Iowa City West survives Tillo, Sioux City North

DES MOINES - One player may have gained a few votes in a muddled Iowa Mr. Basketball race. One team remained alive in its quest for Iowa history.

That team was Iowa City West, which survived that individual, Daniel Tillo, and Sioux City North's upset bid, 69-60, in an entertaining and surprisingly close Class 4A state tournament quarterfinal Wednesday afternoon at Wells Fargo Arena.

Tillo was sublime in a 30-point performance that almost single-handedly kept eighth-seeded North (14-10) alive and kicking until the dying seconds. West tried various defenders on the 6-foot-5 senior lefty, but none of them could keep him in check.

With no real favorite for Mr. Basketball this year, the unsigned and uncommitted sharp shooter - whose outing helped him become the second Iowa prep to surpass 2,000-career points - impressed a lot of people here. That included West's players.

'That dude's good,” said West's Connor McCaffery. 'He just makes shots, coming off the screens and just pulling up. Those were tough shots he was making. There was a stretch where we didn't play good enough against him, and he kind of got going.”

Tillo hit his third and final 3-pointer with 2:33 left to pull North within 58-57. But West scored the next seven points to finally pull away for good.

Devontae Lane had a huge and-one drive, McCaffery hit a lane leaner and a pair of free throws in the sequence. Lane finished with a team-high 19 points.

West (24-0) won its 30th consecutive game as it attempts to grab its unprecedented fourth consecutive state title. The semifinal opponent Friday afternoon at 1:30 is North Scott (21-3).

'I think this was a bit harder than we thought it was going to be,” Lane said. 'We really didn't look at it as they were the eight seed and we were the one. We knew we were just playing another good team. Bergman told us at the beginning of the game that it was going to be a tough game, and we really didn't listen to him, I guess. It kind of went in one ear and out the other.”

'They're good, and they have one guy that's just hard to guard,” said West Coach Steve Bergman, who won his 499th career game. 'They did what we do, went out (this season) and played very good teams from out of state. Give them a lot of credit. And when you have one guy who is really hard to guard, that's tough. We let him get on a roll, and then they had some other guys hit shots.”

There were plenty of made shots in this game, as West hit 60 percent from the field, 70 percent in the second half. North finished at 50 percent in both halves.

A Jailen Billings trey lifted North to a 16-13 lead after a quarter, with West coming back to lead at the half, 30-26. North took a couple of leads in the third quarter, though a late West spurt gave it a 49-45 edge heading to the final frame.

In the end, this game might be really good for West, as this was just its third game decided by single-digit points.

'It's just how they play,” said Tillo, who joins Jeff Horner in the 2,000-point club. 'They don't beat themselves. I thought we gave it all we had. We left it on the court.”

'Everyone talks about how we've won all these games by at least 15 points and all that, but we have had situations, and not all that long ago, where we've been in close games,” Bergman said. 'You've just got to let them play, and they've got to make the plays. If we don't make plays, we're not in a very good mood right now.”

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