By Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

MARION – West High put on an offensive clinic in the first half against Linn-Mar on Tuesday.

The top-ranked Trojans shot 63 percent, were 5-of-8 from 3-point range and scored 40 points in the first two quarters but led by just eight points at halftime.

West High didn’t have a text book defensive performance in the second half but it was enough to put away the Lions.

Class 4A No. 1 West High (8-1) held Linn-Mar (4-4) to 1-of-9 3-point shooting after halftime and 27 second-half points to pull away for an 80-59 win in a Mississippi Valley Conference matchup at Linn-Mar.

“I thought we defended better the second half,” West High coach Steve Bergman said. “They may have scored about as many points but I thought we made them work and we were better.”

Linn-Mar had its own hot start offensively.

The Lions shot 52 percent in the opening half, including its own 5-of-8 effort from beyond the 3-point arc to stay within striking distance.

While Linn-Mar cooled off after halftime West High never did.

The Trojans scored 27 four-quarter points highlighted by a 13-2 run in the opening three minutes of the quarter that put the game away and shot 58 percent for the game.

“When they were in the zone we had open shots, when they were in man we had some sets we ran and basically everything we did we were open,” West High senior point guard Connor McCaffery said. “It just came down to scoring and we had 80 so I was happy with how we played on offense.”

Devontae Lane paced the efficient West High offensive performance with a game-high 23 points on 8-of-10 shooting.

Lane had 17 of his game-high 23 points in the first half as West High ended an efficient half of basketball for both teams with a 40-32 lead.

“He made a bunch of shots tonight,” Bergman said of Lane. “He has shot it pretty well from the perimeter all year.”

West High led 53-44 to open the fourth quarter but used its defense to salt the game away.

The Trojans forced Linn-Mar into six turnovers in the final quarter including several that led to transition baskets during a 13-3 run to start the quarter.

Evan Flitz had a 3-pointer that sparked the run and Patrick McCaffery and Seybian Sims each had conventional 3-point plays in the spurt that put West High up 55-46 with 5:12 left.

“I think it was just our defensive intensity,” Connor McCaffery said. “They shot well in that first half but they had too many open 3s. We prevented them from being so open and so comfortable on some of those 3s in the second half and that was the difference defensively for us.”

Linn-Mar finished with 27 points in the second half but had just one 3-pointer and eight turnovers after halftime.

West High held the Lions to 10 points during a seven-minute stretch from the middle of the third to middle of the fourth quarters.

“We are only going to be as good as our half court defense becomes,” Bergman said. “We show glimpses of being really good and we have glimpses of not so good. It’s just something we have to improve.”

Patrick McCaffery had 17 points and seven rebounds for West High including a trio of emphatic dunks.

Sims added 13 points and Connor McCaffery chipped in with 11 for West High.  

“I don’t know how many assists we had but this year if we score 24 baskets we have 18 assists and it looked tonight like we had a bunch of assists again,” Bergman said. “We are hard to beat if we do that. “

Linn-Mar         15  17  12  15 – 59  

West High       22  18  13  27 – 80

West High (80) – Devontae Lane 8-10 1-2 23, Evan Flitz 1-5 0-0 3, Seybian Sims 5-6 3-3 13, Jake Anderson 2-2 0-0 5, Nate Disterhoft 1-2 0-2 2, Patrick McCaffery 8-12 1-2 17, Connor McCaffery 4-11 2-3 11, Izaya Ono-Fullard 1-2 0-0 2, Hirsche Henstrom 0-1 0-0 0, Josh Van Roekel 1-2 2-2 4, Team 31-53 9-14 80.

Linn-Mar (59) – Reese Phillips 2-4 0-0 5, Jacob Robertson 1-4 0-0 3, Dylan Hand 2-4 0-0 5, Tyler Voves 3-8 0-0 6, Cole Martin 2-3 0-0 5, Nolan Ruff 2-3 3-3 8, Trey Hutcheson 4-9 2-2 11, Jack Gertsen 4-5 0-1 8, Kirby Kerr 0-1 0-0 0, Nate Annis 3-6 2-2 8, Team 23-47 7-8 59.

3-point field goals – ICW 9-16 (Lane 6-7, Flitz 1-2, Anderson 1-1, C. McCaffery 1-5, Ono-Fullard 0-1), LM 6-17 (Phillips 1-2, Robertson 1-4, Hand 1-3, Voves 0-2, Martin 1-2, Ruff 1-1, Hutcheson 1-2, Kerr 0-1). Rebounds – ICW 21 (P. McCaffery 7), LM 29 (Hutcheson 9). Turnovers – ICW 8, LM 15.  Total fouls – ICW 11, LM 16. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.