Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The two-week stretch on the West High schedule filled with ranked teams was summed up in 90 minutes on Friday night.

West High had opportunities for a breakthrough win against a highly ranked opponent but for the third straight game and fourth time in two weeks the Women of Troy had to settle for just being close.

Class 5A ninth-ranked West High let a fourth-quarter lead slip away in a 62-58 loss to second-ranked Cedar Falls (17-1) in a Mississippi Valley Conference top-10 showdown at West High.

It was the third straight single digit loss to a ranked team for West High (11-6) which has lost four of its last five during a stretch of six straight against top-15 opponents.

“We have played seven or eight straight ranked teams and I don’t know too many people that have done that but eventually you have got to get a win,” West High coach BJ Mayer said. “The only thing that is going to create some more confidence is being able to win one of these big games and we are close but close doesn’t always cut it.”

West High was close to an upset on Tuesday against top-ranked City High, falling 79-70 and was even closer to a signature win on Friday.

The Women of Troy led 31-30 at halftime and held a 44-42 lead early in the fourth quarter.

“We’ve been in really close situations the last three games and losing all three of those is frustrating,” West High senior Rachael Saunders said. “It’s frustrating but it also gives us that confidence that we are so close, we just have a few more things to tweak and we would have won two or three of those games.”

Cedar Falls led 11-4 just more than two minutes into the game but West High wasn’t going to go without a fight.

The Women of Troy trailed just 18-16 after the first quarter and scored five unanswered points in the final 16 seconds of the first half to take its first lead at 31-30 on a Logan Cook 3-pointer that just beat the halftime buzzer.

A Lauren Zacharias 3-pointer and short jumper by Cook to open the third quarter gave West High its’ biggest lead of the game at 36-30.

West High took its final lead at 44-42 on a pair of free throws by Cailyn Morgan with 7:30 left.

Cedar Falls responded with an 11-0 run, holding West High scoreless for more than four minutes while building a 53-44 lead it would never give up.

“It’s a little frustrating because we are so close to winning,” Zacharias said. “It’s that little focus that we need to knock ourselves back into. It’s frustrating but I know we will get back into it.”

West High battled back and had chances late.

Morgan got West High to within 59-57 with a driving layup and had a chance to tie the game after drawing a foul following a steal of the ensuing inbounds pass.

The junior missed two free throws with 19.7 seconds left and couldn’t get a put back to go and Cedar Falls held on.  

“We are seeing the effort and the execution is getting better,” Mayer said. “We missed some free throws down the stretch, we gave up an offensive rebound on a free throw for a putback and we still have a shot to tie late in the game.

Logan Cook led three West High players in double figures with 17 points.

Saunders had 14, Morgan 12 and Zacharias nine for the Women of Troy.

Cedar Falls matched the offensive balance of West High.

Freshman Anaya Barney had 17 points while Emerson Green had 16, Kiana Barney 12 and Kamryn Finley 11.

“Almost all five of their kids are averaging in double figures so it’s not like you can say ‘that kid can’t score’,” Mayer said. “They are good, they are number two for a reason, they probably have five DI kids on their team and we were toe to toe with them.”

Things don’t get much easier for West High going forward.

The Women of Troy face a tight turnaround, travelling to Peoria, Illinois on Saturday to take on Illinois power Montini Catholic at 5 p.m.

Following another close call on Friday the thought of an opportunity to play again in less than 24 hours was appealing to West High.

“We’ve been in this situation before and done drills in the back room after the game,” Saunders said. “Getting that short-term memory going is really important for us getting back on the horse tomorrow and next week.”

Saturday’s test against second-ranked Montini Catholic concludes a wild stretch of schedule for West High that began with a Jan. 15 loss to Bolingbrook, Illinois.

West High closes out the regular season with games against three conference opponents that have 17 combined wins between them.

“I was figuring between Hopkins, City, Cedar Falls, Bolingbrook and Montini they are 88-6 going into tonight,” Mayer said. “So, it’s not like we are playing terrible teams and we know that is going to make us better. We keep putting ourselves in situations and hopefully we can gain a little confidence. Part of it is the schedule but there is nothing you can do about the schedule now you have to go out and get a W. At some point we just need to do that and finish one.”

<!–[endif]–>West High      16  15  11  16  –  58

Cedar Falls    18  12  12  20  –  62

West High (58) – Cailyn Morgan 4-13 2-4 12, Lauren Zacharias 3-6 0-0 9, Rachael Saunders 4-5 4-6 14, Logan Cook 6-12 4-6 17, Audrey Koch 0-2 0-0 0, Emma Koch 3-5 0-2 6, Paige Beckner 0-1 0-0 0, Team 20-44 10-18 58.

Cedar Falls (62) – Anaya Barney 5-7 5-8 17, Emerson Green 4-9 7-8 16, Kamryn Finley 5-15 0-1 11, Olivia Remmert 1-1 0-1 2, McKenna Gleason 0-2 2-2 2, Kiana Barney 4-7 2-4 12, Cynthia Wolf 0-1 2-2 2, Team 19-42 18-26 62.

3-point field goals – ICW 8-19 (Morgan 2-6, Zacharias 3-5, Saunders 2-3, Cook 1-4, E. Koch 0-1); CF (A. Barney 2-3, Green 1-2, Finley 1-3, Gleason 0-1, K. Barney 2-4, Wolf 0-1). Rebounds – ICW 28 (Morgan 7); CF 27 (Wolf, K. Barney 6). Turnovers – ICW 17, CF 14. Total fouls – ICW 16, CF 14. Fouled out – CF (Wolf). Technical fouls – None.