Kennedy Girls Basketball

City High duo offset Strait's 30-point night

IOWA CITY -- Two scorers were better than one Friday night at City High.

City High's Haley Lorenzen and Mickey Hansche scored 24 and 21 points, respectively, to offset the 30-point outburst by Kennedy's Courtney Strait and the Little Hawks posted a 76-62 Mississippi Valley Conference girls basketball win.

City High (7-2, 4-2 MVC) won despite making only 15 of 36 free throws.

Strait was 17 of 20 from the free throw line, but the rest of the Cougars (3-4, 2-4) were only 10 of 20.

KENNEDY (62): Madison Meier 1 1-2 3, Courtney Strait 6 17-20 30, Mariah Simmons 0 0-2 0, Kaylese Johnson 1 0-0 2, Jordan Holmes 2 3-4 8, Paige Hendrickson 3 0-0 7, Stephanie Botkin 0 3-6 3, Capria Davis 1 0-0 2, Taylor Wagner 1 1-4 3, Sarah Zinser 1 2-2 4. Totals 16 27-40 62.

IOWA CITY HIGH (76): Kiera Washpun 2 1-8 5, Jordan Sullivan 0 0-0 0, Erin Danielson 0 3-4 3, Mickey Hansche 7 4-4 21, Harper Beasley 3 0-3 6, Sierra Chambers 7 1-6 15, Katherine Van der Woude 1 0-0 2, Haley Lorenzen 9 6-11 24, Aliyah Gustafson 0 0-0 0. Totals 29 15-36 76.

Halftime -- Kennedy 30, City High 29. 3-point goals -- Kennedy 3 (Strait, Holmes, Hendrickson), City High 3 (Hansche 3). Fouled out -- Meier.

Senior dials long-distance to foil Kennedy

In a game filled with eye-popping numbers, it came down to simple math: The sum of two feisty sophomores was greater than the total of one valiant senior.

Dubuque Senior’s Sommer twins, Katie and Kristie, each scored 23 points Tuesday night to overcome a career-high 37 points by Kennedy’s Courtney Strait and lead their team to a 73-65 victory over the Cougars.

In a battle of two young teams, the previously winless Rams (1-4, 1-5) nailed 11 3-pointers and fought through Kennedy’s press to outshoot the Cougars ( 2-3, 3-3) down the stretch.

After trailing 38-32 at the break, Senior came out blazing in the third period and outscored Kennedy 21-11, snagging a four-point lead that they never relinquished, in spite of a heroic fourth-quarter charge by Kennedy’s standout senior guard.

Strait hit a 3-pointer, a lay-up and six free throws in the final period to bring her team from 10 points down to within two points, 65-63, with a minute and half to go. But the Cougars couldn’t get their shots to land in the final minute and missed three late free throws.

“They wanted it worse than we did,” said Kennedy coach Dennis Roloff. “They got the rebounds when they needed to, they hit big threes when they had to, they came out the second half and outplayed us and they deserved to win the game.”

Strait played the entire game and made her presence felt at both ends of the court as she hit three 3-pointers, swished 16 free throws, grabbed seven rebounds and guarded relentlessly.

“She was just oustanding,” Roloff said. “It’s just too bad we didn’t have other people to pick it up. We’ve got to get other kids scoring and we’ve got to play better defense than that, and that’s what we’ll work on.”

Liz Reuter, the Rams’ lone senior on a starting line-up that includes four sophomores, exploded out of the gate for three first-period treys. The Sommer twins took over from there, adding another six 3-pointers and a flurry of lay-ups. Kristie Sommer also had 16 rebounds.

Rams Coach Robert Kimble described it as a nerve-wracking, but satisfying win for a team that nearly upset undefeated Washington last week and has been close in several games.

“We were up at Cedar Rapid Washington by 10, and yet down the stretch we just struggle with decision-making because we’ve got some young kids. I’ll just say we survived tonight. Our passing was suspect. However, I give our kids credit for overcoming some of those mistakes and finishing the game. This is a great game for us as a young team to grow.”

Six games into the season, Roloff also sees his team continuing to improve in spite of a ragged outing.

“We’ve still got a lot of growing to do. We’re still going to be a very good team. They’ve just got to get that experience and it’s not an easy trail that we’ve got coming up on us.”

