Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The last two seasons for West High have ended the same way with losses in the substate semifinals.

In each of those two seasons the Trojans felt they faded down the stretch.

An older, more experienced and physically stronger West High team is intent on reversing that late-season trend this postseason.

“By the end of year (last year) we all kind of felt tired and we had to make sure that didn’t happen again this year,” West High senior Jacob Koch said. “We have to make sure we are all 100 percent and playing our best.”

West High showed no signs of a late-season fade in its postseason opener on Friday.

Class 4A seventh-ranked West High shot 70 percent from the floor while putting up a season-high point total in a 90-50 win over Davenport North (12-11) in a Substate 3 semifinal in Iowa City.

“I think this is the best basketball we have played in the last couple of weeks,” West High junior Jack McCaffery said. “We really worked hard in practice these last few days and came out with a win.”

McCaffery had a game-high 22 points and Koch added 19 to lead four players in double figures as West High (19-3) advance to the Substate 3 title game.

West High will face Bettendorf (16-6) on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Aliant Energy Powerhouse in Cedar Rapids as it attempts to secure its first trip to state since 2020.

“I thought we wore down the past couple of years just because we didn’t have as much depth,” McCaffery said. “We have a lot more depth this year which helps and we have guys that can step up.”

West High hadn’t been past the substate semifinals since its last state tournament appearance in 2020.

The Trojans cleared that hurdle with ease on Friday in no small part due to what occurred in the offseason.

McCaffery and Koch along with senior Kareem Earl were all key pieces of the West High teams that had early postseason exits the past two years.

All three, along with the rest of the Trojans spent the offseason getting stronger which is hoping helping West High peak rather than faulter late in the season.

“We are stronger,” West High coach Steve Berman said. “Weak guys wear down and we talked about that in the offseason and I think our guys have done a good job with the weights and that’s a big deal.”

West High was locked in on both ends of the court on Friday.

The Trojans jumped to an early 25-12 after the opening quarter and never slowed down.

“I think we ran our offense really well,” Koch said. “We ran through our everything how we practice and we’ve been working on our sets tonight and we ran it well tonight.”

McCaffery helped West High put the game out of reach in the third quarter.

The 6-foot-8 junior hit all six of his third-quarter field goal attempts and had 12 of the Trojans’ 30 third-quarter points.

“It looked like practice, every time we got him the ball he was finishing,” Koch said of McCaffery. “They brought three guys and he was finishing over all of them. It’s impossible to guard when he does that.”

West High made 37-of-53 field goal attempts, including 6-of-7 3-point attempts and had seven players score at least six points.

Sophomore Julian Manson had 12 points, Early had 11 and Taeveon Stevens had nine.

“I thought the two days off were good for us and we had two really tough fundamental practices and that helped,” Berman said.

Chris Moss had 15 points and Justin Collins added 12 points for Davenport North.

Davenport North                   12  10  13  15  –  50

West High                              25  16  30  19  –  90           

Davenport North (50) – Tenerick Brady 4-8 2-2 10, Darrien Manning 0-2 0-0 0, Justin Collins 5-8 1-2 12, Amare Haynes 1-1 0-0 2, Jazire McDuffy 0-1 2-2 2, Tsuirad Moore 2-2 0-1 4, DeAndre Smith 0-3 0-0 0, Johnale Johnson Jr. 0-2 2-2 2, Chris Moss 5-12 4-4 15, Jimmy Carter 0-0 1-4 1, Gavin McClellan 1-1 0-0 2, Totals 18-40 12-17 50.

West High (90) – TaeVeon Stevens 4-6 0-0 9, Canaan Barnes 0-3 0-0 0, Jacob Koch 8-11 0-0 19, Adrien Westergaard 0-1 0-0 0, Jack McCaffery 9-10 3-4 22, Kareem Earl 4-6 3-6 11, Jack Wallace 1-1 0-0 2, Julian Manson 4-6 3-4 12, Ethan Headings 3-3 0-0 6, Colin Whitters 3-4 1-1 7, Ibrahim Musa 1-1 0-0 2, Henry Elser 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 37-53 10-15 90.

3-point field goals – DN 2-12 (Brady 0-1, Collins 1-3, Smith 0-2, Johnson Jr. 0-1, Moss 1-5), ICW 6-7 (Stevens 1-2, Koch 3-3, McCaffery 1-1, Manson 1-1). Rebounds – DN 13 (Smith, Collins 4), ICW 25 (McCaffery 9). Turnovers – DN 18, ICW 11. Total fouls – DN 14, ICW 13. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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