Linn-Mar Boys Basketball

Lassen back, Linn-Mar topples No. 6 Senior

It couldn’t have been scripted any better.

Linn-Mar junior Matt Lassen came off the bench at the start of the second quarter Tuesday night and immediately popped in a long 3-pointer.

Just like he used to before a serious head injury in the third game of the season that had kept him out of action for two months.

“Coach told me not to hold back,” said Lassen of his first shot in his first game back. “Andy (Henry) hit me with a nice pass and I just let it loose. It felt good.”

He played in short spurts the rest of the night, but teammate Marcus Paige said his presence was a morale booster as the No. 8 Lions whipped No. 6 Dubuque Senior, 62-55, to tie the Rams atop the MVC Mississippi Division at 10-3 with three games left.

“It was great to have Matt back in there,” said the senior Paige, who again controlled the game and led his team with 23 points.  “He’s a hard-working kid. He’s been working extremely hard. So it was nice to see him get an open look and hit it with confidence.”

Linn-Mar Coach Chris Robertson said Lassen has been lightly practicing the last few weeks and was given final medical clearance to play last week.

“We wanted to wait for a home game with a lot of fans,” the coach said. “It’s been a long recovery process for Matt. It was huge for him, his family and the team to have him back.

“It’s one thing to practice. It’s another to be on the big stage. The fact he made his first (shot) shows he hasn’t lost his confidence.”

Although he was in for a total of less than 10 minutes Tuesday, Robertson said he expects Lassen to gradually see more playing time as Linn-Mar (13-4) makes a run for the conference title going into the substate tournament.  The win over sixth-ranked Dubuque Senior (15-3) was crucial, he said.

“We control our own destiny now,” Robetston noted.

The Lions’ remaining regular season games are with Wasshington and Jefferson and at Dubuque Wahlert.

Senior was a formidable roadblock with five starters (one senior, two juniors and two sophomores) ranging from 6-foot-4 to 6-foot-9.

“They’re huge, and they present some real match-up problems,” Robertson said.  “I thought in the second half we did a lot better job of rebounding. Our team has to have the discipline to put a body on somebody, and we’ve got to be physical.”

The Rams’ burly but quick-footed 6-foot-5 junior Josh Weeber pretty much had his way at the start of the contest, collecting 16 points inside and out in the first half.

Linn-Mar didn’t take its first lead until Henry canned to free throws with 3:49 left in the half to go ahead 20-18.

The Lions heated up in the second half, however, starting off with two quick threes by Jimmy Roth and Zach Martins.  Roth ended up four treys, while Martins and Paige each added two.

Paige was a silent assassin all night, making steals or scoring on dipsy-do drives whenever Senior threatened.

The Rams did close to within three at 54-51 with two minutes to go, but Roth put a nail in the coffin with a 3-pointer.

“Jimmy and Zach had some huge shots for us,” said Paige, who often set them up with passes.  “We got contributions from a lot of guys tonight.”

None, perhaps, was more emotional than Lassen.  When he suffered a concussion in a game with Iowa City West on Dec. 9, there were fears he might not play again.

“I think I’m back 100 percent,” he said Tuesday. “I don’t have any trouble with my balance. I haven’t had any headaches for weeks.

“I just need to get in better shape. But I’ve been working with (trainer) Jill (Hendricks), so I’m pretty close.

“It was hard to sit and watch all those games I missed. It feels tremendous to be back under the lights.”

DUBUQUE SENIOR (55): Domen Zevnik 1 2-2 5, Kyle Haber 2 2-2 6, Josh Weeber 9 6-6 28, Connor Grant 1 2-2 4, Seth Bonifas 5 0-0 10, Kyle Holdridge 0 0-0 0, Drew Anderson 0 0-0 0, Mitch Duve 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 12-12 55.

LINN-MAR (62): Zach Martins 2 0-0 6, Marcus Paige 8 5-6 23, Jimmy Roth 4 0-0 12, Andy Henry 3 2-3 8, Derik Gogg 1 0-0 2, Matt Lassen 1 0-0 3, Nate Dick 0 0-0 0, Matt Meier 2 3-4 8, Jon Schlotterback 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 10-13 62.

