It's Iowa City West/Linn-Mar again in 4A semifinals

DES MOINES -- Steve Bergman talked a little while Wednesday night about his team's just-completed quarterfinal stomping of Waukee, then was asked to look ahead to Friday's semifinals.

"Who do we play?" the Iowa City West Coach said with a wry grin.

Typical Bergy. Of course, it's Linn-Mar his second-ranked and second-seeded Trojans meet Friday afternoon at 3:15 at Wells Fargo Arena.

These are arguably the two best boys' basketball programs in the Mississippi Valley Conference. They met in last year's Class 4A semifinals, with Linn-Mar winning en route to a championship.

Deja vu.

"It seems like last year again," Bergman said. "They're good. We are confident we can play with them, whereas last year I don't know if we were."

The Trojans should be confident because this is kind of like role reversal from a year ago. West is 24-0 and beat Linn-Mar (20-4) way back in early December in a Mississippi Valley Conference opener, 75-63, in a game Linn-Mar forward Matt Lassen suffered a severe concussion that kept him out of the vast majority of the regular season.

The Trojans have three potential Division I college players in juniors Jeremy Morgan and Dondre Alexander and sophomore Wyatt Lohaus. But Linn-Mar is Linn-Mar and has found a way to get back into this semifinal position - somehow.

The Lions had to have a miracle last-second comeback to beat Cedar Rapids Kennedy just to get to state for a ninth-straight year. They had to have a last-second layup by Andy Henry to beat Dubuque Senior, 51-50, in Wednesday's quarterfinals.

"I think some of our games this year have taught us not to quit," said Linn-Mar's Marcus Paige. "For awhile, we've been the comeback kids ... We know you have to play all 32 minutes."

West knows it'll have to play all 32 minutes against Paige, the North Carolina signee. He had 27 points in the regular-season game and will likely need more than that to give his team a chance.

"It'll take a lot (to contain him)," West's Jeremy Morgan said. "He's a really good player."

At least Morgan confessed to know who his team plays Friday.