An obviously disappointed Strait kept her team looking forward as the Cougars get ready for a string of road tests.

“I think it’s just people being inexperienced – a missed re bound there, a box-out we missed, missed lay-ups, and missed free throws really got us at the end. We’re just developing and working on playing under pressure. We’ve got tough games coming up, so I just told them we’ve got to get ready to practice hard tomorrow.”

Kennedy plays at Iowa City High on Friday. Dubuque Senior plays Waterloo West at home.

DUBUQUE SENIOR (73): Liz Reuter 3 0-0 9, Kristie Sommer 8 3-4 23 , Affrica Kimble 1 3-4 5, Natalie Jacobsmeier 1 0-0 3, Katie Sommer 8 5-9 23, Savannah Frye 0 0-0 0, Emma Noel 0 0-0 0, Andrea Medinger 1 0-0 2, Nakiah Kimble 2 0-5 5, Makenzie Williams 1 1-4 3. Totals 25 12-26 73.

KENNEDY (65): Madi Meier 2 0-0 5, Courtney Strait 9 16-18 37, Mariah Simmons 1 0-0 2, Stephanie Botkin 3 5-9 11, Paige Hendrickson 0 1-4 1, Jordan Holmes 2 3-4 8, Taylor Wagner 0 0-0 0, Sarah Zinser 0 1-2 1, Capria Davis 0 0-2 0.  Totals 17 26-39 65 .

Halftime -- Kennedy 38, Dubuque Senior 32. 3-point goals – Kennedy 5 (Strait 3, Meier 1, Holmes 1), Dubuque Senior 11 (Kristie Sommer 4, Liz Reuter 3, Katie Sommer 2, Nakiah Kimble 1, Jacobsmeier 1). Fouled out – none.

Saints push past Cougars in OT

Geographically, they are likely the closest two ranked teams in the state.

Friday night the 42nd Street foes played the closest of games, dueling to a tie at the end of regulation before 4A No. 8 Xavier dominated in overtime to down No. 14 Kennedy, 55-47.

In the end, Xavier’s deep senior squad made the difference, scoring 13 of the team’s 14 points in the extra period. Annie Dale nailed 4-of-6 free throws and Kaitlyn Andersen 3-of-3.

Both teams had knocked off opponents with losing records on Tuesday night – Xavier by a whopping 57 points – but faced a sterner test in their Metro neighbors.

Kennedy won the first act, applying its trapping defense relentlessly to hold the Saints to seven points in the first period and nine in the second.

“The press rattled us a little bit at the beginning and then we had to figure out how to come out and adjust to that,” said Andersen, who paced her team with 17 points.

Trailing 21-16 at the break, the Saints pounced in the third period, outscoring the Cougars 17-6.  Seniors Dale, Andersen, Emily Walvoord and Alex Bartz scored all but one of  the team’s third-quarter points.

A field goal by Walvoord tied the game at 25. Andersen sank a 3-pointer a minute later to grab the Saints’ first lead of the game with 2 minutes remaining in the period. They led 33-27 at the end of three.

“They were a little embarrassed at their performance (in the first half)," Xavier Coach Tom Lilly said of his team’s second-half turnaround.

“When you have seven points and 16 turnovers and you know you’re better than that, sometimes it gets to your head. You’ve got to have a short memory and put it behind you. What it was was challenging the seniors to start playing like kids who’ve played many hours of basketball and not what we were seeing out on the floor.”

Kennedy’s senior leader, Courtney Strait, scored seven points in the fourth period to keep her team in the game, and the Cougars regained the lead, 40-39, on a bucket by Paige Hendrickson with 3:36 remaining.

Xavier’s Bartz hit a jumper to put her team up by a point. The Cougars’ Stephanie Botkin hit the first end of a one-and-one to tie the game at 41, and time ran out as both teams failed to convert in the final two minutes.

Andersen described the game as the Saints’ toughest challenge next to their November 29 loss to Dubuque Wahlert.

“We just knew after a rough start that we had to come out and have more poise and communicate more as a team and find the open girl. Once we got ahead we knew we had to settle down and take care of the ball and work on what we did in practice and trust our fundamentals.”

With his team’s third victory in a row in hand, Lilly could appreciate the value of a demanding outing.