Halftime – Linn-Mar 28, Senior 25. 3-point goals – Senior 5 (Weeber 4, Zevnik), Linn-Mar 10 (Roth 4, Martins 2, Paige 2, Lassen, Meier). Total fouls – Senior 16, Linn-Mar 16. Fouled out – Grant.

Cougars pester Paige, upset No. 6 Lions

Darius Fuller's long nightmare against Marcus Paige is finally over.

Fuller popped in 14 points Saturday night and helped keep Linn-Mar's superstar under control as the Kennedy Cougars upset the No. 6 Lions, 56-51, at Kennedy.

It was Kennedy's first victory over Linn-Mar since the 2005-06 campaign, six years ago.

Paige scored 18 points but shot a woeful 3-for-16 from the floor as Fuller and Trevor Heitland hounded him all game.

"This is the first time I've beaten him," Fuller said. "So it felt good. It felt real good."

Fuller did not mean the first time he's beaten Paige in high school. He meant the first time ever.

"Since I was little he's been whupping my butt, maybe since second grade he's been whupping me," Fuller said.

Grade school, middle school, AAU ball, high school. Paige won them all, so many that Fuller lost count.

"It's up in the 30s, probably. I'm not joking," he said. "We scrimmaged him when I was little all the time. It definitely felt good to get it."

Fuller is still fairly little at 5-foot-9, compared to Paige at 6-foot-2. Heitland isn't much bigger at 5-foot-11, but the two Cougars took turns pestering Paige all night.

Paige poured in 46 points last week against Prairie and averages about 28 per game, but he had trouble against the Cougars.

"We tried to do whatever we could," Heitland said. "He's a tremendous player, as everyone knows. You know he's going to try and get what he can and distribute the ball when he's not scoring."

Kennedy wanted to trap Paige and get the ball out of his hands as much as possible. First Fuller, then Heitland, all night.

"We just wanted to keep fresh legs on him and get up in him and try to make him get rid of the ball and make the other teammates try to win the game," Heitland said.

Paige scored 11 of his 18 points at the foul line. He made only one 3-pointer and had two other buckets.

"I think they defended him well," Linn-Mar Coach Chris Robertson said. "They had a good plan for him. If you can't free him up, it's tough.

"They got after us and they defended us. That's what they hang their hat on and we didn't do a very good job of adjusting to things. That's the way it goes."

Kennedy Coach Bob Fontana liked his team's defensive effort, especially the work by Fuller and Heitland on Paige.

"I was very honest and up-front with them," Fontana remarked. "I said, 'You know, you're not going to stop him. What we have to try and do is control him.'"

Paige fouled out with 12.1 seconds left and the Lions (13-4, 9-3) trailing 53-48.

Fontana thought Fuller played a strong all-around game with his offense, defense, ballhandling, rebounding and passing, with only a few turnovers at point guard.

"To do that, and then have to guard Marcus Paige, that's just an outstanding floor game," Fontana said. "I know the boxscore says he scored 14, but in my mind he had a hell of a lot more than that when you add in those other statistics."

Linn-Mar led 25-21 at halftime, but Kennedy (13-4, 8-4) outscored the Lions 19-10 in the third period to take a 40-35 advantage into the final stanza. Jimmy Roth hit a 3-pointer to pull Linn-Mar within 47-44 and Jon Schlotterback made a layup to get the Lions within 48-46 with 1:20 left to play.

Josiah Coleman made two free throws for Kennedy to give the Cougars a 50-46 edge. Roth missed a shot and Fuller hit one free throw to make it 51-46 with 38.7 seconds left.

Paige missed a finger-roll layup, then fouled Elliott Christians to stop the clock. Christians cashed both free throws to make it 53-46 with 31 seconds to go.

Matt Meier, who scored 14 points for Linn-Mar, made a layup with 14.6 seconds remaining to make it 53-48. Coleman hit one free throw to make it 54-48, then Zach Martins missed a 3-pointer for the Lions in the final 10 seconds.

Cody Bell hit two foul shots for Kennedy with 4.7 seconds left to make it 56-48. Roth hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the final score.

