Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – It has been almost four full years since Sasha Koenig watched her older sister Tatum score career point number 1,000.

At the time that Tatum Koenig reached the 1,000-point mark Sasha Koenig had never played in a high school game yet alone scored a varsity point.

Four years later the younger Koenig remembers exactly how she felt seeing her sister reach the career milestone that few prep players achieve.

“I just remember thinking that it was the biggest and coolest accomplishment ever,” Sasha Koenig said. “Only elite, elite high schoolers do that and I thought of her as one of those players and I wanted to do the same thing.”

Last week Sasha Koenig saw her own 1,000-point goal come true.

Koenig became the fourth West Branch player to score 1,000 career points, and the first since her old sister in 2017, when she poured in 26 points in a 61-29 win over Northeast on Friday.

The win pushed top-ranked West Branch to 2-0 on the season and the season-high 26 points gave Koenig 1,020 for her career.

“I remember watching that ceremony when Tatum got it and she has her 1,000-point ball at home that everyone signed it and I wanted to do all those same things,” Sasha Koenig said. “It was a rush, it was really cool.”

A four-year starter Koenig knew she was closing in on 1,000 career points.

The senior point guard and Bradley recruit entered her final season just 20 points away from 1,000.

“Last year I knew I getting close, like 30 or 40 points away so I was hoping to get it at the state tournament,” Koenig said. “It didn’t work out but that’s o.k. It all worked out.”

After scoring 14 points in a season-opening win at Durant it didn’t take long for Koenig to reach the 1,000-point plateau on Friday.

“It was really exciting,” Koenig said. “My younger brother was sitting in the stands and he was yelling out ‘five more points to go’ then ‘four more points’. It was really exciting and super fun.”

With the edition of Sasha Koenig half of the 1,000 point scorers in West Branch program history are now Koenigs.

The two sisters join Kate Tuttle and Kelly Trimble as only Bears to reach 1,000 points.

“It’s amazing to be a part of it,” Sasha Koenig said. “(Coach) Jared (Tylee) is so good about it, he called a timeout and let our announcer announce it. It was really cool.”
Two games into her final season Koenig is averaging a team-high 20 points but has been just a part of an impressive start for Class 2A No. 1 West Branch.

Led by Koenig five Bears are averaging at least 7.5 points per game with junior Delaynie Luneckas (15 ppg) and senior Rylan Druecker (10.5 ppg) each averaging double figures.

“We are playing really well especially on the offensive end,” Koenig said. “We are getting plenty of good looks and putting up plenty of points I just think we are such an aggressive defensive team and I don’t think our defense is where it needs to be yet. These next couple of weeks we are going to really work on that and I think once we get that going we will exactly where we want to be at the right time going into the break.”

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