Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – West High head coach Steve Bergman singled out the defensive effort as the reason for his team’s rally on Friday night.

Liberty High coach Ryan Kelly pointed out rebounding and turnovers as the keys in the second-half swing.

All of those things were certainly pivotal in West High erasing a four-point halftime deficit.

However if you are looking for the biggest factor in West High’s late surge look no further than sophomore standout Jack McCaffery.

McCaffery had 18 of his game-high 27 points in the second half as West High pulled away for a 68-51 win over Liberty High (1-1) in North Liberty.

“Coach really got on me at halftime about being a better leader and getting us into our offense more and I thought the second half I was better about that and it showed,” McCaffery said.

Kareem Earl added 17 points for West High which shot 58 percent from the field in the second half while improving to 3-0 on the season.

After Liberty High shot 52 percent in the first half West High limited the Lightning to 38 percent shooting in the second half while forcing six turnovers.

“The second half our defense stepped up,” Earl said. “We had a slow start to the first half and we came out and played our game.”

West High led 19-14 after the opening quarter before Liberty High rattled off a 17-2 second quarter run to take control.

Dynamic senior guard Da’Shon Fisher had eight of his team-high 17 points in the second quarter, including six during the 17-2 spurt that gave the Lightning a 31-21 lead.

“That run that we had in the second quarter it started on the defensive end,” Kelly said. “A lot of those stops that we got lead to transition which opened up things for our guys and we didn’t get out and run as much in the second half and that’s a big part of our game is transition.”

Liberty High led 33-29 at the half but the lead evaporated quickly thanks to McCaffery.

The 6-foot-8 sophomore had 10 points during an 18-4 West High run to open the second half.

McCaffery had a putback in the paint to cut the lead to 33-32 and capped the run with 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions as West High built a 47-37 advantage with 2:42 left in the third quarter.

“My confidence just sky rocketed after I made a couple of threes,” McCaffery said. “I haven’t been shooting the ball well at all so I think that was the key to it, I got a couple of buckets inside and I took what they gave me.”

West High outscored Liberty High 25-8 in the third quarter hitting 9-of-16 field goal attempts including all three of its 3-point attempts.

“I told them before the game I like the direction but it’s time to start bringing the stuff we are doing in practice and actually use it in a game,” West High coach Steve Bergman said. “It was a little better the second half.

As McCaffery sparked the West High offense the Trojan defense locked down.

Fisher had just seven second-half points on 3-of-8 shooting.

“We really got after it in the second half on the defensive end,” McCaffery said. “We walled off Fisher, he’s an explosive athlete and if he gets inside three feet it’s a bucket or a foul and I thought we did a much better job of pushing them out of their stuff.

McCaffery hit back-to-back 3-pointers again in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach and added a game-high 11 rebounds to finish with a double-double.

“I just don’t want him to be one-dimensional and he was much better about that tonight,” Bergman said. “He rebounded and got some baskets inside.”

McCaffery had plenty of help on Friday especially in the second half.

Earl had 17 points and six boards and freshman JuJu Manson had seven points and eight rebounds.

Brady Simcox had seven points and Jacob Koch had five.

“The second half was a little better, we had some easy baskets and we had some guys really step up,” Bergman said. “JuJu really stepped up with his energy, the rebounding and loose balls. He’s a freshman and he plays like it some but he really played much better tonight.”

Gage Kampman and Trey Hughes each had nine points for Liberty High and Luke Ramsey had eight for the Lightning.

“I thought that we came out flat,” Kelly said. “I think we got complacent I think we were comfortable with a 33-29 lead and we were o.k. with how we played in the first half and we just thought we could coast a little bit in the second but against a good team and a team that plays the way that they do with multiple weapons you can’t do that.”

West High                  19  10  25  14  – 68

Liberty High              14  19   8   10  – 51

Liberty High (51) – Jailyn Buchanan 0-2 0-0 0, Luke Ramsey 3-6 0-0 8, Gage Kampman 4-6 1-2 9, Shea Sanders 3-3 0-0 6, Cooper Webb 1-7 0-0 2, Da’Shon Fisher 8-17 1-2 17, Trey Hughes 4-9 0-0 9, Totals 23-50 2-4 51.

West High (68) – TaeVeon Stevens 1-2 0-0 3, Ben Hoefer 0-2 0-0 0, Jacob Koch 2-8 0-1 5, Brady Simcox 3-4 0-0 7, Jack McCaffery 11-22 0-0 27, Kareem Earl 6-15 4-5 17, JuJu Manson 1-1 5-6 7, Daniel Robinson 1-1 0-0 2, Totals 25-55 9-12 68.

3-point field goals – ICW 9-21 (Stevens 1-2, Hoefer 0-2, Koch 1-3, Simcox 1-1, McCaffery 5-11, Earl 1-2), ICL 3-13 (Ramsey 2-4, Webb 0-4, Fisher 0-1, Hughes 1-4). Rebounds – ICW 37 (McCaffery 11), ICL 24 (Webb 7). Turnovers – ICW 11, ICL 9. Total fouls – ICW 8, ICL 11. Fouled out – ICL (Hughes). Technical fouls – None.

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by donating.