The boys’ basketball team completed their season with a much improved 9-14 record. This comes after a 2-20 record a year ago.
“We made some great strides from last year,” head coach Adam Loria said. “Especially on the defensive end of the court.”
This extra effort was realized in two defensive milestones this year. The City High boys’ basketball team set a new school record in a 40-22 win against Cedar Rapids Kennedy.
In what was a defense-laden game was later confirmed that the 22 points the Little Hawks allowed Friday night was the fewest in school history. The previous record was 24 points in the 1985-1986 season.The started off very slow for both teams. The score after one quarter of play was 6-6.
“I think it was more of the defensive strategy,” said City coach Adam Loria citing the low score. “The offense struggles were more a by-product of how well the defenses were playing.”
The rest of the game would belong to City. After Kennedy jumped to an 8-6 lead, City held the Cougars scoreless for nine and a half minutes during which included a 19-2 run to build a 25-10 lead going into the 4th quarter.
The team also tied the record for best defensive average at 51 points per game, a record that was set in the 1960’s.
In what appeared to be a recurrence of the game against Cedar Rapids Kennedy where the Little Hawks held the Cougars to a school record low twenty-two points.
City would keep the game nip and tuck in what proved to be a low scoring first half. In the final seconds capped off with the first 3-pointer of the game by Paige to take a 17-12 lead into the half.
Linn-Mar would start the second half on fire building an 11-point lead with three minutes left in the 3rd quarter. City would close out on a 8-2 run capped off by a buzzer beating put back by City senior Ronald Thompson.
Coach Adam Loria praised his team’s second chance point opportunities.
“That’s one of the things we do well. We got I think eighteen offensive rebounds, bottom line though is you still need to finish.” Loria said.
Linn-Mar would again open the 4th quarter with a quick run to go up 38-30. City would be able to claw its way back to pull within two points at 38-36 with 2:35 left to play.
“I felt that as team we grew mentally more than anything, learning how to come together when games aren’t going so well,” said Jeremy Johnson ‘12, “We gained respect from other teams and even more people at City. By the end of the season, people actually believed that we could win some big games.”
Twelve of the 16 players on the Little Hawks roster were juniors this year. Coach Loria believes that this will really help the team next year.
“Were moving in the right direction,” he said. “Our juniors got a lot of experience this year, and this will really help us to play some good ball next year.”
