Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – Jason Kern saw enough from his West Branch basketball team prior to the holiday break to know the Bears could be very good.

West Branch showed flashes of its potential while closing 2022 with three consecutive wins.

Kern saw more stretches of strong play when West Branch returned to the court for the first time follow break on Thursday but it wasn’t enough to start the new year with a win.

West Branch hung with Class 2A ninth-ranked Camanche for 32 minutes on Tuesday but could never get over the hump in a 54-49 loss to the Storm in a River Valley Conference cross-divisional contest in West Branch.

“If we can get everybody clicking for a full 32 minutes, I know I sound like a broken record saying this every game, but we are going to be really good,” Kern said. “Those last three games before break I think we really started playing well.”

West Branch (4-5) trailed by just two with 25 seconds to play but Zane Witt hit three free throws down the stretch as Camanche improved to 6-2.

The 6-foot-8 Witt had all 18 of his points in the final three quarters as Camanche overcame an early 16-14 deficit.

Camanche outscored West Branch 15-6 in the second quarter to take a 29-22 halftime lead and never trailed again.

“If we just keep having that mentality of getting better each day we are going to be good,” Kern said. “I told these guys it’s a long season, we are nine games in but it’s starting to get a little late, we are running out of pages in the book we have to start stepping up each game. We can’t keep talking about it we have to learn from it and improve.”

West Branch closed the first quarter on a 13-4 run to take a 16-14 lead.

Jack McCullough had three 3-pointers in a span of less than two minutes to spart the 13-4 burst that ended when Cole Crosthewaite beat the first quarter buzzer with a layup off a Holden Arnaman feed.

West Branch went 4-of-11 from 3-point range in the opening quarter but was just 6-of-23 from beyond the arc over the final 24 minutes.

As West Branch struggled from the perimeter Camanche pounded the ball inside to Witt who finished 7-of-8 from the floor.

The fourth triple of the game by McCullough put West Branch up 19-14 with 7:26 left in the opening half.

Camanche answered with a 15-3 run to close the half as West Branch made just one of its final 11 field goal attempts.

“When shots aren’t falling you need to attack and get something at the rim or at least get them to call a foul or get it inside out,” Kern said. “That’s what a zone defense like that one is trying to get you to do is shoot after one pass. We have to be more disciplined. If they are falling it’s great but you can’t make them all game and you have to find another way to score.”

Camanche led by as May as 11 in the fourth quarter but West Branch made a late charge.

Arnaman had 12 of his game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter and pulled the Bears to within 51-49 with a 3-pointer with 25 seconds remaining.

After going 2-of-9 from the floor in the first half Arnaman made five of his final six field goal attempts.

“Holden finally started to get going,” Kern said. “He missed a few shots in the first half that he normally makes and it’s tough getting your confidence going after that but he really picked it up in the second half.”

Witt put the game away hitting 3-of-4 free throws in the final 14 seconds.

McCullough finished with 12 points for West Branch while Reese Trepanier had nine points and seven rebounds for the Bears.

Demarion Honaker had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds for Camanche and Garrett Schultz had 12 points and nine rebounds for the Storm.

West Branch returns to action on Friday when it travels to Cascade (5-3) and faces 1A third-ranked Bellevue (8-1) on Saturday at the RVC Shootout at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids.

“The schedule isn’t going to get any easier,” Kern said. “We have Cascade and Bellevue and I told the guys we have to come ready and we really have to bring it in practice.”

Camanche                  14  15  12  13  –  54

West Branch              16   6   12  15  –  49

Camanche (54) – Garrett Schultz 4-6 2-4 12, Josh Wiersema 3-9 0-1 8, Damarion Honaker 4-9 6-8 14, Zane Witt 7-8 4-6 18, Tyson Seeser 1-9 0-0 2, Totals 19-41 12-19 54.

West Branch (49) – Carver Boelk 1-3 0-0 3, Holden Arnaman 8-18 0-0 20, Cameron Gingerich 1-1 0-0 3, Jack McCullough 4-20 0-0 12, Andy Henson 0-2 0-2 0, Reese Trepanier 4-7 1-3 9, Cole Crosthewaite 1-1 0-0 2, Totals 19-52 1-5 49.

3-point field goals – WB 10-34 (Boelk 1-3, Arnaman 4-9, Gingerich 1-1, McCullough 4-18, Henson 0-1, Trepanier 0-2), CAM 4-12 (Schultz 2-3, Wiersema 2-5, Seeser 0-4). Rebounds – WB 28 (Henson 7, Trepanier 7), CAM 34 (Honaker 10). Turnovers – WB 14, CAM 17. Total fouls – WB 18, CAM 9. Fouled out – WB (Boelk). Technical fouls – None.

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