Cedar Rapids Kennedy boys’ basketball coach Jon McKowen refused to let Ankeny’s Carson Johnson beat his team.
The strategy proved to be effective.
The top-ranked Cougars used a trapping defense to hold Johnson to nine points on 4-of-13 shooting and posted a 63-51 victory in the Class 4A semifinals on Thursday at Wells Fargo Arena.
“We press every game, but our press was a lot different this game,” said McKowen. “We just tried to double (Johnson) a little bit in the back court–get it out of his hands–because he’s just so dynamic. He’s one of the best guards this state has seen with the way he can score. He shoots 47 percent at the 3-point line, and he takes tough shots. And the way he can score in the mid-range and the way he can get his teammates involved, we didn’t want Carson to beat us. We just tried to get it out of his hands early and deny it back to him.”
Johnson, the leading scorer in Class 4A, was held to fewer than 10 points for only the second time this season. The other time he failed to reach double digits came on Jan. 26, when Johnson scored eight points in a loss to Waukee Northwest before leaving the game due to an injury.
“It’s tough when you trap him early and he had to give it up, and he really couldn’t get it back because we had to attack,” said Ankeny coach Brandt Carlson. “We had to kick it and hit open 3s, because we had to take them. And that’s frustrating. We tried to do a couple of different things to get him loose, but his shot wasn’t falling either. But what a year for Carson and for our program. We’re not satisfied with losing, but if you have to lose, I’d rather lose at Wells. We made the final four, and it’s something to build on.”
The loss ended Ankeny’s eight-game winning streak. The No. 8 Hawks finished with an 18-7 record.
Kennedy (25-0) advanced to Friday’s title game against No. 2 Valley (20-5), the defending champion. The Cougars’ only loss in the last two seasons came in last year’s quarterfinals against Pleasant Valley.
“Everybody had that bad taste in their mouths. They didn’t want to go out like last year’s team and lose in the first round,” said Kennedy’s Cyrus Courtney. “That energy drove us to get that first (win) and now a second and hopefully a championship.”
Courtney and Micah Schlaak each scored 17 points to lead Kennedy’s balanced attack. Joseph Bean and Trey McKowen each added 13.
“I thought we did a good job on Bean–he’s a really good player,” Carlson said. “But then Cyrus goes off at times. I thought we guarded individually pretty well, but we just couldn’t get rebounds. So it was a combination of things. That’s a credit to them. They do a great job and they’re well coached. It’s a great group of guys.”
Rio Aguirre scored 18 points to lead the Hawks, going 4-of-9 from 3-point range. Lio Aguirre added 11 points and five rebounds.
Rio Aguirre made a 3-pointer to give Ankeny its only lead, 5-2, early in the game. The Cougars then responded with 15 straight points, 11 of them by Schlaak, to take the lead for good.
A 3-pointer by McKowen capped off a 25-5 run and gave Kennedy a 27-10 advantage after the opening period. The Hawks had eight of their 14 turnovers in the first 8 minutes.
“That was not ideal,” Carlson said of his team’s slow start. “But it’s a shock playing them. They are so long, and their defense is something else. It’s just something you haven’t seen before. You’re not able to run any sets, you’re not able to get any continuity. You just have to kind of play and hope the shots go in. Once we figured that out, it felt a little bit better, but it was just too big of a hole.”
Johnson was held scoreless in the first quarter. His first basket came on a layup off a Kennedy turnover to open the second period.
“They had a good game plan going into it,” Johnson said. “They’ve got a lot of great players on that team. Obviously, they were trying to take it out of my hands.”
The Hawks rallied in the second quarter behind Rio Aguirre, who made a trio of treys and had 10 points in the period. Then Lio Aguirre hit another 3-pointer to cut Kennedy’s lead to 39-29 at halftime.
“We just had to recognize the next player, but we still weren’t going to go away from Carson,” McKowen said. “He can just score so fast. Rio’s a really good shooter, and he was scoring in one dynamic. With a good team like Ankeny, you’ve got to give up something. And we were giving up fairly contested 3s. He made a couple that were good side-step 3s. It wasn’t a catch-and-shoot with your feet on the line. We tried to play the odds a little bit and just give up as tough a shots as possible.”
Johnson made his only 3-pointer to open the second half, pulling Ankeny to within 39-32. But that’s as close as the Hawks could get.
Kennedy then pulled away to a 55-40 lead as Courtney scored 11 of his points in the third quarter.
“Everybody just goes with the flow,” Courtney said. “I was hot…Micah was hot…it just depends on the quarter.”
The Cougars built a 63-46 margin before both teams replaced their starters in the final minutes. Reserve Gunnar Breding scored the game’s final five points for Ankeny.
“I think we surprised some people with what we’ve done all year,” Johnson said. “That’s a great team, but we got pretty far.”