“We have four games coming up that will be extremely challenging,” he said. “Tonight gave us an opportunity to experience overtime, an opportunity to experience shooting free throws under pressure, big moments, how to hold on to the ball and not turn it over. So we learned a lot of different things tonight.”

Kennedy’s Strait led all scorers with 22 points.

Bartz scored 12 points and Dale added nine for the Saints, who out rebounded the Cougars 35 to 16.

Kennedy hosts Dubuque Senior next Tuesday while Xavier travels to West Des Moines Dowling on Saturday.

KENNEDY (47): Meier 0 0-0 0, Strait 8 4-4 22, Simmons 2 0-0 4, Johnson 0 0-0 0, Botkin 3 2-3 8, Hendrickson 3 0-1 8, Holmes 1 0-2  2, Wagner 1 0-0 2, Zinser 0 1-2 0, Davis 0 0-0 0.  Totals 18 7-12 47.

XAVIER (55): Armstrong 2 1-2 6, Dale 1 7-12 9, Andersen 6 3-3 17, Walvoord 1 4-6 6, Bartz 6 0-0 12, Noonan 0 0-2 0, Dickes 0 1-2 1, Boomgarden 0 0-0 0, Stulken 1 0-0 2, Bertsch 1 0-0 2, Winker 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 16-27 55.

Halftime - Xavier 16, Kennedy 21, 3-point goals – Kennedy 4 (Strait 2, Botkin 2), Xavier 3 (Andersen 2, Armstrong 1). Fouled out – Botkin.

Calm, collected Cougars conquer Hempstead

Dubuque Hempstead held the lead midway through the first period, regained it in the second, and outscored Kennedy in the fourth.

But the Cougars kept their heads and rode balanced scoring to a 50-41 victory over the Mustangs Tuesday night at home.

It wasn’t polished, but it showcased the potential of a young team learning to spread the wealth.

Both teams played tough defense around the basket and struggled to find quality shots, making for a messy, evenly played, first half. Cougar senior Courtney Strait scored 11 points in the first two periods to nudge her team ahead 24-20 at the break.

Held to three points in the second half, she found another way to lead her team.

“They kind of shut me down in the second half, so my role switched from scorer to being the coach on the court and making sure the players stay calm and letting them know it’s okay to make mistakes and we’ve just got to make it back on defense.”

Her teammates came through with 23 second-half points, countering a furious effort by the Mustang forward Brittani Graves, who caught fire in the second half to score 16 points. She had little help, as the rest of her team managed only one field goal and three free throws after the break.

The Cougars’ unselfish play made the difference, said Strait.

“We’ve always emphasized that. It doesn’t matter who scores as long as you get the job done. We kept passing the ball around and we kept moving it and getting it to the right person and that’s what helped to run the clock.”

Kennedy’s bench outscored the Mustang reserves 19-5, led by sophomore Paige Hendrickson with 10 points.

“We didn’t shoot free throws real well tonight and we didn’t make a lot of lay-ups,” said Kennedy Coach Dennis Roloff. “To still win the game says a lot for our team. We just wanted to move the ball, get everybody involved and take good shots.”

The Mustangs’ Graves led all scorers with 20 points.

Kennedy (2-1, 3-1) aims for its third victory in a row in a home contest against Xavier on Friday night. Hempstead (0-3, 2-3) plays at Waterloo West.

DUBUQUE HEMPSTEAD (41 ):  Van Cleve 2 4-8 8, Doty 0 0-1 0, Cox 0 0-0 0, Graves 6 8-12 20, Koerperich 3 2-2 8, Dolan 2 1-2 5, Tauke 0 0-2 0, Lattner 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 15-27 41.

KENNEDY (50): Meier 1 2-2 5, Strait 5 3-5 14, Simmons 2 0-0 4, Johnson 0 0-1 0, Botkin 4 0-0 8, Hendrickson 5 0-2 10, Holmes 1 0-2 2, Wagner 3 1-4 7, Zinser 0 0-0 0, Davis 0 0-0 0.  Totals 21 6-16 50.

Halftime -- Kennedy 24, Dubuque Hempstead 20. 3-point goals – Kennedy 2 (Meier, Strait), Dubuque Hempstead 0. Fouled out – Botkin.