Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – The stars continued to come up big for second-ranked City High in its 2022 opener against cross-town rival Liberty High.

It was the supporting cast for the Little Hawks that kept City High unbeaten.

Senior Georgia Kimm and freshman Emmy McComas each had big plays late as City High rallied to force overtime where it pulled away for a 77-67 win over Liberty High in North Liberty.

“In overtime we definitely focused more on playing together as a team,” Kimm said. “We tried to really lock down on defense and we made sure we moved the ball and didn’t just have one pass and shot. We focused on our ball movement.”

City High got double-doubles from both players in its all-state tandem while improving to 8-0 on the season.

Senior Eviyon Richardson was impressive with a game-high 29 points and 14 rebounds and junior leading scorer Kelsey Joens had 23 points and 10 boards.

It was Kimm and McComas that came up big late.

Kimm started a 9-0 run to close regulation with a three-pointer and McComas had a conventional three-point play during the City High run that snapped the final four minutes.

“We trusted each other,” Richardson said. “We have five players that can make plays, we can get any shot on the floor if we want to, we just have to trust each other.”

City High trailed by 13 at the half and was down 57-48 with 4:11 left.

That’s when the Little Hawk rally started with a Kimm three-pointer.

“I told them at halftime we weren’t going to get all 13 back in the first minute, they weren’t going to shoot that well from 3 the second half but if we get it to six in the fourth quarter we will be fine,” City High coach Bill McTaggart said. “We got it to six and I was pretty comfortable but we have a lot of areas where we have to improve.”

McComas cut the lead to three with a driving three-point play and City High pulled even on a three-point play by Joens with 2:09 left.

Neither team would score for the rest of regulation.

Liberty High (6-3) went 9-of-19 from three-point range while building its 4-28 halftime lead and finished with 13 three-pointers but didn’t score for the final 4:11 of regulation.

The second half we went a little bit cold and they hit some big shots in the second half,” Liberty High coach Jamie Brandt said. “We didn’t score for a long time in the fourth quarter.”

Kimm provided an early lift for the Little Hawks in a dominant overtime performance.

The senior guard gave City High its first lead of the game with a layup 17 seconds into the four-minute overtime period.

Richardson and Kimm hit back-to-back three-pointers to push the City High lead to 65-59.

“We just said every possession counts,” Richardson said. “We had to treat every possession like the last possession of the game. We were more focused, we dialed down, focused in and let the game come to us. We moved the ball around, had a lot of movement and we just made our shots.”

The three-pointer by Kimm with 2:24 left was the final field goal City High would attempt.

The Little Hawks went 12-of-14 from the free throw line over the final 1:31 of overtime.

“I was just really focused and in the zone and once I got the ball I knew I was going to shoot it,” Kimm said. “When I shot it I knew it was in.”
Kimm finished with 13 points while McComas had five.

The two combined to go 7-of-8 from the field.

“That is the difference in the game,” McTaggart said. “We got plays from different players. Georgia and Evi came up huge for us tonight.”

Liberty High got 22 points from Jasmine Barney and nine each from Avery Gaudet, Sunny Yarnell and Madeline Casey.

“We really can play with people this year and I think that’s kind of eye-opening,” Brandt said. “I also think we need to be able to put together 32 minutes. When we shoot the ball well we tend to play really good defense but when we go cold we have to really dig in mentally and play on the other side of the court.”

City High                    14  14  16  13  20  –  77

Liberty High             20  21   9    7   10  –  67 

Liberty High (67) – Avery Gaudet 3-5 0-0 9, Libby Allen 0-0 2-2 2, Jasmine Barney 7-19 5-7 22, Bella Tafolla 2-5 0-0 6, Kennedy Daugherty 1-3 0-0 2, Sunny Yarnell 3-6 3-3 9, Brynlee Slockett 0-6 0-0 0, Ava Meyer 2-7 2-4 8, Mischa Reiners 0-2 0-0 0, Madeline Casey 3-10 0-0 9, Totals 21-63 12-16 67.

City High (77) – Emmy McComas 2-2 1-1 5, Georgia Kimm 5-6 0-0 13, Kelsey Joens 7-18 8-9 23, Eviyon Richardson 7-12 11-13 29, Lauren Koch 0-1 0-0 0, Andie Westlake 1-5 2-2 5, Kacie Earl 1-3 0-0 2, Totals 23-47 22-25 77.

3-point field goals – ICH 9-19 (Kimm 3-3, Joens 1-7, Richardson 4-5, Koch 0-1, Westlake 1-3), ICL 13-36 (Gaudet 3-3, Barney 3-6, Tafolla 2-5, Slockett 0-6, Meyer 2-6, Casey 3-10). Rebounds – ICH 36 (Richardson 14), ICL 33 (Meyer 8). Turnovers – ICH 15, ICL 11. Total fouls – ICH 13, ICL 19. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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