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Boys' basketball notes: Central City's Nick Reid is the state's leading scorer
Jeff Johnson
Dec. 13, 2018 3:26 pm, Updated: Dec. 13, 2018 4:50 pm
CEDAR RAPIDS — The state's leading scorer isn't going to Ohio State. He's not going to play for his father at the University of Iowa.
He's not even in a loaded senior class full of Division I college talent.
Nick Reid is a junior, plays for little old Central City and is having a difficult time believing this all is actually happening. Surreal doesn't even begin to describe it.
'There is a lot of good talent in Iowa right now,' Reid said. 'To be on top of them, it's pretty crazy. Just being above guys like D.J. Carton, those kinds of people, it's crazy how my name is up there with them right now.'
The 6-foot-6 wing goes into his team's game Friday night against Starmont averaging 34.2 points per game, a couple more than guard Tyreke Locure of Des Moines North. Locure is headed to South Alabama.
Carton, of course, is a 5-star point guard from Bettendorf who has signed with OSU. Patrick McCaffery is a top-100 recruit headed to the Hawkeyes.
Reid isn't them, isn't playing the Class 4A competition they are. But he's outscoring them.
'Credit to my teammates,' he said. 'When I get boxed, they know how to get me the ball. They have just accepted their roles. They don't really care if they score, they just want to win. All my teammates, it's pretty cool when that happens. They don't really care if they score zero points, or five, or whatever. They just want to win.'
Central City is 5-1 despite graduating six of its top eight players from last season. A lot of the reason for that is Reid.
'He is extremely versatile,' said Wildcats Coach Tanner Carlson. 'He's a 6-6 guard, and that's kind of a matchup nightmare for a lot of the teams that we play. Being that tall, he's a very good 3-point shooter, he's got a really good pull-up jump shot, and he finishes well at the rim. He's a really good free-throw shooter, too, so he can score at all levels.'
Reid played AAU basketball for the first time last spring and summer, hooking up with the Iowa Barnstormers. Facing that kind of competition has made him a better player, he said.
He set a school record last week by piling up 57 points in a win over Midland. The craziest thing about that is he didn't score the first five minutes of the game and didn't play the last three-plus because Central City was so far ahead.
'I kept looking at the scoreboard and thinking 'Am I really this high (in scoring)?'' he said. 'It just kept going up and going up. Then I found out I had a chance to break the school record. I didn't know what the school record was, off the top of my head. One of my teammates told me.'
It was 56 points, set by a kid playing in the 1950s.
'He did all that scoring in about 2 1/2 to three quarters. That's the wildest part,' Carlson said. 'He had 24 at halftime, and I thought maybe he had like 12 or 14. It didn't seem like he had dominated the game.'
Reid said he has heard from some Division II schools and D-I The Citadel has requested tape on him. Being the state's leading scorer gets you noticed.
'Nick's a great kid. He really is,' Carlson said. 'He's a very humble kid. This is something that obviously is extremely new to him. But he's a kid that everyone in the school is pulling for.'
Oelweins naps NEIC losing streak
The Oelwein Huskies enjoying winning a Northeast Iowa Conference game so much, they went out and did it again Tuesday night. Oelwein knocked off Waukon this past Friday night, 63-54, for its first conference win in six years.
It was a 76-game losing streak. Oelwein then won Tuesday night at Decorah, 57-52, to run its NEIC 'winning' streak to two.
The Huskies are 3-1 this season, the only loss to Northeast Iowa Conference juggernaut Waverly-Shell Rock, 73-60. Their top five leading scorers are all seniors, with guard Dom Robertson averaging a team-best 19.3 points per game and center Mason Meyer next at 11.5.
Oelwein hosts Charles City on Friday night.
The return of Moses
Actually, that should be the debut of Jaylon Moses. The 6-foot-8 sophomore scored six points and had four rebounds Tuesday night for Cedar Rapids Xavier in a win over Dubuque Hempstead.
The son of former University of Iowa guard James Moses is considered a potentially high-end player who has dealt with two major knee surgeries. He likely would have played on Xavier's varsity last season as a freshman and is just getting this season started.
Xavier plays Friday night at Cedar Falls.
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