Kennedy Coach Dennis Roloff is a mild-mannered guy who doesn’t like to yell and scream, but he will make an exception from time to time.

Friday night (Dec. 3) was one of those times, but it had a happy ending for Kennedy.

The go-go Cougars finally got going in the third quarter and defeated Cedar Falls, 37-23, in a Mississippi Valley Conference girls’ basketball game at Kennedy.

The Cougars (1-1, 1-1) scored only eight points in the first half, hardly the “Go! Go! Go!” style that Roloff wants to play this year. Fortunately for the Cougars, Cedar Falls tallied only 11 points in the first half.

“The last few years, I really haven’t had to blow a gasket at halftime,” Roloff said. “And I probably blew a gasket at halftime tonight. They didn’t get to sit down.”

The Cougars stood there and listened to Roloff explain the finer points of basketball. They must have understood, because they looked like a different team when they returned for the second half.

Kennedy turned up the pressure on defense, forced turnovers, got a few easy baskets and tossed in 18 points in the third period to take control at 26-15.

“I said at halftime: You held somebody to 11 points, but we had only eight,” Roloff remarked. “So the defense really did a nice job.”

Courtney Strait led Kennedy with 10 points. Olivia Meier contributed eight points and Katherine Schulz gave the Cougars a spark off the bench with seven points.

Nobody scored more than four points for Cedar Falls (1-3, 0-2).

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CEDAR FALLS (23): Hennings 1 0-0 2, Wirth 0 0-0 0, Craig 0 0-0 0, Alberts 1 0-0 2, Conrad 1 0-0 3, Neff 0 0-0 0, Krulli 0 0-0 0, DeMuth 2 0-0 4, Qualls 1 0-0 2, Graves 2 0-4 4, Brown 2 0-0 4, Friedel 0 2-3 2. Totals 10 2-7 23.

KENNEDY (37): Johnson 1 0-0 2, Meier 3 1-3 8, Strait 4 1-1 10, Simmons 1 2-2 4, Heubsch 0 0-0 0, Schlueter 0 0-0 0, Nunnikhoven 1 0-0 2, Happel 2 0-2 4, Hildebrand 0 0-0 0, Schulz 3 1-1 7. Totals 15 5-9 37.

Halftime — Cedar Falls 11, Kennedy 8. 3-point goals — Cedar Falls 1 (Conrad), Kennedy 2 (Meier 1, Strait 1).