There were 44 fouls in the choppy 32-minute game, with 23 fouls by Linn-Mar and 21 by Kennedy. Neither club shot well at the charity stripe, with the Lions 13 of 22 and the Cougars 19 of 31.

Both clubs host top-10 opponents Tuesday night. Kennedy hosts No. 1 Iowa City West and Linn-Mar entertains No. 7 Dubuque Senior.

LINN-MAR (51): Martins 1 0-0 2, Paige 3 11-13 18, Roth 2 0-0 6, Henry 2 1-2 5, Gogg 0 0-5 0, Dick 2 0-0 4, Schlotterback 1 0-0 2, Meier 5 1-2 14. Totals 16 13-22 51.

KENNEDY (56): Heitland 2 1-2 5, Fuller 5 4-8 14, Coleman 1 4-6 6, Bell 2 3-7 7, Christians 1 7-8 9, Jahlas 0 0-0 0, Hayden 3 0-0 7, Struss 1 0-0 2, Martin 3 0-0 6. Totals 18 19-31 56.

Halftime - Linn-Mar 25, Kennedy 21. 3-point goals - Linn-Mar 6 (Meier 3, Roth 2, Paige 1), Kennedy 1 (Hayden 1). Fouled out - Paige, Henry, Gogg. Technical foul - Linn-Mar bench.

Paige, unselfish Lions dunk Xavier, 67-34

Marcus Paige and the Linn-Mar Lions put on a spectacular show Friday night before an adoring home crowd.

The Xavier Saints, who nearly upset the Lions two weeks ago, were the unfortunate victims.

Paige tossed in 29 points and added a sensational dunk to his highlight reel as the sixth-ranked Lions demolished the Saints, 67-34, in a Mississippi Valley Conference blowout at Linn-Mar.

The Lions (13-3, 9-2) led by 43 points late in the third quarter with one of their best overall performances of the season.

"Collectively I think this was probably one of the top two games we've played this year," said Paige. "Everybody came out ready to go. We've been coming out flat a lot the last five or six games, so it was good that we came out ready to play today."

Linn-Mar overwhelmed the Saints at the beginning and raced to a commanding 28-9 bulge after the first period with stingy defense, strong rebounding and sharp shooting.

It was a tremendous start, the team's best in quite some time.

"I didn't see that coming," said Linn-Mar Coach Chris Robertson. "We've really tried to focus on getting off to better starts. I don't know what the magic formula is.

"You can talk about it until you're blue in the face. For whatever reason we came out ready to play."

The latest entry in the Paige highlight reel came midway through the second quarter. He leaped high at midcourt to steal a pass and fed Jimmy Roth for an easy layup, but Roth glanced back at Paige and had other ideas.

Instead of taking the easy points, Roth appeared to grin and waited for Paige to catch up. At that point, everybody in the house knew what was coming.

Roth tossed the ball above the rim and Paige soared high to get it, twisted his body in mid-air and dunked with his back to the basket. The crowd loved it.

"All I was thinking was, 'I hope I make it,'" Paige confessed later, laughing. "It would have been bad if I missed."

Roth was happy to defer to a star.

"I could see see him running with his finger pointing up. That means alley-oop and I just gave it to him," said Roth, reliving the play. "You've GOT to give it to him."

Paige appreciated the gesture.

"That just shows how unselfish he is," said Paige. "Obviously he could have taken the layup. He saw me coming and wanted to get the team pumped up a little bit.

"I wasn't really sure what he was going to do. I knew it was just me and him. When he got under the basket and kind of looked at me, I could tell he was going to throw it."

Robertson saw the play develop from the bench.

"I saw Marcus start to really go," he said. "I saw him kind of make eye contact (with Roth). I had a feeling it was coming.

"That's a nice unselfish play," said Robertson. "We might talk about that, though. Maybe it's better to go shoot the layup, but we'll let him enjoy it tonight."

Paige put on a remarkable one-man show last week when he scored a school-record 46 points in a comeback win against Prairie, but Friday night's victory over Xavier was a complete team victory. All the starters got into the act and made key contributions.

Zach Martins hit a pair of 3-pointers in the opening minutes, Roth drilled a 3-pointer and Andy Henry scored to give Linn-Mar a quick 11-4 advantage. At that point, Paige had barely broken a sweat.

