McCaffery Carries West High Past City High in Cross-town Showdown
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
IOWA CITY – Four first-year starters in the West High lineup got their first taste of the annual cross-town showdown with City High on Friday night.
It was the veteran in the Trojan lineup that was the difference.
Senior Patrick McCaffery poured in a game-high 30 points as defending 4A runner-up West High (3-0) cruised to a 66-36 win over City High (2-1) in front of a near capacity crowd at City High.
“A lot of our guys hadn’t played in this game before but once we came out for warmups I knew they were going to be fine,” McCaffery said. “I think they handled themselves well.”
The new faces for West High had their moments on Friday.
Sophomore Marcus Morgan had 11 points in his first career start and junior Nick Pepin added seven points on 3-of-3 shooting.
It was McCaffery that was simply too much for the Little Hawks to handle.
The 6-foot-9 senior needed just 16 shots to scored a season-high 30 points as West High shot 56 percent from the field.
“One of the beauties of being able to run some motion is you can kind of do that a little bit where you can work people into positions where they are hard to guard,” West High coach Steve Bergman said of McCaffery. “The kid was physical with him and it bothered him a little bit early and then he just kind of got into a rhythm.”
The newcomers got West High going early.
Morgan had a 3-pointer, Regina transfer Even Brauns had a bucket in the paint and Pepin had a pair of transition layups to put West High up 11-6.
McCaffery had just four points on three shot attempts in the first quarter as West High led 13-6.
“I always like trying to get everybody else going early because I know that I can get going when I need to get going,” McCaffery said. “I try to get everyone some easy looks early and we had a decent lead going into the end of the quarter.”
McCaffery took over in the second quarter.
City High cut the lead to 13-11 on a Ry Threlkeld-Wiegand 3-pointer but McCaffery scored the next seven points to start a 10-0 West High run.
McCaffery had 12 of the Trojans’ 18 second-quarter points as West High took a 31-14 halftime lead.
West High held City High to just three points, on an Antonio Turner 3-pointer, over the final 6:35 of the first half.
“We played well and got a lead,” Bergman said. “I thought our defense was better we have really struggled in practice and in the last couple of games defensively so it’s been a huge focus and it should get better with all the time we are putting in to it.”
When McCaffery wasn’t busy posing problems for City High defenders he was making life difficult for turner on the defensive end.
McCaffery spent most of the game shadowing the 5-foot-9 senior point guard who entered the game leading City High with 21 points per game.
“Antonio is a really talented player, I’ve been playing against him for a long time so I know how talented he is,” McCaffery said. “We know that he is their catalyst and makes them go so if I can slow him down in any way it makes it hard for their offense because he is so good for them.”
McCaffery held Turner to six points on 2-of-11 shooting as City High shot just 32 percent from the field while scoring a season-low 36 points.
“That is a very veteran team, I think four of those guys have played for two years and it’s the third year for some of them,” Bergman said. “It’s a veteran team and I thought we had good matchups if Patrick could guard Turner and he did.”
Threlkeld-Wiegand led City High with seven points but Turner was the only other Little Hawk with more than four.
“Their pressure affected us on offense and we had a tough time getting things going and that led to them getting a couple of run outs,” City High coach Derek Roberts said. “Credit them for executing.”
West High 13 18 20 15 – 66
City High 6 8 12 10 – 36
West High (66) – Jacob Klein 1-3 0-0 3, Brayden Adcock 0-2 1-2 1, Joey Goodman 1-3 0-0 3, Nick Pepin 3-3 0-0 7, Marcus Morgan 3-5 3-4 11, Patrick McCaffery 11-16 7-16 30, Ben Vander Leest 1-3 0-0 3, Charlie Moreland 1-1 0-0 2, Even Brauns 2-5 2-3 6, Cole Mabry 0-0 1-2 1, Team 23-41 14-27 66
City High (36) – Antonio Turner 2-11 1-2 6, Luke Young 1-1 0-0 3, Carter Westlake 0-3 1-2 1, Jason Allen 1-3 2-2 4, Quincy Wells 1-1 0-0 3, DeAngelo McNeil 2-3 0-0 4, Jamari Newsom 1-3 0-0 2, Ry Threlkeld-Wiegand 2-2 1-4 7, Jackson Walthart 0-1 0-0 0, Traivon Hodges 1-3 0-0 2, Liam McComas 0-5 0-0 0, Wyatt Streeby 1-2 2-2 4, Team 12-38 7-12 36
3-point field goals – ICH 5-12 (Turner 1-5, Young 1-1, Westlake 0-3, Wells 1-1, Threlkeld-Wiegand 2-2), ICW 6-13 (Klein 1-3, Adcock 0-1, Goodman 0-1, Pepin 1-1, Morgan 2-4, McCaffery 1-2, Vander Leest 1-1). Rebounds – ICH 20 (Streeby 7), ICW 35 (Brauns 8). Turnovers – ICH 12, ICW 8. Total fouls – ICH 21, ICW 12. Fouled out – ICW (Brauns), ICH (Threlkeld-Wiegand). Technical fouls – ICH (Wells), ICW (Brauns).