Prairie Boys Basketball

Smith-Drahos' career night lifts Hawks

Prairie junior Max Smith-Drahos loaded up on the pasta before Friday's battle with Washington.

Then the 6-foot-1 junior proceeded to unload on the Warriors.

Smith-Drahos exploded for a career 34 points, 17 in each half, as the Hawks built a 17-point lead in the third quarter before holding on for a 77-72 victory at Washington, snapping a five-game losing streak.

As he was being congratulated by Prairie fans following the contest, Smith-Drahos said it was the pregame meal that led to his career night.

"Judy, Jake Eilers' mom, makes the team meal for every away game," he said. "She made fantastic food. It helped me prepare for tonight."

What may have been a bigger key for the crafty junior was regaining his health.

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Balanced Cougars knock off Prairie

Two boys basketball teams in desperate search of a victory clashed Tuesday night at Cedar Rapids Prairie.

The Kennedy Cougars found what they were looking for, but the Prairie Hawks are still searching.

Drake Brewster led a balanced attack with 18 points as the Cougars bounced the Hawks, 69-51, in a Mississippi Valley Conference game.

Kennedy entered the game with five losses in its last six games, while Prairie arrived for tipoff with a four-game losing streak and a bunch of lopsided defeats by 37, 24, 19 and 33 points.

The night ended with both clubs sitting at 4-6 overall and 2-4 in the conference, but the Cougars felt pretty good about themselves and the Hawks went back to the drawing board.

"I think we played a lot better than we have in recent games," said Brewster, a versatile 6-foot-5 junior. "One of our main goals with the struggles we've had was to have some fun.

"We started having some fun and started smiling a little bit and got more confidence about ourselves."

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Prairie boys crushed by Waterloo East

WATERLOO - It was defense, defense and more defense for Waterloo East on Friday.

After giving up 67 or more points in three consecutive losses before the Christmas break, the Trojans spent a lot of time on the defensive end of the floor during holiday break practices.

Two games into the new year, those practices seem to have paid off. East opened with a 53-49 win over Waterloo West Tuesday. Friday night, the Trojans upped their efforts on the defensive side, holding Cedar Rapids Prairie to 24.5 percent shooting en route to a 72-39 win.

"We didn't practice much offense," East center Isaiah Wade said. "We worked on defense a lot.

"We were just trying to hustle and keep them from scoring. You can have a bad offensive game, but you should never have a bad defensive game."

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Mims leads Xavier boys by Prairie

Matthew Mims had 20 points to lead the Xavier boys basketball team to a 66-46 win over Prairie Tuesday in a Mississippi Valley Conference game at Prairie.

Max Techau scored 15 points for the Saints (6-1). Mitchell Burger and Jackson Joens added 14 points apiece. Burger had five steals.

Mims and Joens both hit four 3-pointers. Xavier put the game away with a 21-11 run in the third quarter.

Cal Clark scored 14 points for the Prairie Hawks (4-4) and Jalen Rima added 10.

XAVIER (66): Burger 5 2-2 14, Mims 8 0-0 20, Butkowski 0 0-0 0, Fettkether 0 0-0 0, Whitten 0 0-0 0, Joens 5 0-0 14, Stulken 0 0-0 0, Schulte 1 0-0 2, Techau 6 3-3 15. Totals 25 5-5 65.

PRAIRIE (46): Copeland 3 2-4 9, Lorenz 0 0-0 0, Clark 4 5-6 14, Eilers 0 1-2 1, Rima 3 3-4 10, Hook 2 0-1 5, Kilpatrick 1 1-2 2, Oxley 2 0-0 4, Johnson 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 12-20 46.

Halftime – Xavier 27, Prairie 20. 3-point goals – Xavier 10 (Mims 4, Joens 4, Burger 2), Prairie 4 (Copeland, Clark, Rima, Hook).