Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

Happy holidays!

For area hoopers the holiday season is essentially a second preseason with two-weeks of practice before teams return to action in 2025.

I’ve had an opportunity to see all seven Your Prep Sports area teams in action this season.

While covering games I often write down notes outside of the statistics I keep that I’ll go back and review following the game.

For some holiday break reading I’m putting some of my early season notes on each team into a quick notebook story.

Enjoy.

West High

Senior Jack McCaffery played the best game I’ve seen him play on Friday pouring in 38 points and grabbing seven rebounds as West High snapped a two-game losing skid with a 57-53 win over City High.

As expect, the 6-foot-8 McCaffery has been excellent offensively averaging 21.3 points per game while helping West High to a 4-2 start.

What has stood out to me this season is the growth McCaffery has made defensively over the course of his career.

McCaffery has become a much more effective at defending without fouling and has impressive timing as a shot blocker.

In Friday’s win over City High McCaffery blocked, altered or outright deterred a number of shot attempts.

City High

Speaking of City High it was hard to walk out of West High on Friday night without being impressed with the effort from Bill McTaggart’s team.

City High enters the break 2-6 with a four-point loss to West High and a one-point loss at Marion along with losses to MVC foes Cedar Rapids Xavier (4-1) and Dubuque Senior (4-0).

I like what the Little Hawks have with the post duo of senior Parker Sutherland and junior Christopher Watkins.

Watkins is averaging a team-high 12.9 points and 6.9 rebounds per game and continues to improve each time out.

The 6-foot-5 Watkins has a pair of double-doubles in his last four games going for 22 points and 12 boards in a win over Liberty High and had 17 and 11 in a loss at Marion.

Sutherland is averaging 6.3 points and a team-high 7 rebounds per game and also averages 1.3 blocked shots per contest.

Liberty High

Liberty High (1-5) has got a dynamic backcourt combination in sophomores Jerimiah Washpun and Brady Randall.

Washpun has been impressive early scoring at least 14 points in every game while averaging a team-high 18.7 points 4.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game.

The 5-foot-11 Washpun is noticeably bigger and stronger this season from a year ago and is an explosive athlete with the ability to get to the rim or score from the perimeter.

As Washpun continues to round out his game he will be among the best guards in the state.

Randall has been the early season surprise for the Lightning averaging 12.8 points and a team-high 7 rebounds per game.

The 6-foot-5 sophomore has scored in double figures in each of the last four games averaging 15.3 points per game during that span.

Randall has been impressive, shooting 56 percent from the floor including 45 percent from 3-point range (14-31) and with his size is a great compliment to Washpun and senior Maddoc Coapstick (10.2 points, 4 assists) in the Liberty backcourt.

Solon

The holiday break and the practice and scrimmage time that come during the two-week stretch without competition may be as beneficial to Solon as any area team.

Solon is off to a solid 3-3 start despite back-to-back losses to Mount Vernon and Center Point-Urbana to close out the 2024 schedule.

This is more of a prediction and less of an observation but I expect Solon to be playing much better basketball in February than it did in December.

In four seasons under Jared Galpin the Spartans have played in three substate finals and this team could make another substate run the Spartans just need to put the puzzle pieces together.

Through six games Solon has have five different leading scorers and has had seven different players score double figures in a game.

Nine players average between 3.8 and 11 points per game led by senior Caleb Bock who is averaging 11 points and 9 rebounds per game.

Give Galpin time to put his rotations together and this Solon team will be trouble down the stretch.

Clear Creek Amana

Similar to Solon this is part observation and part prediction but Clear Creek Amana is going to be a state tournament contender in a few months.

With five starters returning from a 16-win team a yar ago a state tournament run was certainly an expectation this season.

Clear Creek Amana opened the season 1-3 but has won three straight over WAMAC opponents since by an average of more than 28 points per game.

Don’t ready into the 1-3 start. Two of the losses were to 4A powers West High and Cedar Rapids Kennedy and the stretch includes a win over 4A Liberty High.

Senior posts Robert Meade (12.5 points, 5.3 rebounds) and Brody Clubb (9.3 points, 3.5 rebounds) have both been impressive early and Andrew Rotzoll is averaging a team-high 13.8 points per game.

The Clippers have more depth than past seasons and can play a variety of styles both make them more equipped for a March run than at any time since the reached the 3A semis in 2020.

West Branch

The only time I’ve watched West Branch this season was a 58-54 loss at Regina on December 17.

I think the Bears turned a corner in that tight loss at Regina.

West Branch closed December with a 64-57 road win at West Liberty and enter the break 2-4.

The Bears have found a dynamic playmaker in junior guard Jayden Harris.

Here are the last three games for Harris.

He had 22 points, four rebounds and an assist in a loss at Mid-Prairie.

Harris had 25 points, three rebounds and two assists against Regina.

He closed 2024 with 28 points in the win over West Liberty.

Harris is shooting better than 58 percent over the three-game stretch in which he’s averaging 25 points per game.

West Branch coach Jason Kern said Harris needs to average 20 for the Bears to be in games and the Harris is certainly capable of doing just that.

I was also impressed with the energy and production of 6-foot-3 senior Brandon Pickett who has stepped into a larger role with senior posts Cole Crosthwaite and Michael Montgomery sidelined with injury.

Pickett is averaging 8.3 points and 6.3 rebounds and is shooting 51 percent from the floor.

Regina

Regina is quietly off to a 6-1 start and has won six straight to close December after a 63-52 win at Tipton in its 2024 finale.

Two things stand out with this Regina team.

First and foremost is how hard this team plays.

It sounds simple but under second-year Paul Rundquist the Regals play with an energy and physicality that opponents simply must attempt to match and rarely can endure.

Second is the post play between sophomores Tate Wallace, Will Litton and freshman Ben Wade is an absolute conundrum for most teams to defend.

Litton and Wallace combine to average 35.2 points and 16.5 points per game and Wade is adding 4.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots a game.

The 6-foot-4 Litton is averaging 19.6 points and 8.6 rebounds per game while shooting an astounding 74 percent from the floor.

Wallace, a 6-foot-3 slasher, is averaging 15.6 points and 5.6 rebounds.

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