Kirkwood Community College - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Kirkwood wins without 5 suspended players

BOONE - The Kirkwood men's basketball team collected one of the most  unusual victories in school history Saturday.

The Eagles defeated DMACC, 58-50, in a conference game in Boone despite playing the game without five suspended players.

Kirkwood has only 10 players on its active roster, so the Eagles were missing half the team.

The five players were suspended by the National Junior College  Athletic Association for two games for their role in an incident that happened during the final minute of Wednesday's home game against  Ellsworth.

Kirkwood assistant coaches Ben Jacobson and Taylor Blum also were  suspended by the NJCAA and did not make the trip to DMACC.

Cal Clark, a member of the Kirkwood baseball team and a former basketball player at Cedar Rapids Prairie, joined the basketball team and was used as their sixth man against DMACC. He made a 3-point  basket and scored three points.

Three other Kirkwood baseball players joined the team and were in  uniform, but they did not play against DMACC. Todd Rima, the Kirkwood  baseball coach, helped Petersen coach the team.

Byron Harp, Miles Wentzien, Ethan Meeker, Chris King and Elijah Henry  were suspended by the NJCAA. Harp, Wentzien, Meeker and King are  starters and were on the bench in the final minute against Ellsworth  when Henry and Mike Evans of Ellsworth got into a shoving incident  and Henry was assessed a technical foul.

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No. 1 KCC women crush No. 7 DMACC

BOONE - The top-ranked Kirkwood women's basketball team crushed  seventh-ranked DMACC, 90-53, in a conference game Saturday afternoon  in Boone.

The Eagles raised their impeccable records to 19-0 overall and 3-0 in  the league with another lopsided victory.

Simone Goods led the scoring parade for Kirkwood with 17 points.  Shaneequah Watkins scored 16 points, Megan Axcell 11 and Deleyah Harris 10.

KIRKWOOD (90): Harris 4 2-4 10, T.Wilson 4 0-0 9, Puok 0 0-0 0, Hedges  0 0-0 0, Axcell 4 0-0 11, Ajak 4 0-0 8, Taylor 1 0-0 2, Watkins 6 3-3  16, Voss 1 0-0 2, Cotton 3 0-0 7, C.Wilson 0 0-0 0, Goods 7 3-3 17,  Usher 3 0-0 8. Totals 37 8-10 90.

3-point goals - Kirkwood 8 (Axcell 3, Usher 2, T.Wilson 1, Watkins 1,  Cotton 1).

Goods finds right fit with No. 1 Eagles

When Simone Goods decided to leave Western Kentucky last season after  one year with the Hilltoppers, she reached out to a former high school teammate from Omaha to talk about life and basketball.

That former high school teammate was her "best friend," Deleyah  Harris, who spent last season playing for the Kirkwood Eagles.

During their conversations, they talked about the possibility of Goods  joining Harris in Cedar Rapids.

"We just talked about it and said, 'What if?," Goods related Wednesday  night. "It kind of just happened."

"What if?" has turned into "Wow!" for Goods and Harris as two of the  stars for the top-ranked junior college basketball team in the country.

Goods scored 19 points Wednesday and Harris collected a double-double  with 11 points, 11 rebounds and six steals as the Eagles topped  Ellsworth, 68-44, for their 18th straight victory.

Goods is a powerful 6-foot-2 center who also has good skills on the  perimeter. Harris is a 5-foot-9 guard who can do just about anything  on the floor.

They starred at Omaha Benson High School, where they went 26-1 as  seniors in 2015, and now they are 18-0 as teammates again at Kirkwood.  They also played together on the AAU circuit in high school.

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No. 1 Kirkwood women dunk Southwestern

CRESTON - The top-ranked Kirkwood women's basketball team cracked 100  points for the first time this season and whipped Southwestern, 103-69, in the opening game of the ICCAC conference race Saturday  afternoon.

Deleyah Harris led the Eagles (17-0) with 23 points and eight  rebounds. She shot 5-for-6 on 3-pointers and was 8-for-9 overall from  the field.

Simone Goods finished with 17 points and six rebounds and made all  seven of her shots.

Awal Ajak scored 15 points and Shaneequah Watkins collected 11 points,  six rebounds and six assists. Rylee Voss contributed nine points and  seven rebounds.

KIRKWOOD (103): Harris 8 2-2 23, T.Wilson 0 4-6 4, Puok 0 0-0 0,  Hedges 1 2-2 4, Axcell 2 0-0 5, Ajak 5 2-5 15, Taylor 0 0-0 0, Watkins 4 3-4 11, Voss 4 1-3 9, Cotton 2 0-0 5, C.Wilson 0 0-0 0, Goods 7 5-9  17, Usher 1 1-2 4, Achenbach 2 0-0 4. Totals 36 20-33 103.

3-point shots - Kirkwood 11 (Harris 5, Ajak 3, Axcell 1, Cotton 1, Usher 1).

Kirkwood men fall to No. 2 Southwestern

CRESTON - The No. 1 junior college men's basketball team from last  season met the No. 2 team from this season in the opening game of the  ICCAC conference race Saturday afternoon.

The clash did not have a happy ending for the Kirkwood Eagles, who are  the defending NJCAA Division II champions.

Southwestern Community College clipped the Eagles, 94-83, in a  high-scoring game in Creston for its 17th straight win of the season.

Kirkwood (12-4) trailed by 15 points at halftime, 51-36, but the  Eagles rallied and pulled within a few points in the second half  before falling short.

