Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Nick Pepin used his offense to give West High the momentum heading into the half of its substate semifinal against Ottumwa on Friday.

In the second half it was the defensive of Pepin and his West High teammates that helped the Trojans put the game away.

Pepin scored the final four points of the first half to give West High a 24-17 lead at intermission.

The senior guard then converted a pair of steals into layups during a 17-0 third-quarter run that helped Class 5A West High pull away for a 58-28 win over Ottumwa in a Substate 5 semifinal at West High.

“We struggled a little bit early on offense and our defense was a little slow as well,” Pepin said. “The second half we wanted to come out and show them that we have a pressure defense and step it up a notch.”

Pepin led three West High players in double figures with 12 points as the Trojans improved to 20-2 with their fifth consecutive win.

West High will face Pleasant Valley (13-10) in the Substate 5 title game on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Liberty High.

“It was a tough week for us, we had five days of practice and we were ready to play,” Pepin said. “We wanted to come out and show them we were ready.”

West High never trailed on Friday but found itself in a tie game midway through the second quarter after Ottumwa (13-10) made three 3-pointers during a 13-0 run that knotted the score at 17 with 4:20 left in the opening half.

Marcus Morgan stopped the spurt with a 3-pointer with 2:30 left in the first half and Pepin scored four points on a 3-pointer and a free throw in the final 97 seconds to put West High up 24-17 at the half.

West High put the game away with a 17-0 third-quarter run.

Pepin twice picked the pocket of Ottumwa ball handers converting layups on the other end as West High forced seven turnovers in the third quarter while outscoring Ottumwa 19-5.

“Reading the offensive player, his body language, his eyes, his movements once you get that first steal you get them a little scared,” Pepin said. “That’s what we did tonight.”

Ottumwa scored 13 points in a span of 1:42 during its 13-0 burst in the second quarter but managed just 15 points and went 0-of-13 from 3-point range over the rest of the game.

The Bulldogs were just 4-of-16 from the field in the second half and shot 33 percent for the game.

“It took them a half but we got it on defense,” West High coach Steve Bergman said. “They just have some guys that haven’t seen someone picking them up and guarding them like that.”

Meanwhile, West High was turning its defense into easy offense.

Senior Joey Goodman joined Pepin in turning a steal into a transition layup and Christian Barnes twice fed Ben Vander Leest for easy scores.  

Morgan and Vander Leest joined Pepin in double figures with 10 points as West High shot 70 percent in the second half and 61 percent for the game.

“We shot a lot of 3s, we had 13 at half and that’s too many,” Bergman said. “When you do a good job and you get steals you shoot layups and that’s what we did in the second half.”

West High      12  12  19  15  –  58

Ottumwa         4   13   5    6   –  38

West High (58) – Christian Barnes 3-4 0-0 8, Tate Crane 3-4 0-0 6, Joey Goodman 1-3 1-1 3, Nick Pepin 4-8 2-3 12, Marcus Morgan 4-7 0-0 10, Mikey Crutcher 1-1 0-0 2, Ben Vender Leest 3-5 4-4 10, Even Brauns 2-2 1-1 5, Nikolas Zamora 0-1 0-0 0, Aidan Terrill 1-1 0-0 2, Totals 22-36 8-9 58.

Ottumwa (38) – Gatlin Menninga 2-5 1-2 5, Caden Glosser 1-3 2-2 5, Tyler Schark 0-1 0-0 0, Joe Hammer 0-3 1-2 1, Drake Handling 0-1 0-0 0, Trae Swartz 3-8 0-0 7, Tayler Young 1-5 0-1 2, Adam Greiner 1-1 1-2 4, Matt Graeve 1-1 0-0 2, Steven Langland 1-2 0-1 3, Elias Elammari 0-0 0-2 0, Totals 10-30 5-12 38.

3-point field goals – ICW 6-15 (Morgan 2-5, Pepin 2-6, Goodman 0-1, Barnes 2-2, Zamora 0-1), OTT 3-16 (Swartz 1-6, Menninga 0-1, Glosser 1-3, Schark 0-1, Handling 0-1, Young 0-3, Greiner 1-1). Rebounds – ICW 22 (Brauns 6), OTT 17 (Menninga, Swartz 4). Turnovers – ICW 13, OTT 15. Total fouls – ICW 15, OTT 10. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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