Kennedy Boys Basketball

Manning finds his place at Platteville

Cedar Rapids Kennedy senior Jake Manning was looking for a college where he could play basketball and study engineering.

He found the right place at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

"It will be exciting to do both," Manning said Monday. "They have a really good engineering department. That was pretty much what helped me make my choice."

Manning, a 6-foot-5 forward, averaged 12.4 points and 6.5 rebounds this season. He was named all-Metro and second team all-conference in the Mississippi Valley Conference.

Manning helped Kennedy finish 17-5 this season. He shot 58.1 percent from the field and 76.2 percent at the foul line.

Wisconsin-Platteville finished 17-10 overall and 9-7 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference this year. The Pioners are an NCAA Division III program.

Hempstead stuns Cougars in tourney

The Dubuque Hempstead boys had Kennedy right where they wanted them for Friday night’s Class 4A substate semifinal in the Kennedy gym.

The underachieving Mustangs (11-12) had lost to the fifth-ranked Cougars (17-5) just last week by a 77-60 margin that wasn’t as close as the score indicated.

Kennedy, meanwhile, was coming off of an emotional 63-57 overtime win at Cedar Falls a week ago and was favored to advance to next Tuesday’s substate final.

And Hempstead, a 50-47 upset winner at Bettendorf on Monday, was again playing on the road, where it oddly enough lost only two games all year.

So, it was not all that surprising  for the Stangs (as they’re identified on their warm-up jerseys) to convincingly whip Kennedy 58-54 in last night’s rematch.

“It’s been the story of our season,” Cougars Coach Bob Fontana said.. “Every time we’ve had a big win this year – over Washington, over Jefferson and then over Cedar Falls – we haven’t played well the next game.

“And, obviously, our guys didn’t come out focused tonight. We didn’t deserve to win. But hats off to Hempstead. The made the plays. We didn’t.”

It was a sloppy start for the Cougars.

They seemed befuddled by the Mustangs’ zone defense and could only muster nine points in the first quarter. They had more turnovers than baskets.

“We didn’t attack their zone at all,” Fontana said. “And our passing was horrible.”

Hempstead, on the other hand, held onto the ball and played cautiously and patiently on offense.

Its two tiny and sure-handed guards, TJ Johnson and Brad Duwe, worked the ball around until the Mustangs’ one true big man, 6-foot-5 senior Gage Heffernan, broke free around the rim.

Heffernan, an all-MVC-conference blue chipper still awaiting a college scholarship, was a one-man wrecking crew, racking up 26 points against the far bulkier Kennedy front line.

“We knew we aren’t as athletic as they are,” he said. “So we had to play hard and play with heart and use our quickness to stay with them."

He also credited Hempstead Coach Curt Deutsch for coming up with the idea of throwing a zone defense against the Cougars.

“We didn’t use (the zone) the first time,” Heffernan pointed out. “It was one of the tricks we had up our sleeves.”

After trailing 10-9 after the first quarter, Kennedy did manage to squeeze out a 22-21 lead at halftime.

It was clear, though, that the undermanned Mustangs were not intimidated.

“Over the last eight weeks, we’ve played some very good basketball,” Deutsch said. “We’ve just gotten better game after game. So we came in here with some confidence.”

Forcing so many early turnovers, he said, gave his team even more grit.

“They put up 77 points on us last time, so we knew we had to make some defensive stops and keep them off the boards. I think we did a pretty job on both of them.”

Heffernan was a bull around the basket in the third quarter. When he hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer, it gave him 20 points for the night and his team a 40-32 lead.

Kennedy couldn’t recover, although it did cut the deficit down to 48-45 on a 3-pointer by Jake Misener with two minutes to play.

The Cougars kept fouling the rest of the way, and Hempstead kept missing free throws to keep the game close.

But, finally, Johnson sank both free throws with 29 seconds left to give the Mustangs a comfortable five-point cushion.

Hempstead plays Cedar Rapids Washington next Tuesday at 8 p.m. at the US Cellular Center for a chance to go to the state tournament.

