Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CORALVILLE – Samuel Mbingazo is in his first season at City High but the 6-foot-9 freshman from Congo already knows all about the Little Hawks’ rivalry with West High.

“It’s my first year here but I knew when I came here how City High and West High are,” Mbingazo explained with help from teammate and translator Mack Kuyu.

Mbingazo didn’t waste any time in making his mark in the latest chapter of the storied cross-town rivalry.

A late putback by Mbingazo proved to be the game-winner as City High stunned Class 4A No. 10 West High 64-63 on Sunday at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

Mbingazo’s short jumper off an offensive rebound with 11 seconds left gave City High the late lead and West High committed its only turnover of the fourth quarter attempting to inbound the ball with 3.3 seconds left as City High defeated West High for the first time since 2020.

“We were down one, if we missed a shot we were going to lose because we were down to a few seconds,” Mbingazo said. “I gave it my all to get the ball and to finish.”

Shamar Benton led three City High players in double figures as the Little Hawks snapped a two-game skid to the Trojans and improved to 4-4 on the season.

West High dropped to 6-3 with its second loss in three days after falling to 3A top-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier 64-62 on Friday.

“It means a lot,” Benton said. “They beat us twice last year so it means a lot to come back and get a win against them because they are a great team.”

Benton led City High with 16 points and Mbingazo had the go-ahead bucket late but every Little Hawk seemed to have a hand in Sunday’s win.

Mbingazo finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, sophomore guard Trey Wright had 14 points and senior Evan Lampe had seven points and 13 rebounds.

“We don’t focus on one guy to do the scoring,” Lampe said. “We are going to win games if we distribute the ball and that’s what we were able to do.”

City High used an 8-0 run early in the second quarter to take a 23-16 lead and led 33-30 at the half.

The Little Hawks led by as many as 10 in the third quarter and didn’t trail until West High rattled off an 8-0 run to take a 63-59 lead with 1:12 remaining.

City High responded by outscoring West High 5-0 over the final 56 seconds.

“We start games so well all the time, it happened last year against West when we were up 12 and then we lost it,” Lampe said. “This year we made an emphasis on finishing. Finish the game is what we had to do and we did.”

A corner 3-pointer by senior Thomas Ksobiech cut the West High lead to 63-62 with 56 seconds left and City High responded with a defensive stop on the ensuing possession.

“Thomas last year was not confident in his jump shot and this year he is hitting three after three after three,” Lampe said. “I can’t even explain how happy I am for him.”

City High then took the lead as Mbingazo grabbed a rebound after a Lampe miss and hit a six foot jumper with 11 seconds left.

“It was awesome that he got the game winner,” City High coach Brennan Swayzer said. “I’m just really happy for Samuel because this is some of the best basketball he has played.”

City High got seven points from Matt Schaeckenbach off the bench and six from Ksobiech as the Little Hawks shot 47 percent from the floor.

The Little Hawks held a 36-19 rebounding edge that included 15 offensive rebounds, 11 of which came from Lampe and Mbingazo.

“That’s one of the most established programs in the state so it does a lot for our guys’ confidence to be able to see if we come out and execute our stuff we can play with some of the best teams in the state,” Swayzer said. “I am just really happy for these guys.”

Sophomore Jack McCaffery had a game-high 22 points on 10-of-15 shooting and freshman JuJu Manson added 16 points and seven rebounds to lead West High.

Brady Simcox had 10 points for West High as the Trojans shot 55 percent from the floor.

West High                  12  18  16  17  –  63

City High                     13  20  17  14  –  64

West High (63) – TaeVeon Stevens 2-6 4-4 8, Ben Hoefer 0-1 0-0 0, Jacob Koch 2-4 0-0 5, Brady Simcox 4-5 1-1 10, Jack McCaffery 10-15 0-1 22, Aidan Jacobsen 1-2 0-0 2, JuJu Manson 5-11 6-8 16, Totals 24-44 11-14 63.

City High (64) – Trey Wright 5-7 3-5 14, Andre Wright 2-3 0-0 4, Thomas Ksobiech 2-7 0-0 6, Matt Schaeckenbach 3-5 1-1 7, Shamar Benton 7-16 2-2 16, Kris Freeman 0-1 0-0 0, Evan Lampe 3-9 1-1 7, Samuel Mbingazo 5-9 0-0 10, Totals 27-57 7-9 64.

3-point field goals – ICH 3-11 (T. Wright 1-2, A. Wright 0-1, Ksobiech 2-5, Benton 0-3), ICW 4-14 (Stevens 0-3, Hoefer 0-1, Koch 1-2, Simcox 1-1, McCaffery 2-6, Manson 0-1). Rebounds – ICH 36 (Lampe 13), ICW 19 (Manson 7). Turnovers – ICH 11, ICW 12. Total fouls – ICH 15, ICW 8. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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