Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – The West High boys basketball team is a creature of all-consuming annoyance created and nurtured by head coach Steve Bergman.

The Trojan defense is enough to drive any opponent mad, and it surely did Tuesday night in a 55-36 substate final victory over Pleasant Valley at Liberty High.

The Trojans (21-2) qualified for their 10th consecutive 4A state tournament in Des Moines and 20th overall.  Bergman has coached 19 of those teams.

“It is cool. Last year I was a junior, so I didn’t play a whole lot,” senior Joey Goodman said. “This year I feel like we’re a great team looking to come together. My dad and my grandpa won state tournaments, so I’d like to win one too. It’s really cool, so there’s a lot of history there.” “Coming off last year we’ve got some unfinished business there,” junior Marcus Morgan said.

State tournament pairings will be released Wednesday.

The players willingly swear allegiance to Bergman’s cult of belly-button, man-to-man defense.

“We preach it every year,” senior Tate Crane said. “This year we preached it a little bit more probably because we have more seniors. All the starters and seven men deep have been through this program for three or four years.”

“I’d say defense is kind of the backbone of our program, something we work on a lot especially early on in the year,” Goodman said.

“Just solid, steady,” Morgan said. “Gritty. We get after it. We’re out there running around, talking; we’re just getting after it.”

The Trojans constantly move their feet.

Whether side to side, up and back or down the baseline they are chasing and closing and never letting their guy see daylight.

Their heads swivel side to side to make sure they know where everyone is on the court and that no one gets behind them.

It’s a constant state of motion and energy and vigilance.

“The first thing that comes to mind is pressure,” Goodman said. “We like to get in the passing lanes and deny the ball. A lot of talk and a lot of communication.”

It’s as if you’ve spent the morning at the beach and for the next three days you can’t get rid of the sand that still clings to every nook and cranny on your body.

It’s annoying as heck; it’s frustrating.

“We hope so,” Goodman said, grinning. “That’s a big part of it.”

“We get that a lot. They definitely don’t like us getting up into them,” Crane said.

That defense held Pleasant Valley to .368 shooting overall and .333 in the decisive first half.

The Spartans only average 40 percent from the field, but they couldn’t get there against West High.

The second quarter was key. The Spartans missed all five of their shots and managed only three free throws.

Late in the first quarter with the game tied at 10 the Spartans switched to a zone defense, perhaps to deter West High center Even Brauns, who had six early points. But all that did was open the floodgates for an 18-0 Trojan run.

Crane hit a three to start the run. Morgan added two more to close out the first period.

Morgan then scored on a back cut, and Nicholas Pepin made a three.

Brauns scored inside, and Morgan went back door for a 28-10 lead.

“Marcus hit a lot of shots; that was huge for us,” Goodman said. “It’s weird to say defense broke it open, but to hold them to 13 points in the first half, that was huge for us.”

“Credit that to our defense,” Morgan said. “I don’t think they scored for a while.”

“Our energy picked up on defense and our defense turned into offense,” Crane said. “It was kind of that spark. We all bear down and got it done.”

While West High was rippling the nets the Spartans went seven scoreless possessions, missing four shots and committing four turnovers.

The Trojans led 32-13 at halftime.

The Spartans (13-11) got within 10 in the fourth quarter, but in the final five minutes West outscored them 11-2 to finish the deal.

The Trojans were efficient offensively, making 19-of-29 shots (.655) overall and 5-of-12 threes. Morgan had 17 points, Brauns 14 and Pepin 13 to lead the Trojans.

Pleasant Valley          10   3   15   8  –  36

West High                    19  13   9   14  –  55

Pleasant Valley (36) – Ryan Dolphin 2-11 2-2 6, Jacob Townsend 5-13 2-2 12, Matt Mickle 2-4 0-0 6, Carter Cline 1-3 0-1 3, C.J. Ragins 4-7 1-2 9, Joey Borbeck 0-0 0-0 0, Jack Donahue 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 14-38 5-7.

West High (55) – Tate Crane 2-4 0-0 5, Joey Goodman 1-1 2-4 4, Nicholas Pepin 4-6 3-3 13, Marcus Morgan 5-7 5-6 17, Even Brauns 6-7 2-4 14, Ben Vander Leest 1-3 0-0 2, Christian Barnes 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 19-29 12-17.

3-point goals – Pleasant Valley 3-10 (Dolphin 0-3, Townsend 0-1, Mickle 2-3, Cline 1-3); West High 5-12 (Crane 1-2, Pepin 2-4, Morgan 2-4, Vander Leest 0-1, Barnes 0-1). Total fouls – Pleasant Valley 19, West High 13. Fouled out – None.

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