Nkumu 1-4, K. Joens 1-3, Cook 2-6, Rocca 3-4, A. Joens 2-6, Richardson 0-1), JON 5-12 (McDermott 0-3, Jilek 0-1, Gossling 2-4, Noelck 3-4). Rebounds – ICH 33 (A. Joens 16), JON 34 (Mock 10). Assists – ICH 11 (Nkumu 5), JON 12 (McDermott 6). Turnovers – ICH 8, JON 9. Total fouls – ICH 23, JON 11. Fouled out – JON (Mock). Technical fouls – None.

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