With his young team down 40-14 at halftime against one of the state’s premier teams, Jefferson Coach Larry Niemeyer told his players, “Go back out and relax and just try to do the things we can do.”

What they could not do was contain Linn-Mar star Kiah Stokes, who dominated the Dec. 7 game from the opening tipoff, scoring eight of the game’s first 10 points. She went on to break Linn-Mar’s 21-year-old single-game scoring record early in the fourth quarter when she reached 39 points with her 19th bucket.

 Linn-Mar won, 73-36.

Stokes scored a dozen points in the first period, 13 in the second and another dozen in the third quarter, hoisting Linn-Mar to a 62-20 lead. At that point Linn-Mar Coach Mike Brandt knew she was close to making school history by breaking the record of 38 points set by Amy Osenbaugh in 1989.

“I wasn’t going to put her in there in the fourth,” said Brandt. “But we saw that she was only one play away. She’s done a lot, so we wanted to give her an opportunity to break that.”

It didn’t take her long, as Stokes scored the first basket of the fourth quarter and the game announcer let out a holler to make sure the crowd knew they were witnessing history. Stokes, who sat the rest of the game, also tallied nine rebounds and seven blocked shots.

“With our size what would you do?” said Niemeyer, who described Stokes as one of the best players he has seen in his 53 years of coaching girls’ basketball. “To really slow her down you need a couple of big kids, and I only have one big kid.”

Linn-Mar’s stingy defense added to the J-Hawks’ tribulations, forcing them to shoot from long distance throughout the game. Britteny Steffeny paced Jefferson (2-3, 2-1 MVC) with 14 points and seven rebounds.

Kailee Karr and Jenna Eells each added nine points for Linn-Mar (5-0, 3-0).

Kiah Stokes’ father, University of Iowa basketball great Greg Stokes, was on hand to watch his daughter’s record-breaking performance, as was Amy Osenbaugh’s husband, Cory Brinkmeyer. As for Amy, Brinkmeyer said, “she’s home with the kids.”

Linn-Mar heads to Sioux City this weekend to take on two of the state’s western powerhouses, Sioux City Heelan and Sioux City North, while Jefferson plays at Iowa City High Friday.

Linn-Mar won the sophomore game, 54-42. Kristen Eiles had 17 points for the Lions. Kiely Braithwaite had 11 for the J-Hawks.

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

JEFFERSON (36): Kaitlyn Davidson 1 0-0 3, Dani Stromert 0 0-0 0, Madison Blietz 0 0-0 0, Kieley Braithwaite 0 0-0 0, Ashley Madsen 1 2-2 5, Taylor Jacobson 2 1-2 6, Rachel Broghammer 4 0-2 8, Britteny Steffeny 6 0-0 14, Maddie Koolbeck 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 14 3-6 36.

LINN-MAR (73): Leandra Martins 1 0-0 2, Mykaela Brandt 2 1-2 5, Sara Strauel 0 0-0 0, Rachel Thrune 0 0-0 0, Madison Olesen 0 0-0 0, Kenz Seckman 1 0-0 3, Kailee Karr 3 3-4 9, Shanice Cheatham 2 0-2 4, Jenna Eells 2 5-6 9, Megan Sherwood 0 0-0 0, Courtney Major 1 0-0 2, Kiah Stokes 19 1-1 39, Noelle Clark 0 0-0 0, Daisey Clymer 0 0-0 0, Kelsey Koelker 0 0-0 0, Marte Grovik 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 31 10-15 73.

Halftime – Linn-Mar 40, Jefferson 14. 3-pointers – Linn-Mar 1 (Seckman), Jefferson 5 (Steffeny 2, Davidson, Madsen, Jacobson).