HEMPSTEAD (58): TJ Johnson 3 4-5 10, Bradley Duwe 3 1-3 7, Alex Smith 1 2-6 4, Cody Leach 4 0-0 8, Connor Sindberg 0 3-4 3, Gage Heffernan 10 5-8 26. Totals 21 15-26 58.

KENNEDY (54): Jacob Manning 4 2-2 10, Darius Fuller 1 2-2 4, Jacob Misener 3 0-0 7, Trevor Heitland 0 1-2 1, Herschel Dixon 1 0-0 2, Kyle Lamaak 4 4-5 13, Josiah Coleman 7 0-1 15, Christian French 0 0-2 0. Totals 21 9-14 54.

Halftime -- Kennedy 22, Hempstead 21. 3-point goals -- Hempstead 1 (Heffernan), Kennedy 3 (Coleman, Lamaak, Misener). Total fouls -- Hempstead 16, Kennedy 24. Fouled out -- Leach, Misener.

Cougars take over in OT to beat Cedar Falls

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CEDAR FALLS - Cedar Falls kept giving itself chances.

At the end, the Tigers couldn't make the chances last.

Rally after rally carried C.F.  into overtime Thursday night, but the eighth-ranked Tigers fell to No. 7 Cedar Rapids Kennedy, 63-57, in the regular season finale for both teams.

"We had our chances," said Tiger Coach Tom Bardal. "It just seemed like every deflection didnt go to us. We had our opportunities in overtime."

The records and the rankings hinted that this Mississippi Valley Conference matchup would be tight. It was. Neither Cedar Falls (15-5, 13-3) nor Kennedy (17-4, 12-4) enjoyed a double-digit lead. In the fourth quarter alone, the edge changed hands six times.

Yet the Tigers spent much of the night coming back. They went scoreless for the opening 5 minutes and 24 seconds of the second quarter. They trailed by eight late in the third period. And, after letting a five-point fourth quarter lead get away, Cedar Falls forced OT on two Tony Johnson free throws with three seconds left in regulation.

But that's where the magic stopped. Kennedy took the lead for good when Kyle Lamaak (22 points) snatched a tipped pass and scored at the 2:50 mark in overtime. Cedar Falls turned the ball over, then Christian French hit two free throws, banking in the front end of the one-and-one.

The Tigers couldn't recover.

"We just could never get the lead once (Kennedy)  tied it," said Bardal. "We had the lead for a while in the fourth quarter, but once they got it back we could never get that key stop and key basket."

Said Kennedy Coach Bob Fontana, "I thought our kids showed a lot of grit and moxie. We just toughed it out. We executed on offense and we got some big stops on defense. Then we hit some big free throws late."

Kennedy's multitude of zone defenses and its size advantage inside bothered Cedar Falls for much of the night. So did an ankle injury suffered by James Harrington in the first quarter.

Harrington still finished with 13 points, nine coming in the fourth quarter and overtime. Caleb Konieczny topped the Tigers with 18, including 13 markers in the final half.

Now, the Tigers and Cougars go in different directions for substate play.

"We set our goals to start the season," said Bardal. "The first one was to win the conference. We've done that. The next goal is to win substate. We're in position to do that as the No. 1 seed."

Fontana figures a rough schedule that included road games against Cedar Falls plus Iowa City West, Linn-Mar and Dubuque Wahlert has prepared his Cougars for postseason play.

"You hope that makes you tournament tough," he said.

KENNEDY (63): Jacob Manning 3-8 3-4 9, Jacob Misener 0-4 0-0 0, Kyle Lamaak 9-12 2-6 22, Josiah Coleman 3-10 3-4 10, Darius Fuller 0-1 6-8 8, Herschel Dixon 2-3 0-0 4, Elliott Christians 0-0 0-0 0, Trevor Heitland 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-48 16-24 63.

CEDAR FALLS (57): James Harrington 4-13 5-7 13, Caleb Konieczny 6-10 2-3 18, Bobby Brummel 0-2 0-2 0, Matt Klinehart 3-7 0-0 7, Tony Johnson 1-5 2-2 5, Isaac Boettger 3-6 0-0 6, Matt Allender 0-0 0-0 0, Bryce Wolf 3-3 0-0 6, Nicholas Clark 0-0 0-0 0, Kalehl Brown 0-1 0-0 0, Kalund Brown 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 21-50 9-14 57.

