Tigers struggle, metro rival Waterloo West up next

The CFHS men’s basketball team got the season started off strong with two victories: one against Decorah-North Winneshiek and the other versus Waterloo East.

Following a tough six-point road loss at Iowa City High, the Tigers faced the toughest two-game stretch of any team in the state of Iowa. Iowa City West game to town riding a 56-game winning streak and easily edged the Tigers.

The latter half of the tough two-game stretch came against Dubuque Senior who beat Cedar Falls and later went on to snap the Iowa City West 60-game winning streak.

Following a loss to Ames, the Tiger men welcomed Linn-Mar and sophomore guard Jordan Bohannon, younger brother of current UNI Panther Matt Bohannon and Wisconsin alum Jason Bohannon.

Linn-Mar took the lead in the fourth quarter after being down by double digits, but aggressive play from the Tigers took the lead back and snapped their four-game losing streak.

After a tough road loss in a rescheduled game against Dubuque Hempstead, a good opportunity to bounce back against a 2-7 Cedar Rapids Prairie team arose, but 5’9 junior guard Michael Mims kept getting inside for the Prairie Hawks and led all scorers with 22 points as Prairie defeated Cedar Falls 55-51.

“We worked hard and had a ton of energy in practice, but we just didn’t bring it to the game. We didn’t have good energy and just didn’t do the little things to win,” junior forward Keeon Johnson said.

The 3-6 Tigers are back in action against Waterloo West and Lincoln Conrey on Friday, Jan. 17. Conrey is coming off his most impressive effort of the season against Waterloo East where he totalled 28 points and 23 rebounds. Keeping the 6’5 forward under control will be the Tigers best hope in starting to get their season headed back around in the right direction.

“We can turn it around, but we need to get our energy level way up and play our game,” Johnson said.