Tigers face Jefferson tonight in substate finals at McLeod Center

Meg Lane/Staff Writer

Men’s head basketball coach Tom Bardal and his boys were fired up for Friday’s 79-55 win against Waterloo East.

After East beat West on Monday, Feb. 21, stakes were high for the CF boys.

“East is a tremendous rebounding team. They’ve given us a lot of trouble in that area already this season,” Bardal said.

With a healthy team, there were minimal nerves. “We don’t have just one weapon. We rely on everybody to do the job. They all bring something different to the table,” Bardal said.
The strength on Friday came from defense. “East’s strength is their ability to get to the offensive glass. With our lack of size, it’s important we do a good job of boxing out.”

Now getting deeper into the playoffs, Bardal said they’d start thinking about the next opponent and room for improvement with State inching its way forward.

Bardal said, “Our strength has been our kids understanding what their roles are and trying to improve in the areas we need to improve in.”

The 16-5 CF team will face 17-4 Cedar Rapids Jefferson tonight in the last game before of substate to determine the winner of a trip to State.

On Jan. 12, Jefferson beat the Tigers 65-48.

The game starts at 7 p.m. at the McLeod Center. If CF wins, the team ‘s first state tournament game would be on Wednesday, March 10.