Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The field at the 5A state tournament last season was a rich in individual talent as any time in recent history.

Top-100 national prospects, high major college prospects and division I recruits were on display in every 5A state tournament game.

West High emerged from the talent-stacked field to claim its second state title in first since 2012.

Of all the huge starts in the loaded 5A field the one that came up the biggest was West High’s smallest starter – 5-foot-5 point guard Lauren Zacharias.

“She was phenomenal down there,” West High coach BJ Mayer. “We’d seen that from her before but she was a lot more consistent (at state) when we really needed her to be.”

In three games at the state tournament West High faced top-20 national recruits in City High’s Ashley Joens and West Des Moines Dowling point guard Caitlin Clark.

In between West High knocked off Indianola and its Division I duo of Maggie McGraw and Grace Berg.

Zacharias didn’t back down from any of the big name stars, averaging 11.3 points on 50 percent shooting and four rebounds per game in three state tournament wins.

“That has definitely boosted my confidence a lot,” Zacharias said. “I did stuff at the state tournament that I didn’t think I could do.”

West High lost some of its own star power from last year’s state title team with the graduation of Rachael Saunders and Logan Cook and a season-ending knee injury to forward Emma Koch.

That leaves Zacharias and Cailyn Morgan to handle the leadership role as West High seeks a return trip to the state tournament.

“We need her to be more of a leader this year,” Mayer said. “She has always played well, she has done a lot of good things but now she is trying to take those young kids and pull them along and that is going to be huge.”

A rare four-year starter at point guard Zacharias has been a solid varsity player since her freshman season.

Last year the state tournament offered the platform for Zacharias to prove she had ascended past that description.

On the state’s biggest stage she took advantage and now looks back at that three-game stretch as a reminder of the player she can be.

“Watching film of state and seeing what I can actually do it builds confidence,” Zacharias said. “I want to try to build off of that.”

Building off her state tournament experience means doing what Zacharias has done since she stepped on the floor as a freshman – directing traffic for the Women of Troy.

Zacharias has led West High in assists in each of her varsity season upping her single season total the last three years.

She had a career-high 103 assists last season, fifth most in Class 5A.

“She understands where the ball is supposed to be so she can get people around and in the right spots,” Mayer said. “A lot like a quarterback in football she knows where is everybody is supposed to be on every play and she has done a good job with that.”

Zacharias also knows to take her game to the next level she must improve, specifically her shooting.

Last season Zacharias show 45 percent from the floor and 36 percent from 3-point range while leading West High with 41 3-pointers.

She spent the summer in the gym working on her perimeter jump shot in an effort to expand her scoring.

“We lost Logan and we lost Rachael and that is a lot of good shooters,” Zacharias said. “I felt like I needed to improve on that especially and we have a really young team so they aren’t going to want to shoot a lot so picking up my game in that area is important for this year.”

Zacharias ranked third on the team in scoring last season averaging a career-high 9.7 points per game.

While Zacharias knows she will have an expanding scoring role this season the Wayne State signee doesn’t feel pressure to carry the team.

Instead she trusts the players around her.

“I don’t think it’s my team, West High has never been like that it’s always been about doing it together,” Zacharias said. “Me being the point guard I am the general on the floor so to speak but it’s going to have to be a team thing.”