Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – In a week that features four consecutive road games any game that is only a few miles up the road is considered a ‘home’ game.

And any win is a good win.

Well-traveled West High took advantage of a rare game close to home during a hectic week of travel catching its breath with a 63-44 win at Liberty High on Friday.

“It was nice to have a game that was at least close to home,” West High senior Koch said. “It was kind of a little break in the travel and I thought we played pretty well.”

Koch had a game-high 24 points and seven rebounds as West High (7-5) rebounded from a 19-point loss at Class 5A No. 8 Waterloo West on Tuesday.

The Women of Troy wrap up their four-game in six day road stretch that started with a win at Linn-Mar on Monday with a Saturday trip to No. 13 West Des Moines Valley (7-7) for its second back-to-back games of the week.

“You throw four road games in a week and you are going to Linn-Mar and Waterloo and Valley those are some pretty good trips,” West High coach BJ Mayer said. “Obviously we’d like to be a little better than we are in those games but it kind of prepares you for down the stretch.”

West High scored the first eight points of the game, led 12-2 less than five minutes in and never trailed on Friday but couldn’t quite shake Liberty High (1-11) until the final four minutes.

The Lightning got as close as six in the third quarter at 39-33 on a Sam McPherson 3-pointer but Koch scored nine of her game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter as West High put the game away.

“I think we are finally starting to see it click and understand what it takes to compete against varsity teams,” Liberty High coach Jamie Brandt said. “I am super proud of our kids. That 8-0 start killed us and we’ve got to find a way to start better, but it was closer than the scoreboard and we didn’t give up at all so I am proud of our girls.”

Matayia Tellis had nine of her 15 points in the opening half as West High built a 12-point halftime cushion.

West High opened the second quarter with an 8-0 run, holding Liberty High scoreless for more than five minutes to start the quarter.

Liberty High managed just five second-quarter points on 1-of-11 shooting.

“I was really pleased tonight,” Mayer said. “It was a really emotional game, they were really fired up and ready to go and I liked how we started, I didn’t like how we came out of the locker room but then we finished outstanding.”

Liberty High got going offensively after halftime, cutting the West High in half in the opening five minutes of the third quarter.

The Lightning trailed just 39-33 when McPherson hit her first of two 3-pointers with 3:27 left in the third quarter.  

McPherson and freshman Keiko Ono-Fullard each had 12 points to lead Liberty High while Isabel Smith had seven points and nine rebounds and freshman Kennedy Daugherty had seven points and five boards.

“A lot of our young kids haven’t seen the varsity level very much,” Printy said. “I think our whole team is getting more confident and that’s what we tell them is no matter what the record is as long as we keep improving its going to come.”

West High responded with an 8-2 run to push the lead back to 12 and never let the margin shrink to single digits again.

Koch scored the first seven West High points of the fourth quarter to put the game away.

“Coach Mayer does a great job of putting us in the best position to be effective,” Koch said. “We don’t normally do a lot of ball screens but we did a little bit more because those were effective tonight.”

West High can now turn it’s attention to West Des Moines Dowling before returning home for a pair of games next week.

“We just have to keep our minds straight,” Tellis said. “We are playing four games in a row, we are tired but we just have to think about the things that we need to do and go out and give it our all.

West High                  18  11  18  16  –  63

Liberty High              12   5   19   8   –  44

West High (63) – Matayia Tellis 7-18 0-1 15, Cora Saunders 0-1 3-4 3, Liv Williams 3-5 2-2 8, Meena Tate 3-8 1-2 7, Grace Schneider 1-3 0-0 2, Jenna Saunders 1-4 1-2 4, Audrey Koch 9-16 5-6 24, Team 24-55 12-17 63.

Liberty High (44) – Avery Gaudet 0-7 0-0 0, Isabel Smith 2-9 3-5 7, Kennedy Daugherty 2-6 3-4 7, Sam McPherson 3-8 4-5 12, Ava Meyer 2-3 0-0 4, Keiko Ono-Fullard 4-8 3-4 12, Haley Napoli 1-5 0-0 2, Team 14-46 13-18 44. 

3-point field goals – ICW 3-16 (Tellis 1-6, C. Saunders 0-1, Williams 0-1, Tate 0-3, J. Saunders 1-2, Koch 1-3), ICL 3-20 (Gaudet 0-4, Smith 0-1, Daugherty 0-2, McPherson 2-7, Ono-Fullard 1-4, Napoli 0-2). Rebounds – ICW 36 (Koch 7), ICL 35 (Smith 9). Turnovers – ICW 11, ICL 19. Total fouls – ICW 16, ICL 19. Fouled out – ICL (Ono-Fullard). Technical fouls – None.

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