West High junior Logan CookBy Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – West High didn’t play poorly in the first half against Cedar Rapids Kennedy on Tuesday night.

The Women of Troy forced 15 Cougar turnovers and built a 10-point halftime lead.

Still, something was missing for West High during the first two quarters.

“The first half we didn’t have that much energy,” West High senior guard Maddie Huinker said. “We didn’t have that aggression to get the ball.”

It didn’t take long for West High to find that energy in the second half.

Class 4A seventh-ranked West High opened the third quarter on a 10-0 run and never let Kennedy get closer than 12 points the rest of the way in a 57-45 Mississippi Valley Conference win over the Cougars at West High.

Junior Logan Cook scored six of her team-high 19 points during the 10-0 spurt to open the third quarter as West High improved to 4-0 on the season and 3-0 in MVC play.

“Coach just told us that something had to change because we were kind of struggling early,” Cook said. “He told us we had to pick it up and start playing better and I think that’s what we did.”

Cook led four West High players in double figures as Huinker had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds and Rachael Saunders and Emma Koch each added 10 points.

Cook and Saunders both had transition layups following Kennedy turnovers during the 10-0 run to open the third quarter.

Saunders and Cook combined for 17 of West High’s 26 second-half points as the Women of Troy put the game out of reach.

“We got out and ran and we got some layups in transition,” West High coach BJ Mayer said. “We do struggle a little bit on offense and I thought we were able to get some touches to Logan and we were able to get to the rim rather than settling for jump shots.

West High jumped to a 12-5 lead less than four minutes into the game when sophomore Lauren Zacharias completed a conventional three-point play.

Kennedy outscored West High 12-5 over the next six minutes, tying the game at 17 on a 3-pointer by Hailey Dolphin with 6:00 left in the second quarter.

“We were coming in 3-0 and I think we underestimated Kennedy,” Huinker said. “They came out and played really well.”

Cook scored seven straight points to snap the 17-all tie and put West High in front for good.
The Trojans closed the half on a 14-4 run as Emma Koch hit a bucket with four seconds left in the first half to give West High a 31-21 lead.

West High only needed four minutes to double that lead.

Cook opened the second half with a layup and West High held the Cougars scoreless for four minutes while pushing the lead to 41-21.

“We talked in the halftime locker room about getting a stop and scoring, getting a stop and scoring and see how long we could do that,” Mayer said. “I think we went three minutes and it went from 10 to 20.”

Kennedy got as close as 48-36 on a free throw by Madison Friauf with 4:41 left but West High answered with a 9-3 run sparked by back-to-back baskets by Cook and Huinker.

“I think we just had more energy,” Huinker said. “We were able to force some turnovers in the second half with our press and we’ve been working on that but we just realized going into the second half that we had to pick it up.”

West High     15 16 17   9 – 57
CR Kennedy 12  9  10 14 – 45

West High (57) – Cailyn Morgan 1-3 0-0 3, Lauren Zacharias 1-5 1-1 3, Ali Tauchen 0-1 2-2 2, Rachael Saunders 3-10 3-3 10, Katie McGrane 0-1 0-0 0, Maddie Huinker 4-12 1-1 10, Logan Cook 8-14 2-2 19, Emma Koch 4-8 2-3 10, Team 21-54 11-12 57.

Cedar Rapids Kennedy (45) – Hailey Dolphin 6-16 6-7 20, Madison Friauf 1-2 3-4 6, Sadie Powell 0-1 0-0 0, Tessa Steffen 2-4 0-0 5, Olivia Hellweg 2-3 0-0 6, Auddie Alepra 4-10 0-1 8, Team 15-36 9-12 45.

3-point field goals – ICW 4-16 (Morgan 1-2, Zacharias 0-1, Saunders 1-5, McGrane 0-1, Huinker 1-6, Cook 1-1) CRK 6-14 (Dolphin 2-7, Friauf 1-2, Steffen 1-2, Hellweg 2-2, Alepra 0-1). Rebounds – ICW 37 (Huinker 10) CRK 21 (Dolphin 7). Turnovers – ICW 19, CRK 24. Total Fouls – ICW 16, CRK 10. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.