Halftime -- Kennedy 27, Cedar Falls 22. End of regulation -- Kennedy 50, Cedar Falls 50. 3-point goals -- Cedar Falls 6 (Konieczny 4, Klinehart, Johnson), Kennedy 3 (Lamaak 2, Coleman). Total fouls -- Cedar Falls 19, Kennedy 16. Fouled out -- Misener, Konieczny, Boettger. Technical foul - Cedar Falls bench.

Cougars overwhelm Hempstead boys

It’s the final week of the regular season in Class 4A boys basketball and Kennedy is in a battle with Dubuque Wahlert for second place in the Mississippi Division of the Mississippi Valley Conference, thanks to a relatively easy 77-60 win over Dubuque Hempstead Tuesday night at Kennedy.

No. 7 Kennedy (16-4, 11-4 MVC) had the lead throughout the Senior Night game. The Cougars are tied with Wahlert for second place, four games behind Linn-Mar, with one game remaining in the regular season.

 “I wanted consistency on both ends of the floor tonight,” Kennedy Coach Bob Fontana said, “and I think we got that.”

The Cougars close out their season Thursday at Valley Division champion Cedar Falls.

Kennedy was paced by Jacob Manning with 20 points. Kyle Lamaak chipped in with 14 and Christian French, the University of Oregon football recruit, had 10. French excited the crowd with a couple of monster dunks as he riddled the Mustang defense.

Josiah Coleman scored seven of Kennedy's first nine points to start the game. He also was part of a staunch Kennedy defense that held Hempstead without a field goal until 38 seconds were left in the first quarter.

Kennedy junior Elliott Christians, in a reserve role, had a hot hand early in the game scoring nine quick points.

“The postseason will need us improving on the consistency level,” Fontana said. “And we want to make a game out of making great plays, but minimizing our mistakes.”

The Cougars kept turnovers to a minimum even with intense defensive pressure at times by Hempstead.

 Three double figure scorers helped Hempstead on this evening and the only returning first team all-conference player for the Mustangs, Gage Heffernan, scored 14 points and 12 of those came in the first half.  The leading scorer who had a very hot second half was

Timothy Johnson led Hempstead (8-11, 6-8) with 18 points, scoring 16 in the second half. Gage Heffernan added 14 and Cody Leach had 10.  The Mustangs have two games remaining, Thursday at home against No. 5 Iowa City West and Friday at Prairie.

HEMPSTEAD (60): Cory Crawford 0 0-0 0, Timothy Johnson 8 0-0 18, Bradley Duwe 3 2-4 9, Alex Smith 0 5-5 5, Benjamin Goerdt 0 0-0 0, Joshua Viertel 0 0-0 0, Cody Leach 4 2-4 10, Shawn Breitbach 0 0-0 0, Peter Keleher 0 2-2 2, Connor Sindberg 0 0-0 0, Carson Hillery 0 0-0 0, Gage Heffernan 5 2-2 14, Michael Canfield 1 0-0 2. Totals 21 13-17 60.

KENNEDY (77): Jacob Manning 9 2-2 20, Alex Hayden 0 0-0 0, Darius Fuller 0 0-0 0, Jacob Misener 4 1-1 9, Trevor Heitland 0 0-0 0, Herschel Dixon 1 4-4 6, Josh Jahlas 0 0-0 0, Cody Bell 0 0-0 0, Elliott Christians 4 1-1 9, Kyle Lamaak 6 0-0 14, Josiah Coleman 4 0-0 9, Shane Goodall 0 0-0 0, Christian French 5 0-0 10, Ross Ellsworth 0 0-2 0. Totals 33 8-10 77.

Halftime -- Kennedy 36, Hempstead 24. 3-point goals -- Hempstead 5 (Johnson 2, Heffernan 2, Duwe), Kennedy 3 (Lamaak 2, Coleman). Fouls -- Hempstead 12, Kennedy 12.