Kennedy hosted crosstown rival Jefferson in a Class 5A regional quarterfinal girls basketball tournament game Wednesday night and used the long ball to shoot down the J-Hawks, 58-50.

In beating Jefferson for the third time this season, Kennedy (15-7) advances to play Waterloo West (15-6) in Saturday's regional semifinals at West. Tip-off is 7 p.m.

“We are looking for a tough game in Waterloo this weekend,” said Coach Tony Vis. “We got them by nine earlier this year, but we can’t take them for granted.”

Led by Madi Meier’s school record seven 3-pointers, the Cougars knocked down 10 bombs to go with only nine two-point baskets and 10 free throws to defeat Jefferson.

“I really had no idea how many 3's I made,” said Meier. “I just found out that it is a school record. I was told that if they didn’t come out to guard me that I should take that shot and my teammates just kept finding me on the outside.”

Meier finished with a game high 26 points. She added 5 of 6 free throws to go with her 7 of 9 3-point shots.

“Madi’s teammates knew she was hot and they worked to get the ball to her and she didn’t disappoint,” said Coach Vis. “We had to find out what the defense was giving us and take advantage. They did a good job of bottling up the lane and we were able to take it in and bounce it back out for good perimeter shots.”

Paige Hendrickson also scored in double figures for the Cougars with 14 points.

“We knew they were going to come out tough because they have a lot of seniors,” said Hendrickson. “We can’t afford to take anybody for granted. They are pretty big inside so we used our presses to bother them and get some turnovers.”

“Our game plan was to take the ball at Botkin because a lot of their offense goes through her and if we could get her in foul trouble we could control the lane,” explained Jefferson Coach Jason Edwards. “Our game plan worked, they just shot real well from outside and beat us.”

The J-Hawks had three players in double figures.  Maddie Koolbeck was Jefferson’s leading scorer with 14 while Amanda Olinger added 12 and Taylor Jacobson contributed 11.

“I knew we were all playing our hardest,” said Koolbeck. “They were just having a hot night. Sometimes you can’t do anything about that.”

Jefferson finished the season with an 8-14 record.

“My team worked hard every day and they played hard for each other. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of kids for my first year at Jefferson,” Edwards said.

JEFFERSON (50): Davidson 1 0-0 3, Stromert 3 0-0 6, Jacobson 4 2-3 11, Broghammer 1 2-2 4, Koolbeck 6 2-5 14, Blietz 0 0-0 0, Ollinger 5 0-5 12, Brathwaite 0 0-0 0, Timmerman 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 6-15 50.

KENNEDY (64): Meier 7 5-6 26, Holmes 3 1-2 9, B.Vis 0 0-1 0, Hendrickson 5 3-4 14, Botkin 2 1-2 5, Wagner 1 0-0 2, M.Vis 0 0-0 0, DeLong 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 10-5 58.

Halftime - Kennedy 29, Jefferson 20. 3-point goals - Jefferson 4 (Davidson 1, Ollinger 2, Jacobson 1), Kennedy 10 (Meier 7, Holmes 2, Hendrickson 1).  Fouled out - Davidson, Stromert, Botkin.