Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Early this month Jacob Koch poured in a career-high 25 points in a win over Liberty High.

After his performance on Friday night against cross-town rival City High the question had to be asked of Koch.

What is it about these cross-town games that brings out the best in you?

“I love all the energy in the gym,” Koch said. “I like playing these games that have the energy where everybody is excited.”

Koch scored a game-high 20 points, including five in an 11-0 fourth-quarter run, as Class 4A No. 10 West High rallied for a 68-57 win over City High in front of a near capacity crowd at West High.

The senior guard led four West High players in double figures as the Trojans improved to 6-1 in its final game before the holiday break.

“Playing in these rivalry games is fun,” Koch said. “It’s fun to have a close game with all the energy in building.”

Koch entered averaging 15.3 points per game but had just nine on 4-of-14 shooting in a 76-63 loss to Linn-Mar last Friday.

The senior guard ignited a furious fourth-quarter rally for West High on Friday while posting his third 20-point game of the season on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor.

“I think he was pretty disappointed with how he played up at Linn-Mar,” West High coach Steve Bergman said of Koch. “We talked as a team just about shot selection and we are trying to get everyone to touch it and we got some better shots when we did that.”

West High got 17 points from sophomore forward Julian Manson, 16 from junior standout Jack McCaffery and 10 from Kareem Earl.

The Trojans needed every bit of production to outlast a City High squad that was more than up for the task.

City High led 34-32 at the half and by as many as nine in the third quarter.

The Little Hawks took their biggest lead at 44-35 on an AJ Wright 3-pointer with 5:24 remaining in the third quarter.

City High shot 53 percent the floor, including 8-of-15 from 3-point range in the first three quarters and led 50-49 entering the fourth.

“Them making threes and them scoring off our turnovers were their best way to score so we were going to guard against that and we didn’t do a great job,” Bergman said. “Then they started feeling really good about themselves.”

City High led 54-52 after Trey Wright beat the shot clock with a difficult driving layup with 6:16 remaining.

It was all West High the rest of the way.

The Trojans outscored City High 11-0 over the next four minutes, a stretch spurred by defense and Koch.

“We finally stopped them,” Bergman said. “We stopped them and then if we can get out and run we are pretty good with the fast break but we went six or seven trips in a row without a stop a couple of times.”

Koch scored five points in a span of 18 seconds on a 3-pointer and a steal and layup that gave West High a 61-54 lead.

“They were hitting threes and we weren’t communicating so we had to make some adjustments and not let them get those shots off,” Koch said. “We had to turn them into drivers because they were really shooting the ball well.”

Manson had four of his 17 points in the late 11-0 run, including a layup in transition that gave the Trojans a 63-54 lead with 1:51 remaining.

“We knew that they were going to come out swinging,” Manson said. “We just had to take them down.”

Trey Wright was excellent for City High and finished with a team-high 15 points while Jameer James hit four 3-pointers and finished with 14.

AJ Wright had 10 points and Kristian Freeman had six points and seven rebounds for City High.

“Give them credit,” Bergman said. “We are trying to run a little more and we weren’t great at it tonight but give them a lot of credit they defended us pretty well.”

City High                               14  20  16   7  –  57    

West High                             19  13  17  19 –  68                                 

City High (57) – Jameer James 5-12 0-0 14, AJ Wright 4-7 1-2 10, Kristian Freeman 3-5 0-0 6, Trey Wright 6-17 2-2 15, KingSton Swayzer 0-1 0-0 0, Jonathan Watkins 2-2 0-0 6, Amir Newell 0-1 0-0 0, Parker Sutherland 3-6 0-0 6, Totals 23-51 3-4 57.

West High (68) – TaeVeon Stevens 1-3 0-0 3, Cannan Barnes 1-2 0-0 2, Jacob Koch 7-11 2-4 20, Jack McCaffery 5-10 5-5 15, Kareem Earl 4-7 2-4 10, Hayden Umoren 0-1 0-0 0, Julian Manson 7-10 3-4 17, Mason Goering 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 25-45 12-17 68.

3-point field goals – ICH 8-18 (James 4-8, A. Wright 1-3, T. Wright 1-4, Swayzer 0-1, Watkins 2-2), ICW 6-13 (Stevens 1-3, Barnes 0-1, Koch 4-5, McCaffery 1-3, Umoren 0-1). Rebounds – ICH 26 (Freeman 7, Sutherland 7), ICW 23 (Manson 6). Turnovers – ICH 13, ICW 7. Total fouls – ICH 14, ICW 11. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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