Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The survive and advance portion of the prep basketball season is still a couple of months away.

That didn’t stop Friday’s cross-town matchup between City High and West High from having that same type of feel for the Trojans.

West High overcame an uneven offensive performance that featured 20 turnovers to escape with a 55-46 win over City High in front of a fired up near-capacity crowd at City High.

Even Brauns had 17 points and seven rebounds and Marcus Morgan added nine points and 11 boards as West High improved to 3-0 with its seventh straight win over City High.

“We didn’t play the best but it feels good to get out of here with a win because this is an environment where anything can happen,” Brauns said. “It’s kind of sigh of relief.”

West High never trailed but couldn’t completely shake free of City High (1-2) until the final few minutes.

The Trojans led 20-11 after the opening quarter but totaled just 21 points over the next 16 minutes while committing 10 turnovers.

“We are frustrated because at this point we haven’t developed an identity offensively,” West High coach Steve Berman said. “I like our defense for the most part and we did some good stuff in the first half but 11 turnovers made us have a bad offensive half.”

While West High struggled at times offensively on Friday, shooting 44 percent from the floor and committing 20 turnovers, the Trojans were impressive on the defensive end.

West High forced City High in 25 turnovers, including 22 in the first three quarters while building a 14-point lead.

The Little Hawks shot 32 percent from the floor with senior Keshawn Christian accounting for 28 of City High’s 46 points.

“I think we scouted well, we knew who their shooters were and we helped based off of that,” Morgan said. “We did a good job of helping off guys and making it tough for Christian and (Byron) Benton to get to the basket.”

Brauns scored West High’s first six points and had eight of his 17 in the opening quarter as West High built a 20-11 lead.

“We knew they didn’t have anyone my size so we were trying to play through me,” Braun said. “I was a little overaggressive on some of those but we wanted to pound the ball inside and go from there.”

City High got the lead to nine on a Christian 3-pointer with 5:30 left in the third quarter but West High rattled off seven straight points capped by a Tate Crane 3-pointer to push the margin to 41-25.

Joey Goodman had eight points for West High while Crane and Nick Pepin each had seven.

“Tate has turned himself into a really good rebounder and a really good defender,” Bergman said. “Tate has really stepped up and taken that role on.”

City High attempted to make one final run early in the fourth quarter but Brauns scored the first seven West High points of the final period to keep the cushion in double figures.

The 6-foot-9 senior finished 7-of-8 from the field connecting on his final seven shots.

“We told him to get in the paint where they can’t guard him,” Bergman said. “He did some good stuff, he blocked shots and we had him on a tough matchup at times because when they don’t have a center in there he has to guard the perimeter and he did a good job in the first half.”

Christian led City High with 28 points and 12 rebounds.

The nine-point win was the first game decided by single digits in the series since a 66-63 West High win on February 13 of 2015.

“I think we all have the feeling that we could have played better but we are always happy to get a win especially over here,” Morgan said. “It’s a in-town team and we’ve played against these guys growing up and it’s always a hostile environment over here with a great crowd so it’s always fun.”

City High         11  7   9   19  –  46

West High      20  9  12  14  –  55

West High (55) – Christian Barnes 2-4 0-0 5, Charlie Moreland 0-1 0-0 0, Tate Crane 2-3 2-4 7, Joey Goodman 4-9 0-1 8, Nick Pepin 2-6 3-5 7, Marcus Morgan 2-8 3-7 9, Ben Vander Leest 1-6 0-0 2, Even Brauns 7-8 3-5 17, Team 20-45 13-22 55.

City High (46) – Keyoun Agee 0-1 0-0 0, Kolby Kucera 3-5 2-3 10, Andre Miller 1-2 0-0 3, Byron Benton 0-7 1-2 1, Jamari Newson 1-9 0-0 2, Antrell Foster 0-1 0-0 0, Keshawn Christian 8-18 10-11 28, Kaleba Jack 1-1 0-0 2, Team 14-44 13-16 46.

3-point field goals – ICH 5-16 (Kucera 2-3, Miller 1-2, Benton 0-1, Newson 0-4, Foster 0-1, Christian 2-5), ICW 2-11 (Barnes 1-3, Moreland 0-1, Crane 1-1, Pepin 0-3, Morgan 0-2, Vander Leest 0-1). Rebounds – ICH 29 (Christian 12), ICW 33 (Morgan 11). Turnovers – ICH 25, ICW 20. Total fouls – ICH 24, ICW 14. Fouled out – ICH (Agee, Newson). Technical fouls – None.

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