Cedar Rapids Kennedy boys hoops team remains on a heater, wins at Linn-Mar, 72-68

CEDAR RAPIDS - In the verbiage of many of today’s youths: ‘They comin.’

That’s how you’ve got to describe the Cedar Rapids Kennedy Cougars boys basketball team right now.

Kennedy’s on a heater of the five-game variety after a 72-68 win at Linn-Mar. This uptempo, 3-point-centric, always intense rivalry game was uniquely played on a Monday night.

Regardless of the day of he week, it was F-U-N fun. Especially for Kennedy (9-6), which struggled early this season because of a lot of youth and inexperience, not much size and a couple of other things.

This is a team has started freshmen Kaden Gomez and Drew McKowen most of the way and now has brought up yet another ninth-grader to come off the bench in Brooks Greenlee. They’re all guards.

But it’s starting to click now for this bunch, a bunch you do not want to see on your Class 4A substate bracket when those are revealed in a couple of things. These Cougars be dangerous.

“I don’t know, I just feel like we’ve working together much better as a team,” said Kennedy junior guard Jaxson Bean. “In practice, just going at each other hard, being physical and kind of preparing ourselves for the game.”

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Bean had a team-high 25 points here, including 15 in the first half, 12 of those coming on four 3-point makes. He hit some clutch free throws in the final couple of minutes to allow Kennedy to hang on to a 13-point lead going into the fourth quarter.

Linn-Mar’s big dog leading scorer Tyler Hilton ran into foul trouble in the third quarter but was a beast in the fourth, helping his Lions get within serious striking distance down the stretch. Hilton finished with 26 points, 12 in the fourth.

Linn-Mar even got it within one possession with the ball but missed a 3-pointer. The Lions (10-5) fell out of the Class 4A state rankings this season and have dropped two straight.

“We still know the team we are, the talent we have. It’s hard to describe. We’re just in a slump right now, but like I said, we know the team we are and we know we’ll bounce back. We’re all pretty confident we’ll be in Des Moines soon.”

Gomez added 16 points for Kennedy and McKowen nine. The Cougars made half of their 14 3-point attempts in the first half but cooled off in the second.

Still, this was a very nice victory over a quality opponent on the road.

“It’s just been doing the little things,” Drew McKowen said. “We talked about it in practice, and it has changed the momentum of our season. These six wins in a row right now are changing the whole season.”

“We got off to a really shaky start this year. We were playing freshmen, had some injuries, some outside factors,” said Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen. “There has been a lot going on, so we hadn’t been playing very good basketball. But maybe basketball wasn’t the most important thing on some of the kids’ minds. You’ll have that at times. But we’re just kind of honing in at the right time, learning how to play with each other.”

AT LINN-MAR

CEDAR RAPIDS KENNEDY (72): Deacon Kucera 2-8 0-0 4, Justin Powell 2-7 0-0 5, Kaden Gomez 5-6 2-2 16, Drew McKowen 4-7 1-2 9, Jaxson Bean 6-14 9-9 25, Lawson Neighbor 1-5 0-0 2, Jacob Solberg 3-4 0-0 6, Brooks Greenlee 1-4 2-3 5. Totals 24-55 14-16 72.

LINN-MAR (68): Blake Ritze 2-2 0-0 4, Tyler Hilton 12-17 1-2 26, Karson Rains 3-10 0-0 7, Max Robertson 1-2 1-2 3, Garrett Bauermeister 4-8 2-2 14, Dexter Brunscheen 2-2 2-2 8, Nolan Runge 2-3 1-2 6. Totals 26-49 7-10 68.

Halftime - Kennedy 39, Linn-Mar 37. 3-point goals - Kennedy 10-25 (Kucera 0-2, Powell 1-6, Gomez 4-4, McKowen 0-1, Bean 4-8, Neighbor 0-2, Greenlee 1-2), Linn-Mar 8-27 (Hilton 1-4, Rains 1-7, Bauermeister 4-7, Brunscheen 2-7, Runge 1-2). Rebounds - Kennedy 28 (Kucera, Gomez 6), Linn-Mar 30 (Hilton 8). Total fouls - Kennedy 18, Linn-Mar 18. Fouled out - Roberts. Turnovers - Kennedy 9, Linn-Mar 15.

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