Derik Gogg, a 6-foot-8 stringbean, blocked a couple of shots at the start of the game to key the defense and the Lions also controlled the backboards, with Gogg snaring 11 caroms in the first half alone.

All of that was bad enough for the Saints, but then Paige got into the act and it was Katie bar the door. He notched 17 points in the next 13 minutes and the Lions owned a 43-17 advantage at halftime, with Paige matching Xavier's entire output in the first two quarters.

"They played well all-around. It wasn't just one guy," said Xavier Coach Matt Jenkins. "Marcus got guys open early and found those guys, and he got himself going. It just opened up everything, where you have to pay attention to everybody."

Linn-Mar ignited the continuous clock when it took a 35-point lead at 52-17 with five minutes left in the third quarter, but the Lions didn't stop there. They scored the first 14 points of the second half to make it 57-17 on a three-point play by Paige.

Paige gave the Lions a 41-point bulge at 59-18 with a routine (for him) dunk on a lob from Nate Dick, and Jon Schlotterback gave Linn-Mar a 43-point advantage at 61-18 with two free throws late. At that point Paige had outscored the Saints, 27-18, with 1:19 left in the third quarter.

Robertson pulled all his starters with 5:37 left in the game with Linn-Mar sitting on a 65-27 cushion. At that point, Paige had outscored the Saints 29-27 when he sat down for good.

Paige leads Class 4A in scoring at 28 points per game and appears to be well on his way to winning the "Mr. Basketball" award in Iowa this season.

"Everybody should sit back and enjoy him, because players like that don't come around that often," said Robertson. "He's unique and he's special in his own way. I think people are seeing a superstar in the making. It's nice to have him on our side."

The game was a complete reversal from their first meeting. Xavier led the Lions with a few minutes remaining when they met at Xavier just two weeks ago, but Paige and the Lions rallied for a 70-61 victory that night by scoring the last 11 points of the game.

This time, the Saints (6-11, 5-7) never had a chance.

"Get back to work," said Jenkins, sitting in the visitor's locker room. "Can't dwell on this one."

Gogg finished with 12 rebounds, eight points and four blocked shots for the Lions. Henry scored 10 points.

Ben McDermott led the Saints with 10 points. Nobody else scored more than four points for Xavier. Alec Clasen missed the game with a sprained ankle.

The continuous clock was supposed to stop after Xavier chopped the deficit under 35 points at 65-31, but nobody seemed to care and the game mercifully ended a few minutes later.

XAVIER (34): Sampson 0 0-0 0, McDermott 4 1-2 10, Hosch 1 0-0 2, Valentine 2 0-0 4, Mattke 2 0-0 4, Ropp 1 0-0 2, Nelson 2 0-0 4, Frazier 0 3-3 3, Mullin 1 1-2 3, Schulte 1 0-0 2, Woods 0 0-0 0, Thinnes 0 0-0 0, Brown 0 0-0 0, Breitbach 0 0-0 0, Foxhoven 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 5-7 34.

LINN-MAR (67): Martins 2 0-0 6, Roth 3 0-0 7, Gogg 4 0-0 8, Henry 4 2-2 10, Paige 12 3-4 29, Meier 1 0-0 3, Dick 0 0-0 0, Schlotterback 0 2-2 2, Hutchins 0 0-0 0, Wick 0 0-0 0, Nelson 1 0-0 2, Mortensen 0 0-0 0, Sloterdyk 0 0-0 0, Holland 0 0-0 0, Richardson 0 0-0 0, Hackett 0 0-0 0, Manternach 0 0-0 0. Totals 27 7-8 67.

Halftime - Linn-Mar 43, Xavier 17. 3-point goals - Xavier 1 (McDermott 1), Linn-Mar 6 (Martins 2, Paige 2, Roth 1, Meier 1).

Paige selected for Jordan Brand Classic

Linn-Mar senior Marcus Paige has been invited to play in the 11th Annual Jordan Brand Classic all-star basketball game on April 14 with some of the top high school players in the country.

The game will be held at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, N.C., and will be televised by ESPN.

Paige, a 6-foot-2 guard, has signed with the North Carolina Tar Heels and leads Class 4A in scoring.