Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – During its first three games of the season City High has shown flashes of being a team that can be a contender in the Mississippi Valley Conference.

The next step for the Little Hawks is connecting those spurts in 32 consecutive minutes of strong play.

City High played nearly even with Cedar Rapids Kennedy for a quarter on Tuesday but was outscored 22-9 in the second quarter in a 69-51 loss to the Cougars in a MVC cross-divisional matchup in Iowa City.

“Our guys have shown that when they are locked in defensively that can be our calling card and that can lead to transition buckets getting them to do it for 32 minutes is the next step,” second-year City High coach Brennan Swayzer said. “Playing an entire 32 minutes and playing through the errors that are going to happen is definitely the next step we have to take.”
City High (2-1) held its own in a fast-paced, back-and-forth opening quarter and was outscored just 25-24 by Kennedy in the second half.

It was a seven-minute stretch to close the opening half that saw Kennedy (3-2) seize control.

The Cougars outscored City High 22-7 over the final 7:08 of the second quarter to turn a two-point lead into a 44-27 halftime margin.

“Against a team like that, that is patient and knows what shots they want you can’t afford to take two or three possessions off because it starts to add up and it hurts you,” Swayzer said. “Before you know it that four turns to eight and the eight turns to 16 and then it’s gut check time and we didn’t respond very well.”

City High opened the game 7-of-13 from the floor in the opening quarter and led 16-14 after an Andre Miller 3-pointer with 1:53 left in the opening frame.

The Little Hawks trailed just 22-20 when Raph Hamilton muscled his way to the basket for a baseline layup 11 seconds into the second quarter.

Kennedy scored the next six points and after a 17-foot jumper by Darren Richardson cut the lead to 28-22 the Cougars rattled off seven straight points to push the lead to 35-22.

City High made just three of its final 12 field goal attempts of the opening half and scored just seven points in the final seven minutes of the second quarter.

“I thought we were able to keep people in front a little bit more,” Kennedy coach Jon McKowen said. “The first quarter they were getting really deep and they were making really good drift passes. In a time like this there are some things that you haven’t repped enough and that was exposed for us. We were struggling and they were sneaking to the front of the rim and getting some easy shots.”

Meanwhile Kennedy got rolling on offense.

The Cougars shot 55 percent in the first half and 52 percent for the game while outscoring City High 13 to 5 at the free throw line.

Calen Schlaak led Kennedy with 17 points and 10 rebounds while Cole Hrubes added 13 points and six boards.

“We were a little more patient on the offensive side and made them guard a few different sides of the floor instead of just having to guard one action,” McKowen said. “I felt like we wore them out a little bit on that side.”

Richardson had a team-high 15 points for City High and Jamari Newson added 13 as City High shot 38 percent from the field in its third game in five days.

City High downed West High in its opener on Friday and won at Muscatine on Monday.

The Little Hawks which opened practice on the 12^th now get more than two weeks off before returning to action on January 5 against Liberty High (2-0).

“There is no better cure for things than practice and we haven’t had a lot of time for practice,” Swayzer said. “Once we have a chance over the next couple of weeks to break some things down and fine tune them we are hoping we can come back and correct that stuff.”

City High         18   9    8   16  –  51

CR Kennedy   22  22  14  11  –  69

City High (51) – Keyoun Agee 0-2 0-0 0, Cade Obermueller 0-1 0-0 0, Kolby Kucera 2-6 0-0 5, Andre Miller 1-4 0-0 3, Byron Benton 3-9 0-0 7, Shamar Benton 1-2 0-0 2, Gavin Koch 0-1 0-0 0, Jay Kennedy 0-2 0-0 0, Darren Richardson 5-9 5-6 15, Jamari Newson 5-11 0-0 13, Bram Sueppel 1-3 0-0 2, Raph Hamilton 2-2 0-0 4, Totals 20-52 5-6 51.

CR Kennedy (69) – Connor Jeffords 2-2 0-0 4, Colby Dolphin 2-4 4-4 9, Max White 1-5 0-0 3, Cole Hrubes 5-7 2-3 13, Jack Schissel 1-1 0-0 3, Caleb Schlaak 8-16 1-3 17, Jackson Bowman 3-6 0-0 6, Kenzie Reed 1-5 5-5 7, Kade Boeckmann 0-1 0-0 0, Craig Mills 3-3 1-1 7, Totals 26-50 13-16 69.

3-point field goals – ICH 6-16 (Kucera 1-4, Miller 1-4, B. Benton 1-2, Richardson 0-2, Newson 3-4), CRK 4-13 (Dolphin 1-1, White 1-4, Hrubes 1-3, Schissel 1-1, Schlaak 0-1, Bowman 0-1, Reed 0-1, Boeckmann 0-1). Rebounds – ICH 22 (Newson 5), CRK 35 (Schlaak 10). Turnovers – ICH 15, CRK 18. Total fouls – ICH 16, CRK 8. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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