Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – After 12 practices in two weeks Jack McCaffery was ready to face someone that wasn’t a teammate.

McCaffery finally got that opportunity on Tuesday.

The sophomore forward led four West High players in double figures with 13 points as the Trojans opened the season with a 63-43 win over Clear Creek Amana in a non-conference contest in Tiffin.

“It feels good to play someone outside of practice and our own guys,” McCaffery said. “It was pretty sloppy I felt but it is what it is and hopefully we can get better as the season goes on starting with our next game.”

McCaffery was right, Tuesday’s season opener looked like a season opener in just about every way.

The two teams combined to shoot under 40 percent from the field including 3-of-30 from 3-point range while committing 32 turnovers.

West High was significantly cleaner of the two teams relying on its trio of returning starters in McCaffery and juniors Kareem Earl and Jacob Koch.

McCaffery had a double-double with 10 rebounds to go with his 13 points while Earl had 10 points and Koch was one of three Trojans with six points.

“Two weeks just is not enough time to really get ready for a game even with three returning guys,” West High coach Steve Bergman said. “It’s tough to really be ready in that amount of time but that’s what we’ve got to deal with.”

West High closed the first quarter on a 9-2 run to take a 17-8 lead and stretched the margin to 36-18 at the half.

The Trojans pushed the lead to 57-31 after three quarters.

“The first quarter was pretty sloppy and we shot a few too many threes and we haven’t been shooting it well even though we have some good shooters,” McCaffery said. “I thought we cleaned it up a little bit after that.”

Senior Brady Simcox and freshman JuJu Manson each had 11 points for West High.

Manson also grabbed eight rebounds and senior Soumaila Sanogo had six points and seven rebounds for the Trojans which held a 49-30 rebounding edge that included 25 offensive rebounds.

Clear Creek Amana was led by sophomore Cale Berry who had a game-high 16 points and freshman Ethan Vice with 10 points.

“That’s the message to our kids is to go out and see how good we are and get better and understand that they are a very athletic team that plays great defense,” Clear Creek Amana coach Brandon Clubb said. “It’s maybe not the perfect opening game but there are things to take from it.”

Clear Creek Amana               8  10  13  12  –  43

West High                              17 19  21   6   –  63

Clear Creek Amana (43) – Andrew Rotzoll 2-2 0-1 4, Brock Hilsman 3-6 3-4 9, Alex Miller 0-2 0-0 0, Reece Cochran 0-2 0-0 0, Cale Berry 8-15 0-1 16, Owen Rosenberg 0-1 0-0 0, Jack Hagen 0-2 0-0 0, Robert Meade 1-1 0-0 2, Brody Clubb 0-7 2-2 2, Ethan Vice 4-9 2-4 10, Totals 18-47 7-12 43.

West High (63) – TaeVeon Stevens 3-9 0-0 6, Ben Hoefer 0-2 0 0-0 0, Jacob Koch 3-10 0-1 6, Brady Simcox 5-10 0-0 11, Soumaila Sanogo 2-5 2-4 6, Jack McCaffery 6-12 0-2 13, Kareem Earl 4-10 2-2 10, Aidan Jacobsen 0-2 0-0 0, JuJu Manson 5-6 0-2 11, Canaan Barnes 0-2 0-0 0, Abdelrahman Abdalla 0-2 0-0 0, Totals 28-70 4-11 63.

3-point field goals – CCA 0-10 (Hilsman 0-3, Berry 0-3, Clubb 0-2, Vice 0-2), ICW 3-20 (Stevens 0-3, Hoefer 0-1, Koch 0-4, Simcox 1-3, McCaffery 1-2, Earl 0-2, Jacobsen 0-2, Manson 1-1, Abdalla 0-2). Rebounds – CCA 30 (Rotzoll 5), ICW 49 (McCaffery 10). Turnovers – CCA 18, ICW 14. Total fouls – CCA 12, ICW 14. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – CCA (Clubb).

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