Byron Harp led Kirkwood with 25 points. Chris King scored 20 points  and Miles Wentzein had 16. Shakur Triplett grabbed 14 rebounds for the  Eagles.

KIRKWOOD (83): Triplett 4 0-2 8, Harp 9 3-4 25, Jackson 0 0-0 0,  Wentzien 5 4-4 16, Meeker 2 0-0 6, Fagan 1 2-2 5, C.King 7 5-6 20, Marble 1 0-0 3, Henry 0 0-0 0, D.King 0 0-0 0. Totals 29 14-18 83.

Halftime - Southwestern 51, Kirkwood 36. 3-point goals - Kirkwood 11  (Harp 4, Wentzien 2, Meeker 2, Fagan 1, C.King 1, Marble 1).

No. 14 Eagles soar by Marshalltown

If you loved the way the Kirkwood Eagles played last season on their way to the national title, you had to enjoy what you saw at Johnson  Hall Wednesday night.

Kirkwood Coach Bryan Petersen certainly did.

The 14th-ranked Eagles played a terrific first half and rolled by Marshalltown, 100-80, in a non-conference affair.

Kirkwood (12-3) jumped to a quick 14-0 lead in the first four minutes and led 54-31 at halftime with a near-flawless performance. The score  was 30-9 midway through the first half.

"Probably the best basketball we've played all year," said Petersen.

The Eagles trimmed Marshalltown on the road, 78-75, in November, but the rematch was a blowout from start to finish.

Kirkwood opened 27-point leads in both halves and Marshalltown (13-6) never got closer than 20 points in the last 25 minutes of the game.

Marshalltown outscored the Eagles 49-46 in the second half, but most of that came in the latter stages of the game.

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No. 16 Eagles whip Illinois Central

PEORIA, Ill. - The 16th-ranked Kirkwood Eagles raised their record to 11-3 Saturday afternoon with a 74-62 victory over Illinois Central.

The game was tied at halftime, 28-28, but the Eagles outscored the hosts 46-34 in the second half.

Chris King popped in three 3-pointers and led Kirkwood with 17 points. Miles Wentzien and Ethan Meeker scored 13 points for the Eagles and Kaliph Fagan chipped in with 11. Meeker hit three triples.

Shakur Triplett finished with nine points and eight rebounds.

Brian Conway scored 15 points for Illinois Central (8-7).

KIRKWOOD (74): Triplett 3 3-3 9, Harp 1 3-5 5, Jackson 1 0-0 2, Wentzien 3 7-8 13, Meeker 4 2-2 13, Fagan 2 7-8 11, C. King 6 2-2 17, Marble 0 0-1 0, Henry 0 0-0 0, D. King 2 0-0 4. Totals 22 24-29 74.

ILLINOIS CENTRAL (62): Bolden 2 0-0 4, Bradford 0 1-2 1, Conway 7 1-1 15, Cuevas 0 2-2 2, Dixon-Williams 3 4-4 10, Gilkey 1 0-0 3, Long 1 0-0 3, Louderman 0 0-0 0, Porter 0 0-0 0, Smith 2 2-5 6, Stinson 2 0-0 5, A. Williams 3 0-0 6, C. Williams 2 2-2 7. Totals 23 12-16 62.

Halftime - Kirkwood 28, Illinois Central 28. 3-point goals - Kirkwood 6 (C.King 3, Meeker 3), Illinois Central 4 (Gilkey 1, Long 1, Stinson  1, C. Williams 1).

No. 1 Eagles raise mark to 16-0

The Kirkwood Eagles turned Sweet 16 Thursday night.

Simone Goods scored 15 points and snared nine rebounds as the top-ranked Eagles rolled to their 16th straight victory with a 78-53 verdict over the Loras College junior varsity at Johnson Hall.

Shaneequah Watkins collected 12 points, Awal Ajak netted 11 and Deleyah Harris contributed 10 in a typically balanced attack. Harris also had eight rebounds, five assists and five steals.

Goods, a 6-foot-2 sophomore from Omaha, scored 11 of her points in the third quarter when Kirkwood outscored the visitors from Dubuque, 24-11, in the 10-minute session.

The Eagles won another game by a wide margin, but they committed 20 turnovers with some sloppy passes and Coach Kim Muhl was visibly unhappy at times on the bench.

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Leaner Eagles sail by Clarke JV

The Kirkwood men's basketball team will be a much leaner group for the rest of the season with the loss of five reserves during the holiday  break.

The Eagles could be a much meaner group as well, in terms of making a run for a second straight national title.

The 16th-ranked Eagles sailed by the Clarke junior varsity, 129-52, in a tuneup at Johnson Hall Tuesday night in their first game with a trimmer roster.

Coach Bryan Petersen had only 10 players in uniform Tuesday and seven  of them scored in double figures. Chris King led the way with 23 points with five 3-pointers.

Derrick Howard, Darius Rice, Darias Oliver, Kameron Moore and Shawn Foxbrennen have left the club since the end of the first semester. Most of them were fairly deep reserves, and the 10 guys who are left  are the 10 who will decide Kirkwood's fate this year.

Petersen thinks a leaner roster could be good for the club after trying to hammer a 15-man team into a cohesive unit.

"That was something we were really struggling with the first semester," he said. "We didn't have a lot of defined roles, and now  we've got that with our numbers going down a little bit.

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