Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – There seems to be one overriding approach in recent defensive game plans for West High opponents – don’t let Even Brauns beat us.

Liberty High executed part of that plan on Friday night holding Brauns to a season-low four points on just four field goal attempts.  

The rest of the Trojans made sure that wasn’t enough to score an upset.

Tate Crane scored a game-high 16 points and Christian Barnes came off the bench to add 13 as Class 4A third-ranked West High stretched its winning streak to seven with a 49-30 win over Liberty High in North Liberty.

“We know that we have guys that can make shots its just having confidence and knocking them down,” Crane said. “Once we get a little confidence and a little swagger we kind of got going in the second half.”

West High broke open a one-point halftime game with a 19-point third quarter while improving to 10-1 on the season.

Crane made all six of his second-half field goal attempts, scoring 12 of his game-high 16 in the second half as West High shot 65 percent from the field in the second half.

Barnes knocked down a pair of second-half 3-pointers while scoring eight of his 13 points in the final two quarters.

“We missed a few layups in the first half and we didn’t make any 3s and the second half we made the layups and we made a few 3s and of course we forced some turnovers that we converted on which we only did once in the first half,” West High coach Steve Bergman said. “Our feeling was that we could turn them over and when we did the second half we turned those into layups.”

On Monday, Linn-Mar sagged two and three players into the lane in an attempt to slow Brauns while daring the rest of the Trojans to shoot from the perimeter and West High obliged going 2-of-14 from 3-point range.

Liberty High (6-4) sent a hard double team at the 6-foot-9 senior center on every post touch on Friday succeeding in slowing his offensive production but the rest of the Trojans made plays.

“I don’t think we executed the full plan,” Liberty High coach Stu Ordman said. “West made a nice adjustment the second half so we called for an adjustment and we didn’t execute that at all. We have to be able to make game adjustments and we have to be able to execute what we want to do in intense games. The secret to that is being able to do it in practice.”

West High took a 16-15 halftime lead on a Barnes 3-pointer with 68 seconds left in the half.

The Trojans held a slim 26-22 lead after Andre Brandon hit a 17-foot jumper with 3:46 left in the third quarter.

West High has relied on its defense all season and used that same formula to get some separation before the fourth quarter.

The Trojans forced seven third-quarter Liberty High turnovers with Crane scoring on back-to-back layups off turnovers to spark a 9-2 spurt to end the quarter.

“It was a big point for us in the second half, denying and getting tips and run outs and that was a big key for us,” West High senior point guard Joey Goodman said. “That really gave us a lift.”

Liberty High shot 45 percent for the game but attempted only 29 field goals including just 12 in the second half.

The 30 points were a season low for the Lightning which committed 15 turnovers and were just 1-of-7 from 3-point range and 3-of-8 from the free throw line.

“We are what we are,” Bergman said. “We aren’t pretty, I hope we guard well most nights.”

West High put the game out of reach going 4-of-5 from the field and 5-of-5 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter.

“It’s really just shooters having confidence,” West High senior point guard Joey Goodman said. “Christian stepped up and made some big shots for us tonight, Tate made plays and then our defense turned into some offense for us and that was big for us.”

Brandon led Liberty High with 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting and Sam Funke added six points.

“We can’t have one really good practice and then one that is so-so or isn’t very good, you aren’t able to beat teams that have lost one or two games all season that way,” Ordman said. “We can but it’s going to be up to our guys to decide that they are going to practice harder and focus in. I like our guys I believe that this is a real wakeup call for them.”

West High                  11  5  19  14  –  49

Liberty High               11  4   9    6   –  30

West High (49) – Christian Barnes 4-6 2-2 13, Tate Crane 8-10 0-0 16, Joey Goodman 2-3 0-0 4, Nick Pepin 0-4 2-2 2, Mikey Crutcher 0-0 2-2 2, Ben Vander Leest 3-7 1-1 8, Andrew Tauchen 0-2 0-0 0, Even Brauns 2-4 0-0 4, Team 19-36 7-7 49.

Liberty High (30) – Ira Hazeltine 0-2 1-2 1, Sam Funke 3-8 0-0 6, Basil Aldoss 1-4 1-2 4, Colin Shults 0-1 0-2 0, Kelby Telander 2-2 1-2 5, Ethan O’Donnell 2-4 0-0 4, Ben Houselog 0-2 0-0 0, Andre Brandon 5-6 0-0 10, Team 13-29 3-8 30.

3-point field goals – ICW 4-13 (Barnes 3-4, Goodman 0-1, Pepin 0-2, Vander Leest 1-4, Tauchen 0-2), ICL 1-7 (Hazeltine 0-1, Funke 0-1, Aldoss 1-2, O’Donnell 0-1, Houselog 0-1, Brandon 0-1). Rebounds – ICW 24 (Brauns 6), ICL 15 (Houselog 4). Turnovers – ICW 11, ICL 15. Total fouls – ICW 15, ICL 10. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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