Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports  

IOWA CITY – Pete Moe is relatively new to the City High and West High rivalry.

It certainly hasn’t taken Moe long to get up to speed.

Moe poured in a game-high 30 points in his second career game against City High leading West High to a 75-62 win over the Little Hawks in a fast-pace matchup on Friday in front of a boisterous crowd at City High.

“It’s a lot of fun playing in this game,” Moe said. “Where I came from (in Indiana) I went to a private school and we didn’t have a rivalry like this but they are a great team and they are fun to play against and it was a great game.”

Moe moved to Iowa City from Indiana shortly before the start of last season and quickly got introduced to the Trojans’ cross town rival.

In his first game in a West High jersey Moe put up 41 points and 12 boards in a 77-71 loss to City High in the season opener.

Moe may have been even better in his cross-town encore on Friday hitting 11-of-12 field goal attempts and going 7-of-7 from the line to go with five boards as West High improved to 5-0.

“There as a lot of energy, it’s a big game anytime we play them,” Moe said. “I hit an early three and had some drives and got my points early and then they started focusing more on me and I just trusted my teammates and got them the ball and they did a great job of scoring.”

City High (3-2) came out swinging in its first game against West High in its new arena racing to a 9-0 lead in the opening 61 seconds.

Shamar Benton scored eight seconds in, TaeVeon Stevens hit an NBA-range 3-pointer, Jay Kennedy had a put back and Stevens a steal and layup that forced a West High time with 6:59 left in the opening quarter.

The strong start from City High wasn’t a surprise to Moe or the Trojans.

“We knew that was going to happen because they were at home and they had the big crowd and energy and every game we play against them is a big one,” Moe said. “We knew they were going to jump on us early and we just had to keep our cool and play our game and we did and that’s why we came out on top. They are a good team though.”

West High responded by scoring the next 14 points, 11 coming from Moe, and never trailed again.

The Trojans closed led 39-29 at the half thanks to a 9-0 second-quarter run fueled by a pair of Moe dunks and kept City High at arms length the rest of the way.

The Little Hawks got as close as 41-37 on a Benton two-handed slam two minutes into the second half but would get no closer.

“We were really good for about 70 percent of it and when we were bad we were just doing some stuff we shouldn’t do,” West High coach Steve Bergman said. “The atmosphere maybe led to that a little bit we have a freshman and two sophomores and a couple of juniors that haven’t played very much so we are pretty inexperienced but we battled.”

City High cut a 15-point lead to seven at 69-62 on a three-pointer by freshman Trey Wright with 2:11 left but Jack McCaffery answered with a triple just 20 seconds later and Moe added a conventional three-point play.

Only five players scored for West High but four were in double figures as sophomore Jacob Koch had 16, McCaffery had 14 and Kareem Earl added 10.

It’s nice being able to have everybody score,” Koch said. “We have two 6-foot-8 guys that can both score, Pete inside is amazing, Kareem is such a good slasher and Savion is a great shooter.”

West High shot 66 percent from the field on Friday, went 7-of-8 from the free throw line and had six three-pointers.

Koch was 7-of-8 from the floor, McCaffery hit his final six shots after missing his first four and Earl was 5-of-9.

West High shot 70 percent in the second half.

“I think our nerves settled down a little bit and we were able to execute what we wanted to do,” Koch said. “We just relaxed.”

Jamari Newson led City High with 18 points while Stevens had 14 for the Little Hawks.

City High outrebounded West High 38-23, had 25 offensive rebounds and forced the Trojans into 17 turnovers but shot just 38 percent from the field.

“For me it’s do the best we can and get to the break where we have five or six or seven practices because we need them,” Bergman said. “We can’t rebound and we are struggling on defense a little bit and we just have to understand time and situation a little bitter. We have lots to work on but we are sitting there with wins and we still have lots to work on so that is good.”

City High                     15  14  17  16  –  62

West High                  18  21  19  17  –  75

City High (62) – Trey Wright 1-3 1-2 4, Thomas Ksobiech 1-2 0-0 3, TaeVeon Stevens 5-8 0-0 14, Shamar Benton 3-11 0-1 6, Jovan Harris 4-9 0-0 8, Darren Richardson 2-7 0-0 5, Jamari Newson 7-23 4-5 18, Jay Kennedy 2-3 0-0 4, Totals 25-66 5-8 62.

West High (75) – Jacob Koch 7-8 0-0 16, Brady Simcox 0-1 0-0 0, Pete Moe 11-12 7-7 30, Jack McCaffery 6-10 0-1 14, Kareem Earl 5-9 0-0 10, Savion Taylor 2-7 0-0 5, Totals 31-47 7-8 75.

3-point field goals – ICH 7-19 (Wright 1-3, Ksobiech 1-2, Stevens 4-7, Benton 0-3, Richardson 1-2, Newson 0-2), ICW 6-17 (Koch 2-2, Simcox 0-1, Moe 1-1, McCaffery 2-6, Earl 0-2, Taylor 1-5). Rebounds – ICH 38 (Harris 12), ICW 23 (McCaffery 6). Turnovers – ICH 16, ICW 17. Total fouls – ICH 14, ICW 12. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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