Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – City High and West High took turns trading long runs on Friday.

In a back-and-forth thriller that featured three runs of 10-0 or longer it was the Trojans that had the final burst.

Class 5A ninth-ranked West High scored the final 12 points of the game to rally for a 60-51 win over No. 11 City High (6-2) in a non-conference contest between Mississippi Valley Conference rivals.

“That’s something we’ve been working on a lot is when teams do go on runs fighting back and I think we did just that,” West High senior Grace Fincham said. “City High is a great team, they have really good chemistry just like us but we never got down on ourselves when our shots weren’t going down and we all hit shots. That was a big team win.

Fincham scored 15 of her game-high 23 point in the second half as West High (6-2) erased a seven-point halftime deficit.

The Trojans trailed 51-48 with under three minutes to play but outscored the Little Hawks 12-0 in the final 2:29 to win at City High for the first time since January 8 of 2023.

“Kudos to City High, that was like a prize fight today,” West High coach Nate Frese said. “That was two ranked teams that are ranked for a reason. All credit to them and what they made us do, they took us out of some stuff and they had us scouted and played their tails off.”

The game of runs started with West High racing out to an 8-1 lead in the opening three minutes.

City High responded with its own run, closing the half on a 13-2 burst that gave the Little Hawks a 28-21 halftime advantage.

West High trailed by as many as nine points in the third quarter but rattled off 12 unanswered points over the final 3:09 of the third quarter to take a 45-38 lead.

“We’ve talked a lot about just making out bad stretches shorter and shorter and this year we’ve definitely done that,” West High senior Abby Neumiller said. “When we feel ourselves going into a lull we are able to pull ourselves out of it faster than we have in the past.”

City High again had a response.

Junior Hattie Galloway scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter to start an 11-0 Little Hawk streak that gave City High a 49-45 lead with 3:37 remaining.

Fincham snapped the City High run with a 3-pointer from the corner for the first West High points of the fourth quarter, cutting the lead to 49-48.

“We knew they were going to go on runs, we were going to go on runs, this is a rivalry game there are going to be ups and downs,” Fincham said. “So we knew we had to keep our energy and not let their runs get to our head.”

City High took a 51-48 lead on a Galloway bucket in the paint with 3:10 remaining but didn’t score again.

“I think the difference is we don’t get down,” Frese said. “They are constantly pumping each other up and I don’t know if I’ve seen that the last couple of years as consistently as I have this year.”

Neumiller started the 12-0 run to end the game with a 3-pointer from the wing that tied the game with 2:29 to play.

A driving layup by Fincham with 1:40 left gave the Trojans a lead they would never give up.

“We talk a lot about trusting each other and we all know we can knock down shots,” Neumiller said. “We do a lot of shooting at practice and we know we are capable of making shots in big moments and that really helps us in these big games.”

Senior Ava Frese hit the dagger, a transition 3-pointer with 49 seconds remaining and added two free throws with 14 seconds remaining.

Fincham led the way with 23 points and nine rebounds while Neumiller and Frese each had 10 points and Sasha Baldwin and Kate Van Waning each had eight.

Kaitlin Loria led City High with 15 points and Galloway had 14 points and nine rebounds.

West High                  13   8   24  15  –  60

City High                   12  16  10  13   – 51

West High (60) – Ava Frese 3-6 2-4 10, Savannah Mathias 0-1 0-0 0, Kate Van Waning 3-6 1-2 8, Abby Neumiller 3-7 2-2 10, Josephine Austen 0-0 1-2 1, Grace Fincham 8-19 6-9 23, Sasha Baldwin 3-13 2-2 8, Totals 20-52 14-21 60.

City High (51) – Eve Vitense 0-2 0-0 0, Maybes Miller 1-4 0-0 3, Hattie Galloway 6-7 2-6 14, Maeve Bowen-Burt 0-1 0-0 0, Thisbe Lewis 3-6 1-1 7, Kaitlin Loria 7-11 0-0 15, Halle Larew 1-2 1-2 3, Tessa Driscoll 2-16 4-4 9, Totals 20-49 8-13 51.

3-point field goal – ICH 3-14 (Vitense 0-1, Miller 1-3, Loria 1-2, Driscoll 1-8), ICW 6-21 (Frese 2-4, Van Waning 1-2, Neumiller 2-6, Fincham 1-3, Baldwin 0-6). Rebounds – ICH 33 (Galloway 9), ICW 35 (Fincham 9). Turnovers – ICH 11, ICW 5. Total fouls – ICH 18, ICW 12. Fouled out – ICH (Loria). Technical fouls – None.

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