Tigers drown Wahawks, move on to McLeod Center

Revenge was on the minds of the boys basketball team Friday night, and revenge they got. They defeated Waterloo West 55-39 to move on to a Substate final. “It felt really good getting revenge. We knew it was going to be tough because it’s the third time we’ve played them this season, and the stakes were high,” said junior Kalehl Brown. The Cedar Falls Tigers advance on to play in the McLeod Center on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. against the Cedar Rapids Jefferson J-Hawks. The winner will advance on to the first round of the Iowa High School Boys Basketball State Tournament, the loser will go home. The J-Hawks are coming off a 64-58 win over Marshalltown. This will be the second time Cedar Falls has seen Jefferson this season. Earlier in the year James Harrington led the Tigers to a 64-49 victory over Jefferson with his team-leading 19 points. Two years ago Cedar Falls found themselves in a similar position; playing Jefferson for the right to go to State. Jefferson prevailed pulling out a 47-42 win behind the steady play of Jarrod Uthoff who is now at the University of Wisconsin. The Tigers are looking for a different outcome this time.

West’s game plan was obvious from the start: shut down senior James Harrington. But, like most teams this season, they were unsuccessful. Harrington led all scorers with 19 points.

West had all the momentun at the end of the third quarter, they had just chopped Cedar Falls’ lead down to four points. The fourth quarter is when Cedar Falls really broke the game open. The Tigers roared back behind the hot hand of senior center Tony Johnson who drained three three-pointers to propel CFHS to a 15-3 fourth quarter run. The streak sent the Wahawks packing, and thrust the Tigers into the Substate final. The Tigers are looking to return to the State Tournament in the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines for the first time since 2009 when Harrington was just a freshman. “We’re really excited about the opportunity to play in the McLeod Center, the seniors really deserve the chance to go to State, we want to make that happen” junior Kalund Brown said.