Drake Kapayou

WEST DES MOINES — For every Bobcat uprising, Dowling Catholic managed to knock them down again.

The Maroons staved off the Marshalltown boys’ basketball team for the final three quarters in Tuesday’s CIML contest, winning 60-49 behind Matthew Riedl’s game-high 24 points.

Marshalltown (0-2) took advantage of turnovers early in the second quarter to take their final lead, 13-11, on a Prince Jallah layup, but Dowling (2-0) scored the next six points and never trailed again.

The Bobcats fought back to tie later in the period but fell behind by four at the half on Riedl’s bucket just before the buzzer, and Dowling’s standout junior opened both the third and fourth quarters with scores to stake the Maroons to more of a lead each time.

MHS sophomore Drake Kapayou knocked down consecutive 3-pointers with less than three minutes left to rally the Bobcats back to within four, 52-48, but Dowling’s 6-foot-8 senior post Ryan Riggs got an untraditional four-point play and Rield finished it off from the foul line.

After Kapayou’s last of three 3-pointers brought Marshalltown to within four, Riggs posted up and scored a basket while being fouled. He missed his allotted free throw but came up with the loose-ball rebound and dunked it home for a four-point sequence.

“We’re right there, we were a few possessions away from winning that game tonight,” said MHS head coach Michael Appel. “We’re not satisfied with just being in the game.

“We did a lot of good things tonight, but there’s a lot of things we’ve got to clean up. We’ve just got to keep grinding and working and keep getting better.”

Marshalltown junior guard Armonniey Thomas tallied a team-leading 18 points despite foul trouble, and Kapayou finished with 11 points. Grant Greazel made one of the team’s six 3-pointers to account for eight points, and Isaiah Borgos buried a pair of triples for six points.

But Dowling’s size and balance proved to be just a bit too much for Marshalltown to match.

“I can’t fault our effort on the defensive end, I thought we played extremely hard,” Appel said. “I was pleased for the most part how we boxed out and eliminated second-chance points. It’s going to take all five guys battling for that rebound.”

Behind Rield’s 24 points, Riggs finished with 14 for Dowling while Jack Groeteke added eight points off the bench and Sam Hughes tallied six.

Next up for the Bobcats is Thursday’s third-straight road game to start the season with a trip to Ames.

Dowling Catholic 60, Marshalltown 49

At West Des Moines

MARSHALLTOWN (0-2) — Armonniey Thomas 7 4-5 18, Grant Greazel 2 3-5 8, Drake Kapayou 3 2-2 11, Prince Jallah 1 2-5 5, Isaiah Borgos 2 0-0 6, Ivan Alvarado 0 0-0 0, Justin Melde 1 0-0 2, Bul Chol 0 0-1 0, Dwight Joar 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 16 11-18 49.

DOWLING CATHOLIC (2-0) — Mikey Chase 0 0-0 0, Sam Hughes 2 2-2 6, Ryan Riggs 6 1-5 14, Daniel Simon 1 0-0 3, Matt Riedl 7 9-10 24, Jack Groeteke 2 3-6 8, Carson Brown 0 0-0 0, Andrew Lentsch 1 1-1 3, Jaylon Mosess 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 20 16-24 60.

MHS 8 13 11 17 — 49

DOWLING 11 14 15 20 — 60

3-Point Goals–MHS 6 (Kapayou 3, Borgos 2, Greazel), Dowling 4 (Groeteke, Riggs, Daniel, Riedl). Team Fouls–MHS 20, Dowling 18. Fouled Out–Borgos.