After a close loss to Davenport Central on Tuesday, the Little Hawks begin their season with an 0-1 start. Henry Mulligan ‘16 led City High in scoring putting up a total of 15 points, as well as shooting 60 percent from field goal range. Sophomores Nate Wieland and Chuck Johnson stepped up as the underclassmen of the team, putting up a combined score of 24 points. Micah Martin ‘16 played strong in the paint with a total of four blocks out of the 8 City High had. Rebounding seemed to play a big role in Tuesday’s loss as the Little Hawks just couldn’t crash the boards.  Although with Johnson’s 11 rebounds, the Little Hawks only grabbed 32 rebounds, compared to the 40 rebounds total Davenport Central grabbed along with the 27 defensive rebounds. Shooting played a big role to with the team’s loss on Tuesday as well, with the Little Hawks shooting only 30 percent from the field.

“Rebounding still seems to be a pretty big concern for us as well as knocking down some easy shots.” Showalter said.

With a strong amount of play from the Little Hawks coming into the 2nd half, the Little Hawks rallied, closing the gap slightly. However, Davenport Central’s fast paced offense proved to be a little too much for the Little Hawks, ending the game 54-64 Davenport Central.

“We really stepped up our defense going into the 2nd half, which led to our rally with easy baskets in transition,” Showalter said

With only one senior in the starting lineup for the Little Hawks, Emmanual Hooper, inexperience played a huge role in the team’s performance.

“We struggled with our scoring in the 1st half, but that was mostly because of

varsity inexperience for most of our players.” Showalter stated, “That’s what’s to come at the beginning of the season, however, we’re hoping they get more varsity experience throughout the season.”

City High’s next opponent will be the Cedar Rapids Jefferson J-Hawks on their home court. The Little Hawks took a 50-80 loss to the J-Hawks last season and are working towards recovering from last years lost and coming home with a win. Showalter is hoping that the kind of play in the 2nd half of the Davenport Central game will carry on to the upcoming game on the 12th. We can expect the team to play a very fast pace offense in transition, as well as an aggressive defense like what we saw in the 2nd half of the Davenport Central game. With the first away game of the season, the Little Hawks will begin to show what is really in store for the 2014-2015 season.