No collapse this time for Cedar Rapids Xavier, which blasts Iowa City Regina

Jeff Johnson The Gazette More stories from Jeff

CEDAR RAPIDS — Ryan Luehrsmann has played a lot of basketball and coached quite a bit of it, too. He’s never experienced anything like Friday night.

Very few have.

His Cedar Rapids Xavier’s boys’ basketball team let a 26-point halftime lead get completely away and lost to Cedar Rapids Prairie in a stunner of stunners. Perhaps it was good for the Saints to get right back at it Saturday afternoon, which they did by getting after Iowa City Regina, 81-52.

“Last night reminded me of an Iowa, Tom Davis game,” said Luehrsmann, who played for Davis, a coach known for being able to overcome huge deficits because of its full-court defense. “But Prairie wasn’t really pressing, that was the weird thing. All of a sudden, the game was getting called tight, they were more aggressive and driving in to us. The refs were making calls, and they got a lot of points with the clock stopped. You get a couple of 3-pointers, then it’s like ‘Holy crap, we’re in trouble. The boat’s sinking. Plug the hole.’”

The boat stayed upright Saturday, as Class 3A fourth-ranked Xavier (5-3) kept the pedal on the gas after building a 41-24 halftime lead. The Saints had simply too much talent for their 2A opponent.

Too much Jackson Joens and Matt Mims. Joens had five 3-pointers and 24 points, Mims five treys and 22 points.

“I haven’t even thought about Prairie today until the final buzzer sounded,” Joens said. “To have this big win over Regina is a big accomplishment for us. I think we communicated really well. Last night, on the defensive end, we communicated well in the first half, but the second half, we just completely fell apart. I thought today we really played well for 32 minutes on the defensive end.”

Only Even Brauns got away from Xavier defensively, but that’s going to happen to a lot of teams. The 6-foot-8 sophomore is a skilled player with a bright future, as his 21 points and eight rebounds proved.

Regina dropped to 7-2.

AT CEDAR RAPIDS XAVIER

IOWA CITY REGINA (52): Jocoa Kerschen 2-7 0-0 5, Even Brauns 8-10 5-9 21, Jake Phillips 2-6 0-0 4, Zach Seaman 1-2 0-0 3, Masen Miller 4-8 2-2 11, Bryce Barnett 1-3 0-0 2, Blake Berns 0-1 0-0 0, Luke Stein 1-3 0-0 2, Jacob Sueppel 0-0 1-2 1, Ryne Schooley 0-2 0-0 0, Jacob Clark 1-1 0-0 2, Brady Wallace 0-0 0-0 0, Steve Sehl 0-1 0-0 0, Michael Conlon 0-0 0-0 0, Alex Moore 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 20-44 9-15 52.

CEDAR RAPIDS XAVIER (81): Jackson Joens 9-16 1-1 24, Jacob Hines 0-2 0-0 0, Quinn Schulte 3-6 3-4 9, Gabe Lux 0-1 0-0 0, Matt Mims 8-12 1-1 22, Jake Beckmann 1-4 1-1 3, Aaron Bartels 0-1 0-0 0, Davis Wagner 4-6 0-0 9, Kyle Moeder 2-4 4-4 8, Bryson Bastian 1-2 0-0 2, Matt Ropp 1-2 0-0 2, Matthew Jordebrek 1-1 0-0 2, Jack Scott 0-0 0-0 0, Ryan Keating 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 30-58 10-11 81.

Halftime — Xavier 41, Regina 24. 3-point goals — Regina 3-14 (Kerschen 1-4, Phillips 0-1, Seaman 1-1, Miller 1-5, Stein 0-2, Schooley 0-1), Xavier 11-25 (Joens 5-9, Mims 5-8, Beckmann 0-3, Wagner 1-1, Moeder 0-1, Bastian 0-1, Ropp 0-1, Keating 0-1). Rebounds — Regina 27 (Brauns 8), Xavier 28 (Joens 5). Total fouls — Regina 11, Xavier 17. Fouled out — None. Turnovers — Regina 18, Xavier 9.

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