Keota’s Stout one of state’s top scoreres

CEDAR RAPIDS - JD Stout has a ton of basketball records at Keota High School, but there's one he won't get. And another he may or may not get.

Regardless, a Stout will be the record holder. They're owned by his brother.

Cole Stout made 91 3-pointers in 2016-17 for the Eagles. He attempted a whopping 246 of them, all but five of his shots that season.

That's a record anyone is going to have difficulty topping.

'Our games are kind of different,” JD Stout said. 'We both shoot the 3-ball, but I take it more to the hoop and stuff. We played a lot of one-on-one games through the years.”

Those must have been fun to watch.

Cole Stout is a student at Iowa State University now, by the way. JD is a senior point guard for the Eagles who has Keota off to a 9-1 start.

He is third in the state with a scoring average of 29.0 points per game. That's just a hair up from last season's 28.4 average.

JD Stout returns for his senior season as the Eagles' career scoring leader, career 3-point leader and season scoring record as well as a member of the school's sprint medley record team in track.

'JD came in and played his freshman year. Just a good leader,” said Keota Coach Dan Stout, JD and Cole's father. 'Basically he's just what you want as a coach and as a dad. Somebody who comes in and does exactly what you want them to do, what our team needs to do. It's just kind of like having another coach out there on the floor, which is nice. The other kids have bought into playing off of him and helping him get where he needs to be to score.

'It's been a joy. Been neat to watch his career.”

JD has 30 made treys this season in 73 attempts, so he could catch his brother there. He is 101-for-183 on all field goals for 55.2 percent, with his trey percentage at 41.1. He has made 58-of-69 free throws, a 85.3 percent clip. He averages 4.6 rebounds a game, 3.7 assists, almost two steals and just 2.8 turnovers as the team's point guard

But he's not really concerned with any of that stuff.

It's about the team. Keota's lone loss was to undefeated WACO, which is ranked No. 5 in Class 1A.

There's a big South Iowa Cedar League game Tuesday night in Keota against top-ranked Montezuma.

Montezuma's Trey Shearer (26.1 ppg) will present a challenge. Montezuma is 8-1 and unbeaten in the SICL. Keota is also unbeaten in the loop.

Keota averages 76.1 points a game and allows 49.8 while Montezuma is at 65.6 and 53.

Keota as a team shoots 50.4 percent (275-of-546) from the field, 33.8 percent on threes (70-of-207) and 66.8 on free throws while Montezuma is 55.5 percent from the field (227-of-409), 39.2 percent on threes (67-of-171) and 86.1 percent at the foul line.

Besides Shearer, who is 5-foot-10, 5-foot-10 Cole Watts (16.8), 5-foot-8 Masin Shearer (11.3) and 6-foot-4 Eddie Burges (10.0) all average double figures in scoring.

Montezuma was the SICL champion last year and finished fourth in 1A. Keota lost 83-68 to the Braves in the regular season, who finished fourth at the state tournament.

'We felt that we could play with them,” JD Stout said. 'They got some guys coming back that I'm friends with, but I think we can beat them this year.”

Offseason work was done to elevate the team to Montezuma's level and above.

'We knew we had the talent,” JD Stout said. 'It's basically the same group of guys (as last year). We worked hard in the offseason to get to where we are. Now we see ourselves as one of the top teams in the conference.”

Keota succeeds with a high-tempo offense necessitated by a lack of size. The Eagles' tallest guys are 6-foot-2 starters Brady Duwa and Wyatt Sieren.

Stout, obviously, is Keota's leading scorer. He is 6-foot tall. Guards Luke Hammen and Carson Sprouse, both 6-foot as well, also average double figures in scoring.

Stout said he wants to play college basketball and is most interested in William Penn and Briar Cliff at the moment. A southpaw, he worked hard on his off hand, which has made him even more of a weapon this season.

'That was the big key for me to take the next step to being an elite point guard,” he said. 'Just develop that right hand. That's kind of what I lacked my junior year, and that's how guys stopped me or slowed me down. In AAU ball (for the Iowa Chill), I kind of played against better competition, whereas in 1A basketball, you might not see it every night. AAU prepared me to play against taller, bigger kids. I wanted to focus on my game and develop my game. I think I've gotten better at the defensive end. And that fine-tuned some of the other aspects of my game. I've gotten better at being able to go both directions because I developed my right hand. It has just helped me develop a stronger way to finish with my right hand.”

More Iowa scoring terrors

Norwalk senior guard Bowen Born leads the state in scoring with a 39.7-point-per-game average. The Northern Iowa recruit had 49 points in a head-to-head encounter, of sorts, against Iowa State signee Xavier Foster and Oskaloosa last week.

Foster had 36 points in the game, which Norwalk won, 73-64.

Kieren Nichols of Knoxville follows Born in scoring at 29.2 points per game. Scorers three through six all are Gazette area preps: Stout, Central City's Nick Reid (28.1), Montezuma's Trey Shearer (26.1) and Iowa City Regina's Masen Miller (25.4).

Reid, a 6-foot-7 senior, leads the state in rebounding by a wide margin, averaging 19.1 a game.

Odds and ends

North Linn is the last remaining unbeaten team from the Gazette area. The Lynx are 9-0.

They are one of eight undefeated teams left in the state. The others are West Sioux, WACO, Easton Valley, Mount Ayr, Van Meter, Waukee and Camanche.

Tri-County and South Tama are the only teams from the area without a win, yet. Elkader Central picked up its first Tuesday night against Clayton Ridge, 47-39, behind freshman Dan McGreal's 19 points off the bench.