Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – Like so many basketball coaches Jason Kern preached to his team throughout the regular season there would come a time when shots wouldn’t fall and a game would come down to defense.

That time came for West Branch on Thursday and the Bears showed their coach they had been listening.

West Branch locked down on defense and overcome an uncharacteristic quiet night from leading scorer Holden Arnaman to down Mediapolis 53-45 in a Class 2A, District 7 semifinal in West Branch.

“I told our guys defensive is going to be everything,” Kern said. “Defense and rebounding, especially in the playoffs. Those are the teams that are in at the end is the teams that play defense and rebound.”

West Branch (17-6) limited Mediapolis to 40 percent shooting and forced the Bulldogs into 15 turnovers while winning for the eighth time in the last nine games.

West Branch will face sixth-ranked West Burlington (20-0) in the District 7 title game on Tuesday at West Liberty high school at 7 p.m.

Mediapolis had a five-game winning streak snapped with the loss and closed the season 13-9.

“At the beginning of the season if our offense wasn’t working our defense was bad,” West Branch senior Reese Trepanier said. “Now it’s our offense isn’t going we know we have to step up on the defensive and we are doing that a lot better late in the season.”

Arnaman still had a game-high 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds on Thursday to lead three Bears in double digits.

However, Arnaman, who entered averaging 24.1 points per game, was just 6-of-13 from the floor and missed all five 3-point attempts.

Yet West Branch moved on as it held an opponent under 50 points for the seventh time in the last nine games.

“I played pretty bad on the offensive end but our guys stepped up and we really bought in on the defensive end,” Arnaman said. “We didn’t let their best player get hot and that was huge in our game plan.”

In its first game in a week West Branch struggled to get rolling offensively early.

The Bears were just 5-of-13 in the first quarter but led 10-9 after holding the Bulldogs scoreless for the final 4:24 of the opening quarter.

West Branch allowed just one field goal in the final 2:39 of the first half while taking a 25-18 halftime lead.

Since giving up 100 points in a 18-point loss to Maquoketa on January 20 the Bears are allowing just 44 points per game.

“Our kids have been buying in,” Kern said. “After the Maquoketa game we’ve been playing really good defensively and our kids are buying in and understanding that’s what we have to do.”

Mediapolis used a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 33-31 with 3:28 remaining in the third quarter but West Branch scored the final three points of the quarter.

The Bears never let Mediapolis get closer than three points the rest of the way.

“It’s all about winning, whatever you have to do,” Arnaman said. “My shot was really falling tonight so the second half I was just driving and dishing and we played really well defensively.”

Arnaman had 11 of his game-high 17 points in the second half and Trepanier finished with 13 points and nine rebounds.

Brennen Dale had 11 points for West Branch which was just 4-of-18 from 3-point range and missed eight free throws.

“Our shots weren’t falling tonight and offensively we just weren’t very good,” Kern said. “We had multiple guys step up in huge facets. Holden knocked down some big shots and defensively I thought we were very sound.”

Mediapolis                   9    9  13  14  –  45

West Branch              10  15  11  17  –  53                                                                                                

Mediapolis (45) – Max Griffin 3-12 0-0 8, Will Luttenegger 1-8 0-0 2, Gannon Gunn 0-1 0-0 0, Kamden Stotlar 2-3 2-2 6, Lance Ludens 4-9 0-0 10, Jackson Hutcheson 3-5 0-0 8, Ben Wolter 5-7 1-2 11, Totals 18-45 3-4 45.

West Branch (53) – Nathan Hills 1-3 2-4 5, Cameron Gingerich 0-3 0-0 0, Holden Arnaman 6-13 5-7 17, Trenton Schutte 1-2 0-0 2, Jayden Harris 2-4 0-0 5, Brennen Dale 4-6 2-4 11, Reese Trepanier 4-9 4-6 13, Totals 18-43 13-21 53.

3-point field goals – MED 6-20 (Griffin 2-9, Luttenegger 0-5, Ludens 2-4, Hutcheson 2-2), WB 4-18 (Hills 1-2, Gingerich 0-2, Arnaman 0-5, Schutte 0-1, Harris 1-2, Dale 1-3, Trepanier 1-3). Rebounds – MED 27 (Wolter 6), WB (Trepanier 9). Turnovers – MED 15, WB 12. Total fouls – MED 15, WB 16. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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