Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – As a sophomore Grace Fincham is relatively new to the rivalry between City High and West High.

It hasn’t taken long for the West High sophomore forward to develop an appreciation for the annual cross-town showdown.

“I was just super excited to play this game,” Fincham said. “I love playing in this rivalry.”

In a series filled with impressive performances from standout players Fincham added her own chapter in City High and West High rivalry lore on Friday evening.

Fincham poured in a game-high 33 points and grabbed seven rebounds as West High fended off City High 63-57 in front of a near capacity crowd at West High.

“We have a lot of contributors I don’t want to make it sound like we have only a two-person team but she is clearly one of the best scorers that we have on this squad,” West High coach Nate Frese said of Fincham. “We said coming in the best way to loosen up the opponents’ defense was to get the ball in the hands someone like Grace, somebody like Lucy (Wolf), somebody like Sasha (Baldwin) and see what kind of damage they can do. She took that to heart.”

Fincham came out firing, scoring 15 of her game-high 33 points in the first quarter.

However, the 5-foot-11 Fincham was at her best late.

She scored six straight points as part of a 12-0 West High run in the fourth quarter that erased a 48-45 deficit.

“This game is so fun, it’s a great rivalry and I love playing with my team,” Fincham said. “This group of girls is amazing, it makes it so much fun in practice and games to go out and play with them. It’s just a great team to be around.”

Freshman Sasha Baldwin had 11 points, including a key four-quarter 3-pointer, and Ava Frese had seven as West High improved to 5-4 with its fifth win in its last six games.

It was fourth straight win for West High over City High and third in 2023 after defeating the Little Hawks twice in a span of 20 days last January.

After starting the season 0-3 West High will enter 2024 riding a three-game winning streak.

“We started out the season 0-3 and the coaches kept our confidence up,” Fincham said. “I give them so much credit.”

In a win over Cedar Rapids Jefferson Tuesday West High trailed 15-4 after the opening quarter.

Fincham got the Trojans going early on Friday scoring 15 of West High’s 20 first-quarter points.

West High led 32-29 at the half and took a 43-34 lead with 2:51 remaining in the third quarter when Fincham scored all eight points during an 8-0 West High run.

“We’ve had some slow first quarters where I haven’t gotten into it very fast but I knew I had to go from the start especially against City,” Fincham said. “They always come to play and I give them a ton of credit they made it a really good game.”

City High (3-6) closed the third quarter on a 7-0 run that started with a corner 3-pointer by freshman Hattie Galloway and ended with four straight points from Emmy McComas.

The Little Hawks took their first lead since the opening quarter at 45-43 when Augie Palmer scored four points in the opening 35 seconds of the fourth quarter to force a West High timeout.

“We talked about keeping composure and not rushing anything,” Fincham said. “We wanted to make sure we got good shots.”

City High took its final lead of the game at 48-45 on a Palmer 3-pointer with 5:45 remaining but West High had an answer.

Baldwin tied the game with a 3-pointer 50 seconds later.

“We talked all game about keeping our heads up,” Baldwin said. “When it’s close games like that we have to stay together as a team and not let anything get into our heads.”

Fincham then put the game away with a personal 6-0 run that featured a layup of a steal and back-to-back buckets in the paint.

“We decided we were going to run a specific set until they could stop it,” Frese said. “We ran it four times in a row and we were going to see how they guarded it and it was either going to be the pop-out three for Sasha or a slip and then (Fincham) posts up.”

Palmer had 16 points to lead City High and Tessa Driscoll had 13 points for the Little Hawks.

Freshman Kaitlin Loria had nine points and seven rebounds and McComas had eight points.

City High                               18  11  12  16  –  57   

West High                              20  12  11  20  –  63                             

City High (57) – Avy Lindsey 2-3 0-0 4, August Palmer 6-15 3-6 16, Hattie Galloway 3-4 0-0 7, Kaitlin Loria 4-6 1-2 9, Emmy McComas 3-4 2-2 8, Tessa Driscoll 5-10 0-0 13, Totals 23-42 6-10 57.

West High (63) – Lucy Wolf 2-11 0-0 5, Ava Frese 0-2 7-10 7, Kate Van Waning 1-3 0-0 2, Abby Neumiller 1-2 -1 2, Elle Barnett 1-4 0-0 3, Grace Fincham 13-21 4-4 33, Sasha Baldwin 4-10 1-2 11, Totals 22-53 12-17 63.

3-point field goals – ICH 5-11 (Lindsey 0-1, Palmer 1-3, Galloway 1-1, Driscoll 3-6), ICW 7-21 (Wolf 1-4, Van Waning 0-1, Barnett 1-4, Fincham 3-7, Baldwin 2-5). Rebounds – ICH 30 (Loria 7), ICW 26 (Fincham 7). Turnovers – ICH 15, ICW 6. Total fouls – ICH 19, ICW 9. Foule out – ICH (Driscoll). Technical fouls – ICH (Palmer).

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