Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

MARION – Time and time again this season West High has relied on its defense.

On Monday the Trojans got a big boost from one of their defensive leaders.

Senior Tate Crane scored nine of his team-high 11 points during a 14-2 run to end the game as Class 4A West High rallied from a seven-point fourth quarter deficit to stun Linn-Mar 38-31 in Marion.

“We fell back on our defense the whole game,” Crane said. “We played so poorly offensively but we started pressing them and it worked for us. When we play aggressive, we play better.”

West High held Linn-Mar scoreless for more than five minutes during a 9-0 fourth-quarter run that erased a five-point deficit.

Crane had six points during that stretch as West High improved to 8-1 on the season with its fifth straight win.

“We were trying so hard to play to our potential and once we got that six-point swing it was really big for us,” Crane said. “We used that momentum for the rest of the game.”

West High (8-1) shot 23 percent through the first three quarters and trailed 27-20 when John Steffen converted a layup 10 seconds into the fourth quarter.

The Trojans still trailed 29-24 with under five minutes to play when a defensive play by Crane sparked a late rally.  

Crane came up with a steal and layup with 4:50 left and a Ben Vander Leest steal on the ensuing possession resulted in a transition layup by Joey Goodman just nine seconds later.

Crane gave West High the lead for good when he knocked down a 15-foot jumper with 3:25 left.

“We struggled shooting but if its there it’s there and you have to shoot it,” Crane said. “It was there and I had to knock it down.”

To say West High struggled shooting on Monday may be an understatement.

West High made four of 22 field goal attempts in the first half and was just 2-of-15 from 3-point range in the game.

It was once again defense that allowed the Trojans to escape.

“We’ve been guarding all year, I think it’s the best defensive team we have had in a while,” West High coach Steve Bergman said. “We are 8-1 and we have scored 60 points one time so clearly we are doing something right on defense.”

West High has held opponents to 40 points or fewer in five of nine games this season and is allowing just over 41 points per game.

On Monday the Lions barely broke 30.

West High limited Linn-Mar to a season-low 31 points on 32 percent shooting. Steffen accounted for half of the Lions’ scoring with 16 points on 7-of-21 shooting.

“Our defense kept us in the game and that’s kind of been our thing all year,” West High senior Even Brauns said. “Offensively we haven’t been the greatest some nights but defensively if we can get a spark, get a steal it’s demoralizing for them and we kind of feed off of that.”

Linn-Mar got the lead to 33-31 on a basket by Steffen with 48 seconds left but Crane and Nick Pepin combined to make 5-of-6 free throws in the final 45 seconds.

Brauns had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds for West High which has a quick turn around on Tuesday when it hosts second-ranked Waterloo West.

“It shows that we aren’t going to give up,” Brauns said. “Especially defensively we never put our heads down, we stayed with our game plan offensively things were obviously not working for us but just sticking to our game plan is really what got us through the game.”

Linn-Mar        5  7  13  6   –  31

West High      8  6   6  18  –  38

West High (38) – Tate Crane 4-7 3-6 11, Joey Goodman 2-3 2-3 6, Nick Pepin 2-12 3-4 9, Ben Vander Leest 1-6 0-0 2, Andrew Tauchen 0-2 0-0 0, Even Brauns 4-8 2-3 10, Team 13-38 10-16 38.

Linn-Mar (31) – Pearson Martin 0-0 1-2 1, Will Zahradnik 0-3 0-0 0, Cameron Guenther 3-6 0-0 6, Brady Klahn 0-3 2-2 2, Dylan Decklever 1-3 1-2 4, Luke Passmore 1-1 0-0 2, John Steffen 7-21 0-0 16, Team 12-37 4-6 31.

3-point field goals – ICW 2-15 (Pepin 2-8, Crane 0-1, Goodman 0-1, Vander Leest 0-3, Tauchen 0-2), L-M 3-9 (Steffen 2-8, Decklever 1-1). Rebounds – ICW 26 (Brauns 10), L-M 29 (Guenter 6). Turnovers – ICW 8, L-M 13. Total fouls – ICW 10, L-M 19. Fouled out – L-M (Klahn). Technical fouls – None.

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