Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Every season there is a team that gets rolling late and no one wants to see in their postseason path.

This season that team is Cedar Rapids Washington.

Class 5A No. 15 Cedar Rapids Washington (12-9) won its fifth straight game to close the regular season, taking down its third top-10 ranked team in the last 10 days with a 64-53 win over ninth-ranked City High on Friday in the regular season finale for both teams in Iowa City.

“I haven’t paid too close of attention to their record and I don’t care, that is one of the best teams in our conference, they always play their best at the end of the year and there is this drive in them right now,” City High coach Lynsey Barnard said. “That is a heck of a basketball team.”

Cedar Rapids Washington started the season 2-6 and were 7-9 after a 21-point loss at Dubuque Wahlert on January 28.

The Warriors haven’t lost since.

Cedar Rapids Washington posted wins over No. 10 Cedar Falls, sixth-ranked Cedar Rapids Prairie and now ninth-ranked City High during a five-game winning streak to close the regular season.

Junior point guard Samantha Becker poured in a game-high 30 points and Cedar Rapids Washington shot 50 percent in the first half while building a 17-point halftime lead.

“We are able to read what our teammates are doing and what the defense is doing and we are moving without the ball really well,” Cedar Rapids Washington coach Chris James said. “It helps to hit shots and Sam (Becker) is playing about as well as anyone right now.”

City High got 20 points from senior August Palmer and 12 from freshman Even Vitense but it wasn’t enough as the Little Hawks dropped to 15-7.

“I’ve probably been saying since November Wash is good,” Barnard said. “I am so impressed by that group on film and in person, their movement is incredible they are well-coached, that’s a good basketball team.”

Cedar Rapids Washington never trailed on Friday.

The Warriors made 10-of-15 field goal attempts in the first quarter while building a 24-5 lead after the opening quarter.

Cedar Rapids Washington closed the first quarter on a 12-1 run over the final 4:06.

“We definitely didn’t overlook them we just didn’t start well,” Barnard said. “They punched us in the face and that’s what they do. Their identity is taking teams identities away and that’s what they do. They are so good at adapting.”

Cedar Rapids Washington led 37-20 at the half and 43-20 with 6:15 remaining in the third quarter before City High mounted a rally.

The Little Hawks closed the third quarter on a 16-0 run that spanned more than five minutes and cut the lead to seven points.

City High got as close as 43-39 on a Tessa Driscoll 3-pointer just 13 seconds into the fourth quarter.

Cedar Rapids Washington responded by scoring the next 13 points to put the game out of reach.

“It stinks that we learned certain things about us tonight, I don’t’ want to learn that we can come back from 23 down but I learned that tonight,” Barnard said. “We didn’t do enough to win the game but we sure responded.”

Becker made all six of her free throw attempts in the fourth quarter as Cedar Rapids Washington put the game away.

The junior guard is averaging 26.8 points per game over the last four games and has a pair of 30-point performances during that span.

“She is just the epitome of what you want your program to look like,” James said of Becker. “She plays hard, she tries to make the right play, she’s a great teammate and she’s earned it. The work she put in rehab wise to get to this point it’s really a credit to her.”

Lilly Belle Barker had 15 points for Cedar Rapids Washington and 6-foot-3 sophomore Sira Doumbia had eight points and 12 rebounds.

Kaitlin Loria had eight points and 10 rebounds for City High which opens the postseason by hosting Cedar Rapids Jefferson (8-13) on February 22 at 7 p.m.

“I would have liked to win for our seniors but I’d really like to win a couple of more games for our seniors,” Barnard said. “We are not looking past our next game and the nice thing is we have home court and we have one more chance to send our seniors off and that’s our goal.”

CR Washington       24  13  6  21  –  64

City High                    5   15 16 17  –  53     

CR Washington (64) – Elysionna Westerfield 4-11 1-4 9, Samantha Becker 9-16 8-8 30, Jayla Strong 0-2 0-0 0, Lily Belle Barker 7-14 0-0 15, Sira Doumbia 3-8 2-2 8, Hailey Becker 0-1 2-2 2, Lillie Dostal 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 23-53 13-16 64.

City High (53) – Eve Vitense 4-6 0-2 12, Maybes Miller 0-2 0-0 0, August Palmer 7-21 5-7 20, Hattie Galloway1-2 0-0 2, Kaitlin Loria 3-9 2-4 8, Emmy McComas 0-6 5-6 5, Tessa Driscoll 2-3 0-0 6, Totals 17-49 12-19 53.

3-point field goals – Cedar Rapids Washington 5-13 (S. Becker 4-5, Strong 0-1, Barker 1-6, H. Becker 0-1), City High 7-20 (Vitense 4-6, Palmer 1-7, Galloway 0-1, Loria 0-1, McComas 0-2, Driscoll 2-3). Rebounds – Cedar Rapids Washington 33 (Doumbia 12), City High 35 (Loria 10). Total fouls – Cedar Rapids Washington 18, City High 16. Turnovers – Cedar Rapids Washington 16, City High 21. Fouled out – City High (Palmer). Technical fouls – None.

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