Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – After seven consecutive losses to open the season West Branch set a goal to get something positive going into the holiday break.

The Bears got that boost in the form of a 20-point win over Tipton in its 2022 finale.

West Branch picked up where it left off on Tuesday.

“We talked about how we had to have a goal before break to get on some kind of a streak or get something that would feel good for all of us,” West Branch senior guard Iva Senio said. “Getting that first win made us all feel good about this next game.”

Senio scored a game-high 13 points and West Branch never trailed on Tuesday in a 46-28 win over Camanche (2-8) in a River Valley Conference cross-divisional contest in West Branch.

The win was the second straight for West Branch (2-7) which lost to four ranked teams during an 0-7 start to the season.

“Our pre-break schedule was pretty loaded, we played a lot of ranked teams and got our butts handed to us a little bit which good teams will do that to you but I felt like as the season went on our team was improving and starting to play better,” West Branch coach Jarod Tylee said. “I felt like Tipton was one of our better games of the season and the score reflected that and so I feel like from our first game at Beckman to tonight there has been a lot of improvement.

Despite the 1-7 record before the holiday break the improvement was evident.

West Branch pushed 2A No. 14 Monticello in a 10-point road loss and had eight-point losses to 5-5 Mid-Prairie and 1A No. 10 Burlington Notre Dame.

The reward has finally come in the last two games as Regina has outscored Tipton and Camanche 101-63.

“We had a rough start so ending on that win was a really good feeling for all of us,” Senio said. “We had a great practice week and you never know how that first game is going to go after break but it went really well for us.”

West Branch led from the outset on Tuesday building a 9-5 cushion in the opening six and half minutes.

The Bears used their defense to break the game open in the final 76 seconds of the opening quarter.

Kylie Pickett and Isabel Pedersen hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Senio scored on a steal and layup with three seconds left as West Branch scored eight points in a span of less than 90 seconds to take a 17-5 lead.

“We’ve talked about that, we aren’t the greatest shooting team around so we have to use our defense as part of our offense,” Tylee said. “That’s something we have to continue to do because it definitely helps our offense.”

The 8-0 run to end the first quarter turned into a 19-0 run as the Bears held Camanche scoreless for more than seven minutes to start the second quarter.

“I think getting a win before break that was very important,” Pedersen said. “Everybody’s spirits were a bit low so that win before break really helped.”

West Branch was efficient offensively shooting 52 percent from the field in the first three quarters while building a 41-14 lead.

Five West Branch players had at least six points led by Senio with 13.

“I think we’ve improved on being more confident going to the basket,” Senio said. “I think everything from 3s to going up for layups I think we were more confident tonight.”

Pedersen had nine points on 4-of-5 shooting while Pickett had seven and Olivia Naber and Sadie Smith each had six points.

“I think we did a lot better job of passing,” Pedersen said. “We were smart with our passes and weren’t throwing the ball all over the place. We just slowed down a little bit.”

Smith had nine rebounds and Pickett had seven as West Branch finished with a 35-27 rebounding edge while holding Camanche to 23 percent shooting.

“We aren’t really a great shooting team so we have to depend on our rebounding and our defense,” Senio said. “I think tonight we did good with those two things.”

Camanche                   5    6    3  14  –  28

West Branch              17  11  13  5   –  46

Camanche (28) – Maike Brenner 0-3 0-0 0, Zoie Vogel 0-3 2-4 2, Celina Hermann 2-9 0-0 6, Ella Blinkinsop 2-2 1-2 5, Izzy Beal 1-6 3-6 5, Brooke Paasch 1-1 0-0 2, Miley Duritza 0-3 1-2 1, Emerson Crigger 3-12 0-0 7, Totals 9-39 7-14 28.

West Branch (46) – Sadie Smith 3-5 0-0 6, Iva Senio 5-11 3-5 13, Kylie Pickett 2-14 2-2 7, Alyse Klinkkammer 0-2 2-2 2, Kya Montgomery 0-1 0-0 0, Olivia Naber 3-4 0-0 6, Isabel Pedersen 4-5 0-0 9, Addie Schultes 1-1 0-0 3, Totals 18-43 7-9 48.

3-point field goals – WB 3-17 (Smith 0-1, Pickett 1-13, Montgomery 0-1, Pedersen 1-1, Schultes 1-1), CAM 3-20 (Vogel 0-1, Hermann 2-7, Duritza 0-3, Crigger 1-9). Rebounds – WB 35 (Smith 9), CAM 27 (Crigger 7). Turnovers – WB 16, CAM 18. Total fouls – WB 14, CAM 8. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – West Branch Bench

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