Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WASHINGTON – A West Branch team filled with good shooters hasn’t always shot the ball well from the perimeter through the first 23 games of the season.

When it needed it most, when the stakes were the highest and the pressure was on West Branch came up with one of its best shooting performances of the season.

Class 2A sixth-ranked West Branch went 8-of-17 from 3-point range on Wednesday and rolled to a 58-38 win over No. 9 Van Buren (21-4) in the Region 6 title game in Washington.

“I think everybody kind of that that feeling that they were going to start falling we just had to keep taking them because that’s our best offense,” West Branch junior Sasha Koenig said. “Our coaches just kept telling us to keep shooting with confidence. We stayed after practice every single day and shot and shot and shot to build that confidence up so it was only a matter of time.”

Koenig hit 4-of-5 from 3-point range on her way to a team-high 19 points and Taylor Thein and Taya Young each hit a pair of triples and scored in double figures as West Branch returned to the state tournament for the third time in program history and first since 2016.

West Branch (21-3) will face fifth-ranked Osage (22-2) in the opening round of the Class 2A state tournament on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

“I don’t want to say this was the complete expectation but we had high expectations for ourselves this season,” West Branch coach Jarod Tylee said. “We expected to be at this point and to play a good team tonight and see what happened. I just couldn’t be any more proud of them.”

West Branch hit eight 3-pointers in its postseason opener and nine in a 40-point semifinal win over Wapello but needed 26 and 29 attempts from deep to reach those totals.

On Wednesday the Bears were dialed in from deep from the outset.

“I think it’s just confidence and we stepped up,” Koenig said. “I think we just understood how big the game was.”

West Branch never trailed on Wednesday, scoring the first four points and then using the deep ball to put the game away.

The Bears went 4-of-7 from 3-point range in the second half with Koenig knocking down all three of her second-half attempts from beyond the arc.

West Branch shot 44 percent from the field as a team against a Van Buren team that had allowed more than 51 points once all season.

“After practice we have been shooting,” Young said. “Everyone is staying after practice and getting up extra shots, it’s just practicing and making sure those shots come easy for us.”

West Branch led 11-6 after one quarter before and 20-11 midway through the second after a Young 3-pointer.

Taryn Scheuermann did her best to keep Van Buren in the game in the first half, scoring all 11 of the Warriors’ second quarter points on her way to a game-high 20.

It wasn’t nearly enough.

Six straight points by the 6-foot-3 Scheuermann cut the West Branch lead to 20-17 with 2:32 left in the first half but West Branch scored the final five points of the half to take a 25-17 halftime lead.

Young hit a 3-pointer with 23 seconds left to cap the first half scoring.

“That was definitely our plan was to pull them away from the basket,” Young said. “We had good ball movement and we hit shots.”

Van Buren would never get closer than seven points in the second half.

Koenig and Thein each had 3-pointers in the third quarter and Koenig hit back-to-back deep 3s to start the fourth that put the Bears up 43-29 with 6:03 to play.

“After practice last night we go to team dinner and I look back in the gym and all five of the guards in our rotation are putting themselves through a shooting workout,” Tylee said. “It’s a credit to them, they have put in the time and they continue to put in the time and it’s paying off.”

Scheuermann made her final six shots of the first half and had 13 points at the half but managed just seven points on 3-of-6 shooting in the final two quarters.

West Branch used its full-court trapping defense to force the Warriors into 18 turnovers and Kaiya Luneckas, Delaynie Luneckas and Mackenzie Heise took turns battling Scheuermann in the paint.

“I was excited for the challenge but had a little bit of nerves we just worked on doubling down on her and helping whenever we could,” Luneckas said. “We wanted to have a good game plan against a player that is as good as she is.”

West Branch secured its first trip to the state meet since 2016 by hitting 13-of-17 fourth-quarter free throws.

Young finished with 15 points while Thein had 10 and Kaiya Luneckas had seven rebounds.

“It feels amazing,” Young said. “I’ve dreamed of this my whole life so I can’t thank our coaches enough.”

West Branch             11  14  12  21  –  58

Van Buren                  6   11  12   9   –  38

West Branch (58) – Mackenzie Heise 1-3 1-2 3, Delanie Luneckas 1-4 1-2 3, Sasha Koenig 6-12 3-4 19, Rylan Druecker 0-4 2-4 2, Kaiya Luneckas 2-2 0-1 4, Taylor Thein 2-6 4-4 10, Taya Young 4-6 0-0 15, Abbie Waterman 1-1 0-0 2, Totals 17-39 16-23 58.

Van Buren (38) – Ella Jirak 0-1 0-0 0, Chloe Davidson 0-2 1-2 1, Madison Bartholomew 1-7 4-4 6, Grace Davidson 1-3 0-2 2, Salena Sayre 0-1 0-0 0, Lexi Jirak 1-1 0-0 3, Isabel Manning 3-12 0-1 6, Taryn Scheuermann 9-14 2-4 20, Totals 15-41 7-13 38.

3-point field goals – WB 8-17 (Peak 0-1, Koenig 4-5, Druecker 0-3, Young 2-3, Thein 2-5), VB 1-10 (E. Jirak 0-1, C. Davidson 0-1, Bartholomew 0-3, G. Davidson 0-1, L. Jirak 1-1, Manning 0-3). Rebounds – WB 25 (Luneckas 7), VB 30 (Scheuermann 9). Turnovers – WB 12, VB 18. Total fouls – WB 16, VB 18. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – Van Buren Bench

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