Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CORALVILLE – It was the perimeter shooting of Jacob Koch in the second half that swung Sunday’s cross-town showdown between West High and Liberty High to the Trojans.

Before Koch heated up from 3-point range it was an emphatic two-point shot that got the senior guard going.

Koch hammered home a one-handed dunk to cap a 6-0 run in the first quarter to provide an early spark, drilled four 3-pointers in the third quarter and finished with a game-high 25 points as West High pulled away for a 74-53 win over Liberty High at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

“We ran more of our stuff in the second half,” Koch said. “We were a little out of sorts in the first half, we were taking some bad shots, but in the second half we really started to run stuff in our offense and that helped us a lot.”

West High (3-0) got 20 points and eight rebounds from junior Jack McCaffery and 14 points from senior Kareem early but it was Koch that came up big as the Trojans broke open a three-point game in the second half.

Koch hit back-to-back 3-pointers to spark a 13-3 West High run to open the third quarter and buried two more triples in a 10-2 barrage to end the third.

“Confidence is huge in shooting,” Koch said. “Once you hit that first one it’s so big.”

Koch had 14 of his game-high 25 points in the third quarter as West High went 10-of-16 from the field, including 5-of-7 from 3-point range, while outscoring Liberty High 25-10 to burst open a 31-28 game at the half.

“Koch really got going in the second half and that was a killer,” Liberty High coach Ryan Kelley said. “He shot the ball really well tonight so kudos to him.”
Koch, and the rest of the Trojans were fantastic after halftime shooting 56 percent in the second half.

However, for Koch it was the early dunk after a steal that gave the Trojans a 10-6 lead that provided a boost.

It was the first career dunk for the 6-foot senior guard who is averaging 15.3 points through the first three games for unbeaten West High.

“I had been telling everyone I was finally getting one this year and nobody believed me but I finally got it,” Koch said. “That really got me going, your energy is way up it’s so much fun when you can get a play like that.”

McCaffery gave West High a boost late in the first half with his own two-handed slam off a steal that put the Trojans up 31-28 at the half.

The second half was all West High and Koch.

“It was really energy on both ends,” McCaffery said. “I thought we came out flat which is weird in a game like this in this environment but I don’t think we handled that very well in the first half and we really executed our stuff a lot better in the second half and ran more and we finally got some stops.”

Koch hit two 3-pointers in the opening two minutes to spark a 13-3 West High burst that pushed the margin to 44-31.

“The second half we finally ran an offense,” West High coach Steve Bergman said. “It’s a constant thing with every coach, I don’t think this is just my guys but you are just constantly reminding them that any shot is not a good shot. I think all coaches probably struggle with that and the first half I don’t know what we were doing but we weren’t running any offense.”

West High put the game away with a 10-0 run to close the third quarter that featured eight points from Koch on a pair of 3-pointers and a steal and layup.

Koch finished 10-of-14 from the field including 5-of-7 from 3-point range as West High shot 48 percent for the game.

Freshman Jerimiah Washpun had 14 points and Cooper Webb had 10 points to lead Liberty High which dropped to 1-2 with its second consecutive loss.

“They are a good basketball team and they have a lot of good pieces but we executed our game plan in the first half and we didn’t execute our game plan in the second half and that was the biggest thing,” Kelley said. “We had three keys offensively and three keys defensively and in the second half we didn’t do two of the three offensively and we didn’t do two of the three defensively.”

Liberty High                          10  18  10  15  –  53

West High                              13  18  25  18  –  74

Liberty High (53) – Jerimiah Washpun 5-8 1-2 14, Maddoc Coapstick 2-7 0-0 5, Collin Decker 1-5 2-2 4, Stephen Cain 1-4 0-0 2, Gage Kampman 2-2 1-2 5, Shea Sanders 1-3 0-0 2, Cael Schramm 2-4 1-3 5, Cooper Webb 5-7 0-0 10, Trey Williams 1-1 0-0 2, Jacob Stapleton 0-1 0-0 0, Trey Hughes 2-10 0-0 4, Totals 22-52 5-9 74.

West High (74) – Canaan Barnes 1-2 0-0 2, Jacob Koch 10-14 0-2 25, Henry Elser 1-1 0-0 3, Adrien Westergaard 0-1 0-0 0, Jack McCaffery 9-18 1-3 20, Kareem Earl 6-13 1-3 14, Hayden Umoren 0-4 0-0 0, Jack Wallace 0-1 0-0 0, Julian Manson 2-8 0-0 4, Mason Goering 3-4 0-0 6, Totals 32-66 2-8 74.

3-point field goals – ICL 4-12 (Hughes 0-3, Stapleton 0-1, Webb 0-2, Decker 0-1, Coapstick 1-1, Washpun 3-4), ICW 8-20 (Koch 5-7, Westergaard 0-1, McCaffery 1-6, Earl 1-3, Umoren 0-1, Manson 0-1, Elser 1-1). Rebounds – ICL 32 (Hughes 5, Schramm 5), ICW 37 (Goering 9). Turnovers – ICL 16, ICW 8. Total fouls – ICL 9, ICW 13. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – ICW (McCaffery).

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