Top-ranked Iowa City West gets revenge on C.R. Prairie, 74-50

IOWA CITY — Don't poke the bear. Just don't.

Iowa City West's boys' basketball team took a surprise loss to Cedar Rapids Prairie in its final game before the Christmas break. It was a loss the Class 4A top-ranked Trojans had to dwell on for awhile.

The schedule brought Prairie to town Friday night, and the rematch was no match. West scored 46 first-half points and won going away and very impressively, 74-50.

'Losing right before break is an extremely tough thing,' said West's Devontae Lane. 'You're sitting on that loss for two weeks. So definitely coming into practice that next week, you start to prepare better, you practice a lot without a game. I think losing right before break helped us come together more as a team and find out the things we needed to focus on more.'

The top thing was defense, and it was so much better here than the first game. West's man-to-man didn't allow Prairie (8-4) to generate anything, other than the occasional backdoor cut and layup.

The Hawks made 15 3-pointers in an 80-71 win. They attempted 15 treys Friday night and hit only four.

'We weren't locked in, we weren't following our game plan the first time up there,' said West's Connor McCaffery. 'That was pretty much the only change. We were focused. Obviously we made changes, got better over break, but for the most part, it was just us being focused and following the game plan. Knowing personnel, knowing 'OK, he's only going to do this. He's only going to do this.' We knew they were a good shooting team, and they weren't going to do much else, minus one or two of their players.'

'They made a lot of shots the first time we played them because our defense was just poor,' Lane said. 'We didn't play defense, we didn't run back in transition and guard guys. We were losing our man. Stuff that in West High basketball, we don't really do. They made us pay for it. Me and Connor talked to the team, said we were going to focus on defense this game and let the offense come to us. Don't force things, just guard.'

Guard Max Smith Drahos had 19 points to lead Prairie, but no one else had more than six.

'You can't let them get open 3s,' said West Coach Steve Bergman. 'That first game, they shot 26 3s, and 18 of them were wide open. It's that simple. We did a good job with that tonight.'

'Their defense was at a different level than they've been playing,' said Prairie Coach Jeremy Rickertsen. 'I'm sure they were motivated by the earlier game. Their defense had a lot to do with our lack of offense. And they made shots.'

Lots and lots of shots. West (10-1) shot 60 percent in the first half, including making 9 of 16 attempts from the 3-point line against Prairie's 1-2-2 zone.

McCaffery was zeroed in all night, hitting six triples, five in the first half. He scored 16 points in the first quarter alone and finished with a game-high 24.

Lane complemented him perfectly, adding 23 points, including four 3s. When this team hits distance shots, it's awfully difficult to beat.

'We see zone pretty much every game, haven't seen man defense very much,' McCaffery said. 'So if we're shooting like that against a zone, we're tough.'

AT IOWA CITY

C.R. PRAIRIE (50): Jake Eilers 2-4 0-0 6, Logan Serbousek 3-4 0-1 6, Keegan Murray 1-2 0-0 3, Max Smith Drahos 8-13 3-3 19, Griff Clark 1-9 2-2 4, Kris Murray 1-3 2-2 5, Levi Usher 1-5 0-0 2, Matt Lorenz 2-4 0-0 4, Darren Kilpatrick 0-1 0-0 0, Blake Krapfl 0-1 0-0 0, Zack Johnson 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 19-46 8-10 50.

IOWA CITY WEST (74): Nate Disterhoft 0-1 0-0 0, Patrick McCaffery 4-8 3-3 11, Connor McCaffery 8-10 2-2 24, Izaya Ono-Fullard 1-3 1-1 3, Devontae Lane 9-12 1-1 23, Evan Flitz 1-5 0-0 3, Hakeem Odunsi 2-6 0-0 4, Seybian Sims 2-3 1-2 5, Josh Van Roekel 0-1 1-2 1, Jake Anderson 0-2 0-0 0, Homy Nasr 0-0 0-0 0, Dante Eldridge 0-0 0-0 0, Hirsche Henstrom 0-1 0-0 0, Ahmed Idris 0-0 0-0 0, T.J. Hillberry 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-52 8-11 74.

Halftime — West 46, Prairie 24. 3-point goals — Prairie 4-15 (Eilers 2-3, Ke. Murray 1-1, Smith Drahos 0-2, Clasrk 0-3, Kr. Murray 1-2, Lorenz 0-1, Usher 0-1, Kilpatrick 0-1, Krapfl 0-1), West 12-23 (Disterhoft 0-1, P. McCaffery 1-2, C. McCaffery 6-8, Ono-Fullard 0-2, Lane 4-6, Flitz 1-3, Henstrom 0-1). Rebounds — Prairie 23 (Smith Drahos 4), West 33 (Odunsi 8). Total fouls — Prairie 9, West 14. Fouled out — None. Turnovers — Prairie 10, West 8.

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com