Xavier Boys Basketball

Michael Mims wins Metro Spotlight Award

Xavier senior Michael Mims is the winner of the Metro Spotlight Award for high school boys this week, the Metro Sports Report announced Sunday.

Mims, a 5-foot-11 guard, is a key member of the Xavier basketball team that will take an eight-game winning streak into the opening round of the Class 3A state tournament Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

The Saints (16-8) will face Pella (21-2) at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday.

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Saints ride big 2nd half to state

Ryan Luehrsmann played in two NCAA basketball tournaments during his career with the Iowa Hawkeyes, but he never reached the Iowa high school tournament during his stellar prep career at Cedar Rapids Washington.

Now he's going to Des Moines with the Xavier Saints.

The Saints poured in 56 points in the second half Monday night and whipped Mount Vernon, 80-64, in the Class 3A substate finals at the U.S. Cellular Center.

The Saints are seeded No. 6 at state and will meet No. 3 seed Pella on Tuesday, March 10 at 8:15 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

The Saints (16-8) have been on a surge the past month with eight straight wins, but they struggled in the first half against Mount Vernon and trailed

30-24 after the first 16 minutes of action. Xavier fans had sweaty palms at halftime, but the Saints regrouped and came out with fire in their eyes in the third period.

"In the locker room we just calmed down and said, 'This game is ours,'" senior Calvin Winker remarked. "We needed to focus more on defense and pounding it inside, because we knew we had an advantage with that. And that's what we did.

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Saints race into 3A substate finals

The question facing the Xavier boys coaching staff before their Class 3A district final Thursday night with underdog Solon was whether the Spartans would try to hold down the score or stick with their normal up-tempo offense.

You could almost see the Saints players’ eyes light up when it became clear from the start that the quick and aggressive guys from Solon were going to try to match them point for point.

So it was run-and-gun all night for both teams up and down the Kennedy gym.

As well as they played, though, the Spartans were no match for the hot-shooting Saints in their near-perfect 88-57 runaway rout.

“In our offense, we run quite a few set plays,” noted senior swingman Calvin Winker, one of four Saints in double figures. "And tonight, we scored on about every single one of them. We were really clicking.”

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Saints clicking at right time of year

It took a long time for the Xavier Saints to rebuild their basketball team this season with Prairie transfer Michael Mims added to the mix in the backcourt.

From the look of things now, they've finally figured it out and could be on a roll toward the Class 3A state tournament.

Mims popped in four 3-pointers Monday night and scored 21 points as the Saints belted Benton Community, 74-44, in the semifinals of the district tournament at Marion High School.

The Saints had an 8-8 record a month ago, but they've won six straight games now and will take a 14-8 mark into the district finals Thursday night against Solon, a 42-32 winner over Marion, at Kennedy.

Mims was an all-conference point guard at Prairie last year, but Xavier already had an accomplished point guard on the club with Mitchell Burger, along with two all-conference wings in Adam McDermott and Calvin Winker.

"It took some time, because last year Mitchell dominated the ball and played point for us," said Xavier Coach Ryan Luehrsmann. "It took awhile, I think, for those two to get on the same page and jell and share the ball.

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