Iowa high school boys basketball state tournament: Twice is nice for West Des Moines Valley

The Tigers win back-to-back 4A titles, handing Cedar Rapids Kennedy its first loss of the season

DES MOINES, IOWA -- It’s not often the returning champs are underdogs, and the West Des Moines Valley High School boys’ basketball team proved why. 

The Tigers went into Friday’s Class 4A state championship game looking to be the first team to beat Cedar Rapids Kennedy this season and did just that, earning a repeat championship by defeating the Cougars 63-59 at Wells Fargo Arena.

Valley's Kiki Deng drives to the hoop during the Class 4A state championship game against Cedar Rapids Kennedy at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines on Friday. (Photo by Ryan Timmerman)

While Valley relied on Curtis Stinson and Kiki Deng for most of its scoring early on (the duo scored 16 of the team’s 22 first half points), Kennedy used its depth to build a slim one-point lead as seven different Cougars scored in the first half.

“We were basically the underdogs,” Stinson said. “But we were able to come in and beat them. We’ve been injured, been through ups and downs this season, but found a way.”

In the second half, the rest of the Valley roster picked up the slack as 6-foot-9 junior center Trevin Jirak finished with a game-high 19 points to go with eight rebounds.

“We turned it over too many times,” Jirak said of his team’s 17 turnovers. “But we still found a way to get it done. Our defense played amazing. (Kennedy) hit tough shots later in the game, but we knew they would do that. We knew going into halftime that we had a great shot to win this.”

Stinson, a junior, ended with 18 points, nine rebounds and four assists while Deng, also a junior, had a dozen points with seven rebounds, and classmate Zay Robinson had 14 points for head coach BJ Windhosrst’s club.

CR Kennedy's Cyrus Courtney dribbles up the court against Valley during the Class 4A state championship game at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines on Friday. (Photo by Ryan Timmerman)

Valley sophomore Jayden McGregor was held scoreless, but he went for a game-high eight assists in the win for the Tigers (21-5).

Kennedy (25-1) was led by junior Trey McGowan, who had 17 points. Micah Schlaak, Joseph Bean and Griffin Gerdes all finished in double figures for the Cougars.

While the first half was played to a relative stalemate as Kennedy took a slim 23-22 lead into the intermission, Valley took control of the game in the third quarter by doubling up the Cougars over the eight minutes of the period to the tune of a 22-11 margin.

The Cougars did their best to get back into it by taking the fourth, 25-19, but wasn’t quite enough as Valley took care of the basketball and made free throws down the stretch.

For the game, the Tigers sank 17 of 22 attempts from the charity stripe, which helped solidify the repeat championship.

Kennedy spent just over five minutes of game time with the lead, and the game with tied for a near-equal amount of time, but Valley was in front for the rest of the remaining time, which amounted to over 21 minutes of action.

“Now, we have to build every day,” Jirak said of the group Valley has set to return to pursue a three-peat (which is most of the key pieces from this season’s squad. “It’s an amazing feeling when you can say you're the best in the state.”

Stinson, whose father, Curtis Stinson Sr., has earned glory in the same building as part of a championship-winning Iowa Energy (before changing to the Iowa Wolves) after an illustrious career at Iowa State, now has a claim that his father can’t match.

“To come in here and win in the building that my dad won in is a great feeling,” said the junior Stinson of his father, who won an NBA D-League MVP and league championship with the EnergY. “But one thing I can say now is that I have more championships than he does.”

--Ryan Timmerman | @SBLiveIA