Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Pick any attribute that a top-ranked team should possess and chances are pretty good City High has got it.

Length, athleticism and speed? The Little Hawks have all three.

Balanced scoring, outside shooters and a little depth. Check, check and check.

City High relied on all of those things in its top-10 matchup with cross-town rival West High on Friday along with perhaps its most valuable quality – experience.

Behind its full-court defense Class 5A top-ranked City High (3-0) created a frantic early pace that resulted in a 21-4 lead less than five minutes into the game and rolled to a 75-56 win over West High (2-2) in front of a raucous crowd at City High.

“I know the feeling of when you are a freshman or a sophomore and you are playing in this game for the first time, it’s a high intensity game and there is a lot of pressure,” City High senior point guard Rose Nkumu said. “We’ve got some seniors that have been through it and we knew they were young and we were able to capitalize on that early on and force them into some turnovers.”

Nkumu had 11 of her 15 points in the opening quarter as City High bolted to a 29-14 lead that would never be threatened.

The Little Hawk senior backcourt of Paige Rocca, Aubrey Joens and Nkumu combined for 18 points in the opening quarter as the Little Hawks built what proved to be an insurmountable lead.

“It helps that a lot of our players have been in these situations and played in this game,” Joens said. “Knowing that they haven’t we wanted to pressure them a lot and try to force some turnovers.”

City High came out on fire.

Freshman Kelsey Joens hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the opening 40 seconds and Aubrey Joens scored following a West High turnover in the back court to put City High up 8-0 just 61 seconds into the game.

“We were able to push the tempo and we wanted to make them play at our speed,” Nkumu said. “We like to play fast and get the ball going so that full court pressure in the first quarter really made the difference.”

The lead ballooned to 21-4 less than five minutes in as City High used its full-court man-to-man defense to force West High into seven of its 18 turnovers in the opening six minutes.

Nkumu started an 11-0 City High run with a 3-pointer and scored twice on layups after steals as City High led 21-4 with 3:37 left in the opening quarter.

“They are very experienced,” West High coach BJ Mayer said. “Their kids have been playing for a long time and we have a couple of kids that have played for a long time but we have a lot of young kids and they haven’t been in these games and you could see that right away.”

West High got the margin to 29-14 at the end of the first quarter and junior Audrey Kock kept the Women of Troy afloat in the second quarter.

Koch scored 14 of West High’s 17 second-quarter points as the Women of Troy cut the lead to 11 with under a minute to play in the opening half.

“The thing I was really pleased with is we starting fighting back and competing,” Mayer said. “I think we learned a lot about ourselves and how to play the game at a high level because City High is a really, really good team.”

City High pushed the lead back to 46-15 at halftime as Kelsey Joens nailed a 3-pointer before the halftime buzzer.

West High would get no closer than 13 the rest of the way.

“It takes a lot to get back in a game like that,” City High coach Bill McTaggart said. “We’ve been behind like that before and it takes a lot of energy to come back and they made a run but we were able to keep it at 15 most of the game.”

Aubrey Joens led four City High players in double figures with a team-high 21 points to go with eight rebounds.

Nkumu and Kelsey Joens each had 15 points while Rocca added 13.

Four different Little Hawks combined to make 11 three-pointers as City High shot 43 percent from the floor.

“Everyone knocking down shots is really hard to guard,” Aubrey Joens said. “Everyone knocked down their shots today and that was great.”

The 19-point win was the most lopsided game in the series since a 74-46 West High win on January 9 of 2015 and came after West High won the second of two meetings between the two teams last season.  

“They are a really good team and it’s always fun playing against West,” Rocca said. “This is a non-conference game in December so it really doesn’t matter that much but it still matters to us.”

Koch had a game-high 29 points on 10-of-13 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds to lead West High.

“She does a lot for us and she is really unselfish too,” Mayer said. “We need a lot from her, her offensive game is there but we are going to need the rebounding and leadership and all that stuff out of her as well.”

City High        29  17  14  15  –  75

West High     14  17  14  11  –  56

City High (75) – Rose Nkumu 7-13 0-0 15, Kelsey Joens 4-13 3-4 15, Eviyon Richardson 0-4 3-7 3, Andie Westlake 1-1 0-1 2, Ella Cook 3-8 0-2 6, Paige Rocca 5-12 0-2 13, Aubrey Joens 9-16 0-1 21, Team 29-67 6-17 75.

West High (56) – Matayia Tellis 4-7 0-1 8, Cora Saunders 1-6 0-0 3, Meena Tate 3-9 1-2 8, Grace Schneider 0-2 0-0 0, Jenna Saunders 2-4 2-2 7, Audrey Koch 10-13 7-9 29, Anna Prouty 0-1 1-3 1, Team 20-42 11-17 56.

3-point field goals – ICH 11-34 (Nkumu 1-5, K. Joens 4-12, Richardson 0-1, Cook 0-3, Rocca 3-7, A. Joens 3-6), ICW 5-17 (Tellis 0-1, C. Saunders 1-5, Tate 1-4, J. Saunders 1-3, Koch 2-4). Rebounds – ICH 36 (Nkumu, A. Joens 8), ICW 25 (Koch 7). Turnovers – ICH 5, ICW 18. Total fouls – ICH 18, ICW 17. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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