Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

The boys basketball season is just getting started.

Most of the Your Prep Sports area teams are only about a third of the way through their regular season schedules when the holiday break pauses game action for nearly two weeks.

The break still offers an opportunity to look back at the start of the season before teams hit the hardwood again in January.

Here are the ‘mid-season’ awards for boys teams in the Your Prep Sports area.

Team With the Best Resume

West High

After losing nine games each of the past two seasons West High is off to a more West High-like start.

The toughest part of the schedule awaits West High following break but the Trojans enter 2023 5-1 and ranked No. 10 in Class 4A.

West High has solid road wins over Liberty High (3-2) and Davenport West (4-3) with its lone loss coming at Dubuque Wahlert.

Best Win

West Branch at Burlington Notre Dame

If West Branch takes off after break as it seems likely it will look no further than the 64-61 road win over Burlington Notre Dame (6-2) on December 19 as the game that turned things around.

The win over the Nikes was the best performance of the season to date for the Bears who had three players in double figures, shot 60 percent from the floor and had 19 assists on 24 made field goals.

Best Game

City High over Cedar Rapids Prairie

Aesthetically speaking this game may not have been the prettiest but the ending and the final result where a thing of beauty for City High.

Senior Thomas Ksobiech’s 15-foot jumper at the buzzer gave City High a 35-33 win over Cedar Rapids Prairie in a game where the two teams combined to shoot 29 percent from the floor.

The game may not have always been pretty but the win could prove to be exactly what City High needed going into 2023.

Biggest Surprise

Regina

A three-game winning streak to end December has Regina closing in on its season win total from a year ago and just a game back of Wilton in the River Valley Conference South Division standings.

Regina won six games last season after a seven-win season two years ago.
Following consecutive wins over RVC South Division foes West Branch, Tipton and West Liberty to close out 2022 the Regals are 5-3 and 4-1 in RVC South play.

Regina is 3-0 in games decided by four points or less and 4-0 in games decided by single digits.

Best Individual Performance  

Da’Shon Fisher against Pleasant Valley

In the season opener Fisher had perhaps the best overall game of his career.

Fisher had 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting and added nine rebounds, seven assists and two blocked shots in a 56-53 road win over the Spartans.

Player that Put Themselves on Opposing Scouting Reports

Liberty High senior Luke Ramsey

If hitting a team-high 44 3-pointers last season hadn’t gotten Ramsey circled on opposing scouting reports his start to this season certainly has done the trick.

Ramsey has continued to be a lights out shooter, hitting 43 percent from 3-point range, but has rounded out his overall game while ranking second on the team with 13.8 points per game.

After shooting 21 free throws all of last season Ramsey has already gotten to the free throw line 15 times in five games this season.

Player That Has Stepped Up

Regina junior Michael Martin

Plenty of players have stepped up during the 5-3 start to the season for Regina but none have made a bigger jump this season than Martin.

The junior guard is averaging a team-high 13.6 points and 4.3 rebounds per game after averaging 5.2 points last season.

Martin has scored in double figures in six of eight games, led the Regals in scoring five times and has a pair of 20-point games.

Player We Aren’t Talking Enough About

West Branch junior Reese Trepanier

Which player leads the Your Prep Sports area in rebounds and double-doubles?

If you guess anyone other than Reese Trepanier you’d be wrong.

The West Branch junior has emerged as a major stat sheet filler for the Bears nearly averaging a double-double with 15.5 points and 9.9 rebounds per game.

What the 6-foot Trepanier lacks in height he more than makes up for in effort adding 3.5 assists and 2.6 steals per game.

Trepanier has four double-doubles in the last six games, averaging 17.2 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists per game during that stretch.

Biggest Individual Surprise

Regina juniors Drew Streb and John Devery

Streb and Devery are friends that have been playing together since their youth days.

A year after combining to average 4.1 points and 4.6 rebounds per game in limited action the Regal post duo has been huge in helping Regina to its best start in three seasons.

The duo is averaging 16.4 points and 15.8 rebounds per game and ranked third and fifth respectively in rebounds among RVC South Division players.

Streb is averaging 9.9 points and 7 rebounds per game while Devery is averaging 6.5 points and a team-high 8.8 rebounds.

Most Impressive Individual Start

Solon junior Jake Benzing

There aren’t many players across the state that have had a better start to the season than Benzing.

The junior guard ranks 10^th in Class 3A in scoring at 20.2 points per game and is adding 6.5 rebounds per game during a 4-2 start for Solon.

Benzing has been efficient during his strong start shooting 52 percent from the floor, including 41 percent from 3-point range and is shooting 80 percent from the free throw line leading Solon in free throw makes (16) and attempts (20).

Mid-Season Freshman of the Year

Samuel Mbingazo City High

The 6-foot-10 Mbingazo has already made his presence felt on both ends of the court for the Little Hawks.

Mbingazo is averaging eight points per game and has showed good touch around the basket shooting 42 percent from the floor and 82 percent from the free throw line (8-of-11) through five games.

The freshman post also leads City High with eight rebounds and 1.2 blocked shots per game.

Mid-Season MVP

West High sophomore Jack McCaffery

McCaffery showed last season as a freshman why he is a regarded as a highly ranked national prospect.

Early on in his sophomore season McCaffery has looked like a different player on both ends of the court than he was during a strong debut campaign.

The 6-foot-8 McCaffery leads West High in scoring and rebounding with 17 points and 8.2 boards per game and is shooting 42 percent from the floor including 37 percent from 3-point range.

McCaffery is also averaging 2.5 assists per game and ranks seventh in the state with 4 blocked shots per game.

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