Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Emma Koch’s basketball past is filled with memories featuring Cailyn Morgan and Lauren Zacharias.

The three current West High seniors were AAU teammates in grade school, rivals in junior high and a huge part the Women of a Troy’s 5A state title run last March.

It was only fitting that Koch was flanked by Zacharias and Morgan on Wednesday as she solidified her basketball future.

All three players signed national letters of intent to continue their college basketball careers on Wednesday at West High on the opening day of the early signing period.

Koch signed with Dartmouth, Morgan with Northern Iowa and Zacharias with Division II Wayne State.

“We’ve been playing together since we were little and we have all been great friends for four years,” Koch said. “They are definitely two of my best friends so that made today really, really special to be able to share this experience with them is really special.”  

Most of Koch’s past experiences involve Morgan or Zacharias.

They all played AAU together and played against each other in some junior high battles as Koch and Morgan went to Northwest for junior high and Zacharias to North Central.

“There was one game in seventh grade between Cailyn and Lauren where the scored was like 10-8,” Koch said laughing. “It was fun. I’ve had so much fun playing basketball with those two.”
The trio had a lot of fun last season.

Each of the three averaged 9.7 or 9.8 points per game last season as West High won its first state title since 2012.

“It’s been an awesome experience with them,” Morgan said. “They are definitely some of the closest people to me on the team.”

A 5-foot-9 guard, Morgan ranked second on the team with 9.8 points per game last season.

Morgan added 3.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game a year ago and follows her siblings Jeremy and Mikaela to Northern Iowa.

“I had been around UNI pretty often with my brother and sister and what attracted me was the environment and the campus,” Morgan said. “I grew to like it a lot.”

Zacharias averaged 9.7 points and 4 assists per game last season, ranking fifth in 5A with 103 assists.

While Morgan and Zacharias are expected to take on even bigger roles this season Koch will have a much different role.

A torn ACL this fall altered the basketball present for the 5-foot-11 forward but Morgan says Koch isn’t taking this season off.

“Emma isn’t backing down,” Morgan said. “she is there to support us and to help us in any way she can. We are going to do it for each other like we always do and play together.

A three-year starter, Koch averaged 9.7 points and 6.4 rebounds per game as a junior.

Also, a two-time state doubles champion in tennis, Koch verbally committed to Dartmouth in September shortly after her season-ending knee injury.

“I definitely just got a feeling when I was out there,” Koch said. “A lot of people who had gone through the process told me I would get a feeling and I definitely got that feeling when I was out there.”

Despite the injury the goals for the season haven’t change for Koch.

“I don’t think our goals ever change,” Koch said. “As a program we definitely pride ourselves on not having that star player so when someone is out a lot of other people can step up which I definitely think we can do this year. We have a lot of younger girls who can step up.”