Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – West High used its roster depth and scoring balance to build a double digit first-half lead against cross-town rival City High.

With the game on the line it was the two standout seniors that took over for the Trojans.

Audrey Koch and Matayia Tellis combined for 18 fourth-quarter points as Class 5A fourth-ranked West High pulled away late for a 75-63 win over eighth-ranked City High in the season opener for both teams at West High.

“We had a lot of people making plays but Audrey and I wanted to step up in that fourth quarter,” Tellis said. “As seniors that’s when we have to be leaders.”

Koch had 11 of her team-high 20 points in the fourth quarter and Tellis hit all three of her fourth-quarter shots as West High (1-0) avenged a pair of regular season losses to City High last season.

Tellis and Koch combined for 16 points during a 20-3 West High run in the fourth quarter that turned a three-point deficit into a 71-57 Trojan lead.

“We just challenged them with on defense,” West High coach BJ Mayer said. “We don’t want to give up that many points ever and I thought we could have been a lot better than that but in that run we were pretty good defensively and got some steals and run outs.”

City High (0-1) got 30 points from sophomore standout Kelsey Joens and 15 from Eviyon Richardson but committed 22 turnovers including five in the fourth quarter, three of which led to easy baskets for West High in transition.

After City High erased a 10-point halftime deficit with a 24-point third quarter West High held the Little Hawks to seven points in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter while putting the game away.

“Mayer took a time out in the fourth quarter and got us going a little,” Koch said. “We all just picked up the energy on defense and that was a big part of it.”

West High led 14-9 after one quarter and pushed the lead to 38-28 at the half.

Koch played sparingly in the first half after picking up two quick fouls and had just five points at the half.

In her absence City High got contributions from everywhere.

Emma Ingersoll-Weng, Meena Tate and Jenna Saunders combined 16 first-half points while Tellis had 12 at the break.

“We have some new girls and some girls back from injuries so it was so awesome to see them doing so well,” Koch said. “It’s definitely not fun to be in foul trouble but the team did amazing when I was.”

It took City High less six minutes in the second half to erase that deficit.

Joens scored 12 of her game-high 30 in the third quarter and gave the Little Hawks a 52-51 lead entering the fourth with a pull-up jumper to end the quarter.

“We were cutting harder, we found the open person and we just made shots,” Joens said. We took it up a notch.”

City High led 54-51 when Ella Cook connected up a jumper 33 seconds into the fourth quarter.

It was all West High the rest of the way.

The Trojans scored 10 straight points to take a 61-54 lead and after a Joens jumper the Trojans scored 10 of the next 11 points pushing the margin to 14.

Tellis and Koch combined to score 12 straight at one point during the 20-5 burst that spanned four minutes.

“City High is a great team so we knew they were going to come out fighting even though we had the lead at the half,” Koch said. “Everyone did a great job whether it was scoring or just getting a steal so someone could get a shot up or pushing the ball and playing really good defense.”

Tellis finished with 19 points while Ingersoll-Weng had 12 and Tate added 11 for West High which shot 47 percent from the field and committed just seven turnovers in its opener.

“That’s how we play, we traditionally don’t have stars but we have a lot of players that contribute and fill their role,” Mayer said. “We had four in double figures tonight and that’s how we want to play.”

City High         9   19  24  11  –  63

West High      14  24  13  24  –  75

City High (63) – Georgia Kimm 3-8 0-0 7, Kelsey Joens 10-19 7-8 30, Eviyon Richardson 4-10 6-10 15, Andie Westlake 2-2 2-2 7, Ella Cook 2-8 0-0 4, Kacie Earl 0-2 0-0 0, Totals 21-49 15-20 75.

West High (75) – Lucy Wolf 1-2 0-0 3, Matayia Tellis 8-12 1-2 19, Emma Ingersoll-Weng 3-10 6-8 12, Meena Tate 5-12 0-0 11, Jenna Saunders 2-5 0-0 6, Melae’ Lacy 1-2 1-2 4, Audrey Koch 7-13 4-7 20, Anna Prouty 0-2 0-0 0, Totals 27-58 12-19 75.

3-point field goals – ICH 6-20 (Kimm 1-5, Joens 3-8, Richardson 1-3, Andie Westlake 1-1, Ella Cook 0-3), ICW 9-29 (Wolf 1-2, Tellis 2-4, Ingersoll-Weng 0-6, Tate 1-6, Saunders 2-5, Lacy 1-1, Koch 2-4, Prouty 0-1). Rebounds – ICH 39 (Westlake 7, Cook 7), ICW 24 (Tate, Koch 5). Turnovers – ICH 22, ICW 7. Total fouls – ICH 13, ICW 15. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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