West Branch junior Tatum KoenigBy Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – There is no good time for a team to experience a bad shooting night.

West Branch couldn’t have picked a worse time for its toughest shooting performance of the season.

The Bears shot just 26 percent from the field, including 5-of-20 from 3-point range on Friday in a 61-45 loss to Class 3A No. 9 Monticello in a River Valley Conference cross-divisional matchup of unbeaten teams.

“I felt alright at halftime we were just missing some shots in the first half,” West Branch coach Jarod Tylee said. “Then in then in the second half we continued to miss shots and we turned it over a few times and that’s something that we have to limit too.”

Lauren Ries scored 16 of her game-high 28 points in the second quarter as Monticello (3-0) turned a two-point cushion into an eight-point halftime lead.

Ries hit four 3-pointers in the first five minutes of the quarter to give Monticello a 24-15 lead it would never give up.

West Branch (2-1) got as close as 26-22 on an Abby Knoop layup with 2:02 left in the opening half but the Panthers closed the half with four straight points on a steal and layup by Ries and a Rylee Warthen basket.

“Ries hurt us a lot,” Knoop said. “She hit some 3s that got them the lead and we just weren’t getting shots to fall.”

West Branch trailed 30-22 at the half but 24 percent second-half shooting prevented the Bears from cutting into the deficit.

Monticello opened the second half on a 6-0 run that featured four points from Ries to take it’s biggest lead of the game at 36-22.

“We gave them some easy baskets to start the third quarter,” Tylee said. “That’s kind of where they opened it up a little bit and we just couldn’t find or way back in.”

Ries finished 11-of-15 from the field as Monticello shot 50 percent from the floor.

The 5-foot-10 junior was 4-of-8 from beyond the 3-point line with all four of those triples coming in that five-minute span in the second quarter.

“We got mixed up on their screens and we were trying to do a zone defense and we got mixed up with her,” West Branch sophomore Abbey Fryauf said. “We aren’t quite used to each other yet and we just need to communicate a little more.”

Tatum Koenig led West Branch with 18 points while Haley Mullinnix added 14 for the Bears which lost for the first time after back-to-back wins over Durant and Wilton to open the season.

Paige Miller added six points and Knoop had five points and five rebounds.

“Their effort, if we are down two or down 16 their effort is there,” Tylee said. “That’s the most important thing, I just think we need to be a little tougher around the basket and that will come with experience.”

West Branch  9  13  8  15 – 45
Monticello    11 19 13 18 – 61

West Branch (45) – Abbey Fryauf 1-6 0-0 2, Riley Vaughan 0-1 0-0 0, Paige Miller 3-6 0-0 6, Abby Knoop 2-4 1-1 5, Tatum Koenig 7-23 3-4 18, Allie Waterman 0-1 0-0 0, Haley Mullinnix 4-16 2-2 14, Claire Bridges 0-6 0-0 0, Mackenzie Heise 0-2 0-0 0, Team 17-65 6-7 45.

Monticello (61) – Caitlyn Cruise 0-0 0-1 0, Taylor McDonald 2-8 7-8 11, Jacqueline Petersen 0-2 0-0 0, Shay Stephen 2-6 0-0 4, Madison Lambert 2-4 0-0 4, Rylee Warthen 2-3 0-2 4, Madison Fellinger 1-1 0-0 2, Jordan Kuper 3-6 2-3 8, Lauren Ries 11-15 2-3 28, Carly Hayen 0-1 0-0 0, Team 23-46 11-17 61.

3-point field goals – WB 5-20 (Miller 0-2, Koenig 1-8, Mullinnix 4-10) MON McDonald 0-3, Stephen 0-3, Lambert 0-1, Ries 4-8). Rebounds – WB 36 (Koenig, Fryauf 7) MON 36 (Ries 7). Turnovers – WB 11, MON 17. Total fouls – WB 15, MON 9. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.