Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – You never know what to expect at a City-West matchup, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that a freshman seemingly came out of nowhere to help carry the Little Hawks to a 64-57 overtime victory Friday at City High.

Freshman Eviyon Richardson scored a total of three points in City’s first two games but scored a game-high 20 against the Women of Troy.

“I knew in practice, ‘Oh, it’s going to be a fun night tonight,’” Richardson said. “And it just kept on going.”

She made all five of her first-half shots, including three 3-pointers, and hit what turned out to be the winning three in overtime.

 “Oooo I was praying; I was praying it went in,” she said of the shot. “I had faith though that we were going to get it. If I didn’t make it I was going to try to rebound it or get a defensive stop.”

 “(West coach) B.J. (Mayer) told me, ‘Who’s that Evy Richardson? I didn’t even know who she was,’” City coach Bill McTaggart said. “I told her in the locker room ‘Eviyon Richardson, welcome to City High girls basketball.’”

With the game tied at 54 heading to overtime, West High took a 55-54 lead when Lauren Zacharias made one of two foul shots.

Paige Rocca answered with a 3-pointer to give City High the lead.

Zacharias tied the game on a drive with 1:45 left.  Then Richardson swished her fourth three of the game, prompting a deafening roar from the standing-room only crowd.

 “I knew it was going to go in,” Rocca said. “She had been shooting well in warm-ups. We told her before the game, ‘It’s going to be a hard game. There are a lot of people here, and she’s going to be nervous, but she’s just got to shoot and trust herself. She got it, and it looked good right from the release.”

West High didn’t score again despite getting six shots in three separate possessions. City High iced the game with two free throws each from Aubrey Joens and Rocca.
 

City High led by 10 at halftime on 14-of-29 shooting. But City High point guard Rose Nkumu had four fouls.

McTaggart gambled by putting Nkumu in for the final 35 seconds of the first half even though she had three fouls. She picked up her fourth on a charging call, and McTaggart was chagrined.

“That was the dumbest coaching move I’ve ever done in the first half,” he said. “I told the girls, ‘No shot.’ We just wanted to hold on to the ball.  When Rose picked up her fourth I thought that was a killer.”

West High was troubled with first-half turnovers but made 11-of-24 shots and was led by Audrey Koch’s 14 points.

Both teams made adjustments.

McTaggart assigned sophomore Ella Cook to Koch, and she held her to one basket and four points total in the second half.

“She was playing as well as anybody on their team, and I told that to Ella,” McTaggart said. “I thought Ella did a nice job defensively on her.”

“They went to that 1-3-1, and we just couldn’t get her open,” Mayer said.

But Mayer unleashed a full-court press to begin the second half, and it produced a 12-0 run to give the Trojans the lead 38-36. McTaggart expected as much, especially with Nkumu on the bench.

“Rose is a heck of a ball-handler, and when you lose your best ball-handler, we were trying to make somebody else handle it,” Mayer said. “We were able to get some steals, some quick shots. Eviyon cooled down a bit from the first half, and we were able to get some transition buckets.”

From that point on it was anybody’s game.

“We just kept our energy going on a positive note,” Richardson said. “We just never dropped our heads down. It was fun.”

No. 2 City High improved to 3-0; No. 6 West High is 3-1.

This game did not count in the Mississippi Valley Conference standings. The next one, Jan. 31 at West High, will be an MVC game.

Koch led West with 18 points. Zacharias had 14 and Cailyn Morgan 12. Rocca and Richardson had 20 for City, and Joens added 16.

These games are always emotional and this one was no different.

Rocca sported a statement on the inside of her arm: “279 days.” That was the last time the two teams met when West won in the 5A state championship game in Des Moines.

 “We had a fire burning in our stomach,” she said.

West High (57) – Cailyn Morgan 4-14 3-5 12, Matayia Tellis 1-6 2-24, Lauren Zacharias 6-14 2-5 14, Sydney Allen 2-7 0-0 4, Audrey Koch 8-18 2-6 18, Avery Vest 0-1 0-0 0, Grace Schneider 2-5 0-0 5, Totals 23-65 11-18 57.

City High (64) – Rose Nkumu 3-10 2-3 8, Eviyon Richardson 8-13 0-0 20, Ella Cook 1-7 0-0 3, Aubrey Joens 5-18 4-5 16, Andie Westlake 0-1 0-0 0, CeCe Kelly-Harvey 0-0 0-0 0, Team 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 25-60 8-10 64

West High      14  12  14  14   3  –  57

City High       15  21   7   11  10  – 64

3-point goals – ICH 11-29 (Nkumu 0-2, Richardson 4-6, Cook 1-3, Rocca 4-8, Joens 2-9, Westlake 0-1), ICW  2-16 (Morgan 1-4, Tellis 0-2, Zacharias 0-3, Koch 0-3, Vest 0-1, Schneider 1-3). Total fouls – ICH 18, ICW 16. Fouled out – ICW (Sydney Allen).