Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The first meeting between cross-town rivals City High and West High this season turned into the Jack McCaffery show.

McCaffery poured in 38 points and grabbed seven rebounds in a 57-54 West High win over City High last month.

In the rematch on Friday McCaffery got more than a little help from his friends.

McCaffery led three players in double figures with 17 points as West High completed the regular season sweep of City High with a 55-39 win at City High.

“That’s what every team is going to do, they are going to load up and try to keep me from scoring and obviously that was the game plan tonight after what I did against them last game,” McCaffery said. “I thought we got great minutes from a lot of guys. Mason Goering was good, Greg Ford is a guy that hasn’t played a lot and he was great. It was just overall a great team win.”

Goering had 11 points and six rebounds, junior Henry Elser made three 3-pointers and had 10 points and Ethan Headings added nine points as West High improved to 9-4 on the season with its fifth consecutive win over City High.

“That’s the only way we can win is if we are balanced,” West High coach Bergman said. “People throw a lot of bodies at Jack and he has to be patient and make the right basketball play.”

City High (3-11) was successful in its attempt to slow McCaffery for much of the night.

The 6-foot-8 senior forward had just seven points in a first-half that ended in a 24-all tie.

West High dialed up its defense and got more offensive balance in a dominant second half.

“Our defense stepped up tremendously,” Goering said. “That’s what we really emphasized coming into this game and that’s what we need to continue to do.”

The game was tied 34-34 with 3:08 remaining but West High held the Little Hawks to just two field goals and five total points over the final 11 minutes while ending the game on a 21-5 run.

McCaffery scored seven points during that 21-5 burst as West High shot 56 percent from the floor after halftime.

“We needed to guard well,” Goering said. “We held them to five points in the fourth quarter and that’s really what sealed the game.”

City High never got closer than nine points in the fourth quarter as West High limited the Little Hawks to 20 percent shooting in the second half and forced 12 second-half turnovers.

“I thought it was great fight from our team,” McCaffery said. “We had a great defensive half, I think they only scored five in the fourth quarter so we are happy about that, coach is happy about that.”

Elser hit a pair of second-half 3-pointers and Headings had seven of his nine points in the third quarter as West High pulled away.

“Mason had been struggling finishing and he finished well tonight,” Bergman said. “We had some guys had tough games and some other guys stepped up. Greg Ford had a nice game and Henry hit some big threes.”

Jaxton Schroeder had a huge game for City High with 20 points and seven rebounds but the Rest of the Little Hawks combined for 19 points on 6-of-32 shooting from the floor.

West High      13  11  19  12  –  55

City High       13  11  10   5   –  39          

West High (55) – Ethan Headings 3-5 2-2 9, Jack Wallace 1-2 0-0 2, Mason Goering 4-5 3-3 11, Jack McCaffery 5-14 4-4 17, Julian Manson 2-6 0-2 4, Henry Elser 3-4 1-2 10, KingSton Swayzer 0-2 0-0 0, Greg Ford 1-1 0-0 2, Totals 19-39 10-13 55.

City High (39) – Jack Lampe 1-4 0-1 2, Iyon Harris 0-3 0-0 0, Ja’Vion Robinson 2-8 2-2 8, Christopher Watkins 1-4 0-0 2, Davion Luckett 1-7 1-2 4, Jaxton Schroeder 8-12 4-6 20, Parker Sutherland 1-6 1-2 3, Totals 14-44 8-13 39.

3-point field goals – West High 7-12 (Headings 1-2, McCaffery 3-7, Elser 3-3), City High 3-7 (Robinson 2-2, Watkins 0-1, Luckett 1-4). Rebounds – West High 29 (McCaffery 6, Goering 6), City High 23 (Schroeder 7). Total fouls – West High 12, City High 16. Turnovers – West High 19, City High 19. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – West High (Manson), City High (Robinson).

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