Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Over the past season and a half playing together Sasha Baldwin and Grace Fincham have turned in some impressive performances.

In the final game in 2024 the West High duo produced a performance unlike any before.

Fincham and Baldwin each had double-doubles and combined for 44 points and 22 rebounds to lift Class 5A No. 12 West High to an emphatic 63-46 win over ninth-ranked City High on Friday at West High.

“It’s amazing when you have a 20-point game but it feels even better when somebody else has a 20-point game,” Baldwin said. “When everyone, not just Grace and I, but everyone can hit shots it’s amazing because we believe in everybody to hit shots.”

Baldwin scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Fincham had 21 points and 12 boards as West High won its fifth straight game over City High at home.

The win was the second straight for West High over a ranked team following a win over 3A third-ranked Dubuque Wahlert on Tuesday as sends the Trojans into the holiday break 7-3.

“It feels amazing,” Fincham said. “We did this last year, beating them right before break and it just gives you a boost of confidence going into the break. We want to come back from break and put in the same amount of effort we did tonight.”

It was Fincham and Baldwin that made sure West High headed into the holidays happy on Friday.

The duo combined to make 17-of-31 field goal attempts as West High shot 43 percent from the floor.

Abby Neumiller added eight points, Ava Frese had five and Kate Van Waning four for the Trojans.

“I feel like it wasn’t just Sasha and I, we had the most points but everybody was hitting their shots,” Fincham said. “Everyone was playing so well, everyone was pitching in and Sasha and I played great together.”

City High (5-2) hit a pair of first-quarter 3-pointers and led 15-13 after the opening eight minutes.

West High answered back with defense.

The Trojans held City High to just one field goal and six points in the second quarter while opening up a 33-21 halftime lead.

“We really wanted to not let them get comfortable at any point,” West High coach Nate Frese said. “We knew we were eventually going to switch to the 2-3 to keep them out of rhythm. We practiced a bunch of stuff and our man-to-man was good enough.”

While West High was shutting down City High defensively Fincham and Baldwin helped the Trojans build an insurmountable lead.

The two combined for 28 points as West High outscored City High 37-18 during the second and third quarters combined.

“We don’t run stuff for them, that’s the beauty of it, we don’t run sets for them, we don’t get them shots it just happens and neither of them complain about it, they are unselfish and they are happy for their teammates but when they are both cooking that’s a dangerous tandem. It’s pretty hard to guard when you have those two and the rest of our girls are playing that confident.”

West High led 50-33 after three quarters and by as many as 23 in the fourth quarter.

“We started a little shaky and then we get those nerves out and it really is fun to watch because the sum is greater than the parts,” Frese said. “I know we have a couple of players that scored a bunch tonight but everybody did a little bit of this here and a little bit of that there and I couldn’t be prouder of them.”

Hattie Galloway had 14 points and Tessa Driscoll had 10 points for City High which shot 33 percent from the floor.

Kaitlin Loria had six points and nine rebounds and August Palmer had 11 rebounds for the Little Hawks.

City High travels to Class 4A No. 14 Marion (5-1) on Saturday for a 12:30 p.m. contest.

West High is off until next month when it travels to Cedar Rapids Washington to open the 2025 portion of its schedule.

“We had a tough one against Waukee Northwest a few weeks ago but we learned so much from that game,” Fincham said. “It boosts all of our confidence when you beat your rival and we are excited to get back out here after break.”

City High                   15    6  12  13  –  46

West High                13  20  17  13  –  63   

City High (46) – Eve Vitense 2-2 0-0 6, August Palmer 2-16 0-0 4, Hattie Galloway 5-11 2-2 14, Kaitlin Loria 3-6 0-0 6, Emmy McComas 1-5 4-6 6, Halle Larew 0-0 0-0 0, Maybes Miller 0-0 0-0 0, Tessa Driscoll 4-11 1-2 10, Totals 17-51 7-10 46.

West High (63) – Ava Frese 1-2 2-2 5, Kate Van Waning 2-7 0-0 4, Abby Neumiller 2-7 2-2 8, Elle Barnett 1-3 0-0 2, Grace Fincham 9-16 1-1 21, Lauryn Hynek 0-3 0-0 0, Sasha Baldwin 8-15 3-4 23, Totals 23-53 8-9 63.

3-point field goals – City High 5-12 (Vitense 2-2, Palmer 0-1, Galloway 2-4, Loria 0-1, Driscoll 1-4), West High 9-28 (Frese 1-2, Van Waning 0-3, Neumiller 2-7, Barnett 0-2, Fincham 2-6, Baldwin 4-8). Rebounds – City High 34 (Palmer 11), West High 34 (Fincham 12). Total fouls – City High 11, West High 11. Turnovers – City High 11, West High 8. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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