Douglas Miles

Your Prep Sports

WATERLOO – After a January 7 win over Cedar Falls, City High coach Bill McTaggart told a reporter it was his team’s ‘best overall game.’

This one was even better.

“We did top it tonight,” McTaggart said after Class 5A No. 7 City High blasted second-ranked Waterloo West, 76-46, in a Mississippi Valley Conference girls’ basketball game Friday night at Waterloo West High School. “I was pleasantly surprised. Everything that we did seemed to work tonight. Hopefully we can just keep going and not rest on our laurels.”

After responding to an 8-3 first-quarter deficit with nine points in a row, City High (15-2, 10-2 MVC) never trailed again.

The Little Hawks limited a potent Waterloo West offense – which averaged nearly 68 points per game entering the contest – to just single digits in both the second and third quarters.

The 46 points matched a season low for Waterloo West, which was coincidentally established in the Wahawks’ only other loss this season back on Dec. 10 in a non-conference tilt at City High.

“Just focusing on their main scorers,” said City High senior Eviyon Richardson, a Nebraska Omaha signee. “Because we felt like if we shut them down, we would get the flow of the offense right and the defense would come with it. We just communicated a lot. We knew that when their shooters were on whatever side it was, we would have each other’s backs.”

Waterloo West standout junior Sahara Williams – a two-time all-state honoree currently holding scholarship offers from a host of Division-I schools including Iowa and Iowa State – was limited to a season-low seven points and fouled out with 4:24 left in the third quarter.

With a host future Division-I players on both teams, it was City High junior Kelsey Joens who shined brightest.

In what McTaggart termed, ‘her best game of the season,’ the Iowa State commit scored 30 points and drilled five of City High’s 12 three-point baskets as the Little Hawks led by 21 points at halftime and by as many as 35 on two occasions.

“I know they are going to give us their best,” Joens said. “With all the talent they have, we just wanted to show them that, ‘Hey, we can compete with you guys.’ That is what we did tonight.”

The win is the fourth in a row for City High and it snapped a 12-game win streak for Waterloo West (15-2, 11-1).

The Wahawks had won 21 conference games in a row dating back to last season.

“We identified their shooters and we worked on that for a long time,” McTaggart said. “And we had the boys play the girls in practice and we just went over it and over it and over it. They listened and we played as a team tonight. We looked pretty good.”

Halli Poock paced Waterloo West with 24 points.

Richardson scored 18 points and senior guard Georgia Kimm chipped in 10 for City High, which visits Cedar Rapids Prairie on Tuesday.

“Just keep the momentum going,” Joens said. “There is a lot there and we have just got to take it one game at a time and keep it and work together.”

City High                     18  27 12 19  –  76

Waterloo West          15   9   7  15  –  46

Waterloo West (46) – Halli Poock 8 2-2 24, Charlotte Gettman 1 0-0 3, Sahara Williams 3 1-2 7, Sierra Moore 0 2-2 2, Brooklynn Smith 3 2-2 8, Jade Domatob 1 0-0 2, aNeesa Martin 0 0-2 0, Faith Howard 0 0-4 0, Totals 16 7-14 46.

City High (76) – Georgia Kimm 4 0-0 10, Kelsey Joens 8 9-9 30, Eviyon Richardson 6 2-3 18, Andie Westlake 1 3-4 6, Bella Cooley 3 0-0 6, Emmy McComas 1 1-2 3, Kacie Earl 1 1-1 3, Totals 24 16-19 76.

Three-point goals – City High 12 (Joens 5, Richardson 4, Westlake 1, Kimm 2); Waterloo West 4 (Poock 3, Gettman 1). Fouled out – WW (Williams).

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