In the rubber match between the two teams, City was able to uncharacteristically make their free throws to live another day in the IAHSAA Playoffs and beat Cedar Rapids Prairie.
Coming into the night, City was just 57% from the line. That puts them in last place in the conference for that category. The Little Hawks were 15-of-19 from the charity line, including Lonnie Chester and Ronald Thompson both going 5-of-6 in the fourth quarter to close out the victory.
“We knew all year that it would come down to free throws sooner or later,” said City senior Ronald Thompson. “We just have to work hard to make our free throws.”
The game started nip-and-tuck though with the Prairie Hawks and Little Hawks exchanging several lead changes. The first quarter was capped off by a steal and assist from Jeremy Johnson to Jerel Moore for a dunk to give City a 9-8 lead after one quarter of play.
City would come out fast to start the second quarter, but Prairie would respond with a 7-0 run to tie the game up at 15-15.
City would find their selves up by three and the ball for a last shot but the Prairie student section began a premature countdown chant to dupe Tony Perry into shooting a poor, low-percentage shot. The Prairie Hawks would rebound it and move up the court with about ten seconds left in the half. After moving the ball around a few times, Prairie’s Thomas Eilers found himself with the ball with just a second left. He lifted up with a buzzer-beating three-pointer to the delight of the Prairie contingent.
Prairie came out strong in the second half, building an early five point lead at 27-22. At this point City High coach Adam Loria called a timeout to regroup his team.

City take control from there on out. After going up for the first time in second half, City would maintain a lead the rest of the game. It was sometimes threatened after creative passes and scores from the Prairie seniors, but City’s clutch free-throw shooting always answered any drive on the opposite end.
City would hold on to win 50-42 led by seniors Jerel Moore with 16 points and Ronald Thompson with 11 points to extend their high school playing careers. Lonnie Chester also had 12 points including the 4th quarter free throws to seal the victory.
“It feels great after last year when we got knocked out in the first round and now we have a chance of a rematch at Linn-Mar,” Thompson said.
The Prairie Hawks ended their season at 9-13.
The Little Hawks (8-14) advance to play at #5-ranked Linn-Mar (17-4) led by Marcus Paige, who is the leading scorer in 4A going into the week.
“Paige is going to have his, we just have to make sure we can stop their other guys,” said Loria. “They’ve been playing a lot better since having that (Matt) Lassen kid back. That’s just one more guy for us to have to focus on.”
Lassen, who has verbally committed to play for Albany, was anticipated to be the Lion’s #2 player after Paige. But he missed a majority part of the season after having hitting his head on the floor in an earlier game against Iowa City West. He spend a week in the ICU at the University Hospitals before slowly making his way back to normal pace.
Despite the Albany and North Carolina signee’ duo, Loria is confident his team is and will be ready to play on Friday.

The game is at Linn-Mar on Friday (February 24th). Tip-off is 7pm. Tickets are $6 for all as it is a playoff game.