Metro Sports Report

Eagles clinch home date with forfeit

The Kirkwood men's basketball team clinched a first-round home game in next week's conference tournament without even bouncing a ball Wednesday.

The Eagles (17-12, 8-5) received a forfeit from Southwestern Community College (14-14, 6-7).

The game was to be the nightcap of a women/men doubleheader between the schools. The women's game will be played as scheduled at 5:30 p.m.

The "win" clinched a first-round conference tournament home date for the Eagles next Tuesday against an opponent to be determined. Kirkwood is in third place in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference, and still has a shot at finishing second.

No.2 Kirkwood drubs Southwestern, 85-20

Southwestern was no match for the No.2 ranked Kirkwood Eagles on Wednesday night at Johnson Hall. Kirkwood (26-3, 15-0) pummeled the Spartans, 85-20.

An aggressive full-court pressure defense forced 14 turnovers and only allowed one field goal in 19 attempts in the entire first half as the Eagles built a 42-7 halftime lead.

Substituting generously in each half, the Eagles held Southwestern (0-29, 0-15) to just 5 of 39 shooting for the game while forcing 23 turnovers.

Defense looms large for Saints, Warriors

Tom Lilly was not fond of playing defense when he was a senior at Regis High School 30 years ago, which is kind of ironic.

These days, Lilly prides himself on having strong defensive clubs at Xavier High School and it's one of the reasons the Saints have made the state basketball tournament for the 10th time in 15 years under his guidance.

When Lilly was a junior at Regis, his main assignment in practice was to play tough defense to help get the senior-laden squad ready for games. All of the juniors had that assignment as members of the junior varsity, as he recalls.

Jeff's substate game vs. IC West ppd.

The Class 4A substate basketball final between Jefferson and No.1 Iowa City West was postponed Tuesday night because of snowy weather.

The game has been rescheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at Cedar Rapids Prairie.

Seven of Tuesday's eight scheduled Class 4A substate finals were postponed. All except for the Jefferson-Iowa City West game have been rescheduled for Wednesday night.