Metro Sports Report

Bohannon nets 35 as Lions win 90-87

It appeared to be personal between Jordan Bohannon and Cordell Pemsl.

The longtime AAU teammates met as high school opponents for one final time on Friday night and the future Iowa Hawkeye teammates put on quite a show.

Bohannon scored 35 points and Pemsl finished with 34, but in the end it was Bohannon and his Linn-Mar teammates holding on for a 90-87 Mississippi Valley Conference win over Pemsl and his mates from Dubuque Wahlert at Linn-Mar.

"Both of them did a great job of leading their teams," Linn-Mar coach Chris Robertson said. "You'd expect that. Both of them are four-year guys and they have a lot of pride.

J-Hawks snap 23-game MVC skid

The Jefferson J-Hawks didn't just break their 23-game losing streak in Mississippi Valley Conference games Friday night, they shattered it.

Dennis McKinney and Royshawn Webb scored 20 points apiece and Adam Van Oort added 15 points on his 18th birthday as the J-Hawks stopped the Washington Warriors, 76-62, at the Jefferson gym.

The J-Hawks lost all 16 of their MVC games last season and were 0-7 this year before playing well for 32 minutes against the Warriors.

Jefferson had come agonizingly close to winning a conference game this year, losing three straight times by a grand total of five points against Dubuque Senior, Cedar Falls and Kennedy, but Friday was finally their night.

Wash girls press Jeff into trouble

The speedy girls from Cedar Rapids Washington love to run and press and create as much havoc as possible on a basketball court.

It worked Friday night.

The Warriors tormented the Jefferson J-Hawks with their press in the first half and raced to a 25-point lead before settling for a 76-70 victory in a Mississippi Valley Conference game at Jefferson.

The Warriors made 20 steals and forced the J-Hawks into 31 turnovers, including 18 miscues in the first half.

Jefferson made a spirited rally in the second half and pulled all the way within five points in the final seconds, but it was too little and too late.

The shorter Warriors capitalized on their speed and athletic ability to beat the taller J-Hawks.

The basketball floor is 84 feet long and the Warriors used every inch of it to press the J-Hawks into submission, especially in the first half.

No. 1 Cougars ripped by Cedar Falls

CEDAR FALLS - Cedar Falls coach Gregg Groen says there's nothing flashy about the manner in which his girls' basketball team defends. Friday night, it was the Tigers' hard-nosed, man-to-man approach that allowed Groen's team to force its way into the conversation as one of the state's best.

Class 5A's No. 10-rated Cedar Falls held No. 1 Kennedy 13 points below its season-low to take over sole possession of first place in the Mississippi Valley Conference Valley Division standings with an eye-opening, 46-30 victory.

"We just play man-to-man defense," Groen said after his team held Kennedy to 9 of 41 shooting. "We really don't do that much special. It becomes a team effort of how can we collectively shut them down. Tonight I thought the girls came out and I thought they played extremely well defensively."

After patiently passing the ball around Kennedy's zone defense in the first quarter to take a 13-8 lead aided by three Kiana Barney 3-pointers, the Tigers (13-1, 8-0) held Kennedy (14-2, 7-1) scoreless for the final six minutes of the second quarter resulting in a commanding 24-12 halftime advantage.