Iowa City High’s Jerel Moore and Linn-Mar’s Marcus Paige posed for pictures together after the game on Friday night. But most of the “Kodak moments” took place on the basketball court.

The two close friends put on a highlight show as Paige scored 34 points and Moore 27 in the fifth-ranked Lions’ 76-65 Class 4A substate semifinal victory at the Linn-Mar gym.

The two stars have played summer ball together for several years with All-Iowa Attack, an AAU club team, and know each other well.

“I have a lot of respect for Marcus,” the 6-foot-6 Moore said. “He’s one of the best players out there.”

Paige echoed the sentiments saying, “He knows my game pretty well because we have known each other for so long. It was fun going up against him. He is a great player and it definitely posed a different matchup than what I am used to.”

Linn-Mar (18-4) advances to play No. 8 Kennedy (16-6) on Tuesday night at Prairie High School at 7. The winner advances to the state tournament, where the Lions are the defending state champs.

The Moore-Paige dual provided some entertaining “snapshots” throughout the evening, including:

Snapshot No. 1: Moore came out aggressive and hot, scoring six of his team’s first eight points. City High led 13-11 after the first quarter with an ice-cold Paige missing his first three field goal attempts and shooting 1-for-5 from the field with Moore guarding him.

“To see him and his offensive game and how it has developed is pretty cool,” Paige said of Moore. “They thought that was a good matchup because he has a lot of size on me. It was a fun matchup.”

City High Coach Adam Loria said, “I thought his (Moore’s) focus the last three days was very, very good and I think it showed. He played great tonight.

“I thought Jerel made things difficult for him and I thought Marcus really had to work.”

Snapshot No. 2: Paige electrified the crowd by scoring 19 points in the first half, including 14 of his team’s first 29 points on an array of pull-up jumpers and drives to the rim. Moore had roughly half of his team’s points as Linn-Mar led 34-27 at halftime.

“I think we played an outstanding game overall,” Moore said. “Marcus played a great game, but I couldn’t be happier with our performance tonight.”

Snapshot No. 3: With time running out in the third quarter, Moore played great defense on Paige only to have the 6-foot-2 senior bank in a 26-foot 3-pointer while falling out of bounds in front of the Lions’ student section. With the home crowd going nuts, the shot gave Linn-Mar a 56-44 lead and momentum into the fourth quarter.

“I thought I played good defense on that,” Moore said. “He got it off and it was a great shot. It just fell for him.”

Paige said, “I kind of got stuck on the sideline and he was playing great defense on me. I just had to throw it up there. I didn’t even see it go in. I just heard the crowd cheer and I knew something good happened. I’ll take it.”

Snapshot No. 4: Both players scored 10 points in a hard-fought fourth period, but Paige made two plays that were truly spectacular to seal the win. He brought the crowd to its feet with a cross-over and “Connie Hawkins-like” scoop layup, giving his team a 69-61 lead.

Then, the next time down the floor, Paige flung a behind-the-head pass to 6-foot-8 pivot Derik Gogg who made the layup, was fouled and converted the free throw. With 1:07 to play, the Lions led 72-61 and the game was over.

“There’s been a lot of very good players,” Loria said of the Mississippi Valley Conference in recent years. “I’m not sure there has been a guy who can just take over games like Marcus Paige can.”

Snapshot No. 5: Moore had 13 field goals and was 1-for-4 from the line. Paige had 10 field goals (including a pair of 3-pointers) and made all eight of his free throw attempts.

Paige added four rebounds, three blocks, two assists and two steals. Despite the slow start, Paige drained an impressive 12-of-19 shots - a career-night for most players - and committed only one turnover.

Linn-Mar boss Chris Robertson said he was expecting a very tough game from City High.

“That was tough, but that is kind of what you expect this time of year. You are going to have to play well to move on,” he said. “You have to give them credit. They kept  sneaking back into the game. I thought at the very end we closed it out pretty well.”

Robertson said that Moore presented a different type of challenge for his celebrated point guard.

“It gives them length on Marcus,” he said. “Fortunately, Marcus is usually able to get by him a little bit, which then forces guys to help. He (Moore) was a tough matchup for us too.”

City High’s athleticism caused Linn-Mar problems throughout the night.

“They are such a good offensive rebounding team,” Robertson said. “They have three guys who have over 40 offensive rebounds for the year and that is pretty impressive, so we worked hard on boxing out.”

Jimmy Roth scored nine of his 11 points after halftime and was the only other Linn-Mar player in double figures. City High’s Jeremy Johnson had 13 points and Ronald Thompson chipped in with 11.

Linn-Mar won the game from the foul line by netting 20-of-24 free throws. City High had 28 field goals to Linn-Mar’s 25.

“I’m proud of our guys,” Loria said. “I thought our effort was great and we executed things in our game plan very well.

“It was a no-brainer going in. We knew if they made shots it was going to be tough and we weren’t going to match them basket for basket.”

“In our first game with Linn-Mar, we held them to 49 (points) and we held Marcus to 19,” Loria said. “Tonight, he was able to get into the lane and get into the paint and score some baskets.

"That is why he is going to go play in the McDonald’s All-American Game and play at North Carolina. He is very, very talented. Give credit where credit is due.”

City High finished 8-15.

IOWA CITY HIGH (65): Alex Perry 3 1-2 8, Lonnie Chester 1 0-0 3, Jeremy Johnson 6 1-1 13, Andrew Hein 1 0-0 2, Jerel Moore 13 1-4 27, Ronald Thompson 4 3-4 11, Tony Perry 0 0-0 0, Cortez Barfield 0 1-2 1, Ryan Young 0 0-0 0. Totals 28 7-13 65.

LINN-MAR (76): Zach Martins 1 0-0 3, Matt Lassen 2 3-4 7, Marcus Paige 12 8-8 34, Jimmy Roth 4 2-4 11, Matt Meier 2 1-1 7, Andy Henry 1 2-2 4, Jon Schlotterback 0 2-2 2, Derik Gogg 3 2-3 8. Totals 25 20-24 76.

Halftime – Linn-Mar 34, Iowa City High 27. 3-point goals – Iowa City High 2 (A. Perry 1, Chester 1), Linn-Mar 6 (Paige 2, Meier 2, Martins 1, Roth 1).