Mount Vernon hangs with West for awhile

MOUNT VERNON - If Wes Bruns had to do it all over again, he wouldn't change a thing.

Some would call it madness, but the Mount Vernon boys' basketball coach wanted to put Iowa City West on his schedule. Might as well go against the best that's out there, even if they are so much bigger than you.

'No, no regets at all,” Bruns said, after West beat MV, 83-65, Thursday night. 'What a great honor to play that team. They exposed a lot of our weaknesses. Yet we still found a way to score 65 points.”

MV is the smallest 3A school in the state, bumping up a class from last season. West has an enrollment of over 1,100 more students.

If you're talking straight basketball, the Trojans won their record third consecutive Class 4A state championship last March and have the talent to make it four in a row.

'You've just got to stay humble,” said West's Connor McCaffrey. 'You've got to deal with the pressure. We've been dealing with that pressure a long time in this program. Last year, we had that same pressure, the same expectations, and I thought we responded fine. We should be able to do the same this year.”

McCaffrey is the 6-foot-5 sophomore son of Iowa Hawkeyes Coach Fran McCaffrey and committed to play for his dad over the summer. His role has changed this season from a pure distributor to much more of a scorer, as evidenced by his game-high 26 points.

He and guard mate/classmate Devontae Lane combined to go 20 of 21 from the free-throw line.

'I thought we pushed the ball well in transition,” McCaffrey said. 'Our defense could have been better. We didn't scramble the way we should have. We didn't lock in for the entire game. We had a couple of good stretches, but we didn't play as hard on defense as we should have. We didn't sustain our effort there the whole game.”

Which was the very first sentiment West Coach Steve Bergman expressed. This was an 18-18 game early in the second quarter, then the Trojans finally began to lockdown defensively, not allowing Mount Vernon any looks on offense and building a 42-29 halftime edge.

Too much talent and too much size.

'Our defense was awful. It wasn't good,” Bergman said. 'They know it. I reminded them last year the first couple of games because we were pretty spotty defensively, and we got better. But they've got to want to be good defenders, that's the thing. When we helped, we didn't scramble and cover for each other. That's the bottom line.

'We did some good stuff, too. We defended really well for about six minutes in the second quarter.”

West is without leading returning scorer David DiLeo for an undetermined amount of time. The 6-foot-7 wing has a hip injury.

He's the only senior on the roster, though Lane (22 points), Wali Parks (15 points and nine rebounds) and Tanner Lohaus (12 points, 10 boards) played a lot last season.

'I'm looking for guys I can trust,” Bergman said. 'I trust guys that play good defense and don't throw the ball away. That's what we've kind of advertised to these kids. If you fill those roles, you can play.”

'This year, we've got a really good team,” McCaffrey said. 'We are expecting big things.”

Connor Herrmann led Mount Vernon (1-1) with 17 points. Nolan Teubel added 13.

'We've got a lot to work on,” Bruns said. 'But the good thing is we play tomorrow night (against South Tama).”

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AT MOUNT VERNON

IOWA CITY WEST (83): Wali Parks 6-10 3-4 15, Tanner Lohaus 5-9 2-2 12, Alex Henderson 3-10 0-0 6, Connor McCaffrey 7-13 10-11, Devontae Parks 6-12 10-10 22, Griffin Blackhurst 0-1 0-0 0, Dallas Majors 0-0 0-0 0, David Pederson 0-0 0-0 0, Nathan Barnes 0-2 2-2 2, Bo Nock 0-0 0-0 0, Bryson Adcock 0-1 0-0 0, August Nicklaus 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 27-59 27-29 83.

MOUNT VERNON (65): Andy Decamp 3-8 0-0 0, Luke Eldred 2-3 0-0 4, Connor Herrmann 7-12 2-4 17, Tommy Hook 1-10 3-4 5, Nolan Teubel 5-10 1-2 13, Adam Ketelsen 4-7 0-2 8, Austin Ash 2-5 3-3 8, Joe Corcoran 1-1 0-0 2, Nick Bevans 1-1 0-0 2, Travis Wright 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-57 9-15 65.

Halftime - West 42, Mount Vernon 29. 3-point goals - West 2-7 (Parks 0-1, Henderson 0-1, Lane 0-1, McCaffrey 2-4), Mount Vernon 4-16 (Decamp 0-3, Herrmann 1-2, Hook 0-4, Teubel 2-3, Ash 1-4). Rebounds - West 39 (McCaffrey, Parks, Lohaus 9), Mount Vernon 22 (Herrmann, Teubel 6). Total fouls - West 15, Mount Vernon 23. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - West 10, Mount Vernon 17.

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