JV men’s basketball finishes undefeated

This year’s CFHS men’s basketball junior varsity team underwent about as much change as a high school JV team can undergo. The 2012-2013 Tigers didn’t manage to win a JV contest while the varsity team took a deep and talented team on a run far into the state tournament. The winless group graduated nearly every contributor, and newly promoted varsity assistant Chris Dyvig took over on the sidelines.

The JV team breaks down one of their final hudles of the year in the team’s final game, a home win against Waterloo East. After finishing the season 2012-2013 without a win, the 2013-2014 Cedar Falls Tiger men’s junior varsity basketball team finished the season an undefeated 6-0.

The new regime of the 2013-2014 Tigers didn’t have high expectations as just one win would improve last year’s mark. Their six-game schedule includes Waterloo East, Valley Lutheran and a pair of games against Waterloo West and Waverly each.

The tight knit JV squad constantly built their chemistry throughout its season. The guys often went out for breakfast on weekends, played video games together and went to the gym outside of practice for fun. “We all looked at it as an opportunity to impress the coaches, and we looked at it to have fun. We got to do something we love,” leading scorer junior Ben Fienup said.

The JV team breezed through its first four games by defeating West twice, Waverly and Valley Lutheran. Their fifth game presented the biggest challenge for the Tigers as they were faced against an improved, hot-shooting Waverly team led by 6-foot-9 inch Davone Beckert. Shooting an extremely high percentage from the field, the Go-Hawks led the Tigers by 18 to start the fourth quarter. That’s when junior Ben Fienup took over. “We just knew that we could win the game and looked inside instead of taking quick shots from the outside. We played hard and played good defense.”

Coming into the fourth quarter, Fienup had seven points, and 16 points later he led his team back into the game, hitting his final shot with 30 seconds remaining in the game. Up by one, the Go-Hawks had one final shot. The ball was in Waverly junior Bo Greenlee’s hands. The Go-Hawks final shot went up as the clock was set to expire but was blocked by who else other than the star of the night, Fienup.

With their record improved to 5-0, one obstacle remained in their undefeated path, Waterloo East, but 6-foot-4 inch junior big man Sam Pierce led his team to the win, finishing with 16 points. Fienup also stuffed the stat sheet as he finished a mere two assists shy of a triple double.

Going from not winning a game to not losing one completely flipped the script from last year. A 6-0 JV team can take a much needed winning attitude to practice every day. The 6-12 varsity club has three regular season games remaining but might be able to learn a thing or two from their very own, free-flowing and fun-filled junior varsity basketball team.