Rogelio Ceren

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Marshalltown boys’ basketball team made a furious fourth-quarter surge that saw the Bobcats close within seven points, but Cedar Rapids Jefferson had enough of a lead to absorb the comeback attempt.

The host J-Hawks led by as many as 22 points in the third quarter as Marshalltown’s rally ran out of gas in a 52-40 loss on Monday night.

The Bobcats (6-9) never led and fell for the fourth game in a row, while Cedar Rapids Jefferson (3-12) snapped its 11-game losing skid by fighting back Marshalltown’s hard charge to start the fourth quarter.

The J-Hawks led 46-32 going into the fourth quarter before getting outscored 8-1 over the first five minutes of the final stanza. Marshalltown was within 47-40 before Jefferson regained some traction and finished off the Bobcats.

“We’ve got to be ready to play, number one,” MHS head coach Michael Appel said of his team’s early deficit. “We’ve got to give effort and understand we don’t have many games left, so it comes down to ‘do we want to do it or do we not?’ If we want to do it, we’ve gotta have purpose to us, we’ve gotta play hard and we’re doing that in spurts.

“I thought we did a better job of that in the second half, but we have to be more consistent and bring it for 32 minutes, especially when we struggle to make shots early on. That seems to affect us a lot with our overall game and we can’t let that happen.”

Cory Smith had 12 points and seven rebounds to lead the Bobcats before fouling out. Kyle Smith struggled from beyond the arc but finished with three 3-pointers and 11 points. Rogelio Ceren had eight points and seven boards while also guarding Jefferson’s leading scorer, Preston Blanchett Jr. Blanchett scored 11 points while Avonus Hodges led the J-Hawks with 18 points.

“I thought ‘Ro’ was great tonight with how hard he played,” Appel said. “You could tell he really wanted to win and he was locked in every possession to do that. He had a tough task guarding number 10 (Blanchett), that’s their best player and he did a good job on him tonight so we’re really proud of him and his effort.”

Marshalltown finished 4-for-19 from 3-point range in the loss and also committed 13 turnovers. The Bobcats get a chance to end their recent losing streak with Tuesday’s home game against Ottumwa.

Cedar Rapids Jefferson 52, Marshalltown 40

MARSHALLTOWN (6-9) — Carter Giannetto 0 2-2 2, Treshaun Brooks 2 1-2 5, Kyle Smith 4 0-0 11, Cory Smith 6 0-0 12, Rogelio Ceren 3 1-2 8, Jacob Hayes 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 16 4-6 40.

CR JEFFERSON (3-12) — Avonus Hodges 9 0-0 18, Preston Blanchett Jr. 3 3-4 11, Simon Ntitetereza 0 0-0 0, Dayten Guy 2 0-1 4, Deavion Crowder 2 0-0 4, Eric Smith 0 1-4 1, Tyler Huston 1 0-0 2, Jeremiah Peiffer 0 2-2 2, LJ Nyenow Jr. 0 0-1 0, Jamie Kaiser 2 0-0 4, Khai Gatewood 2 1-1 6, Austin Wilcox 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 21 7-13 52.

MHS 11 7 14 8 — 32

CR JEFFERSON 15 18 13 6 — 52

3-Point Goals–MHS 4 (K. Smith 3, Ceren), CR Jefferson 3 (Blanchett Jr. 2, Gatewood). Team Fouls–MHS 11, CR Jefferson 11. Fouled Out–C. Smith. Technical Foul–MHS coach Appel.