West girls find their scoring gear

CEDAR RAPIDS - On the heels of a nine-point victory over Davenport Assumption in which his team scored just 40 points, Iowa City West girls' basketball coach B.J. Mayer was looking for a little more this time around.

Mayer saw what he was looking for Tuesday night when Class 5A No. 5 West used an 18-1 first-quarter eruption to overwhelm host Cedar Rapids Prairie, 69-49, in the Mississippi Valley Conference opener for both teams.

'We wanted to get off to a good start,” Mayer said. 'We did that. I thought we shared the ball very well; we found extra people. We probably had a good shot, but we got an even better shot out of it.”

The good shots were falling early for West (3-0, 1-0 MVC), which drilled six of its eight 3-pointers in the first half. Senior Dani Craig continued her hot start to the season with consecutive threes to push the West lead to 14-3. Two more from seniors Mikaela Morgan and Grace Tafolla capped a 20-5 first quarter for West, which spread the wealth with six players scoring at least seven points in the game.

'I think it's fantastic that we have so many kids with talent and able to score,” said Morgan, who has signed with UNI. 'It's kind of hard to play a team like that, I think. It's pretty great to be that one team to have so many scorers.”

Morgan led all scorers with 12 points, and Tafolla finished with 10. Craig scored nine on three 3-pointers, displaying no ill effects from the torn right-knee ACL that caused her to miss her junior season.

'Once I started playing, I started feeling better,” said Craig, a Cal State Fullerton signee. 'It's pretty good now. I feel better than ever, really.”

A Morgan steal and coast-to-coast layup provided West its largest lead at 61-31 in the fourth quarter. Point guard Bella Lozano-Dobbs chipped in with nine of her 11 points in the second half.

Junior Olivia Usher led Prairie (0-2, 0-1 MVC) with 11 points.

AT C.R. PRAIRIE

IOWA CITY WEST (69): Bella Lozano-Dobbs 4 3-3 11, Grace Tafolla 3 1-2 10, Ali Tauchen 4 0-0 8, Maddie Fay 0 0-0 0, Rachael Saunders 1 3-6 5, Dani Craig 3 0-0 9, Maddie Huinker 0 0-1 0, Logan Cook 1 0-0 2, Jessica Harder 1 0-0 3, Mikaela Morgan 5 1-1 12, Andrea Morgan 1 0-0 2, Emily Halverson 3 1-2 7, Totals 26 9-15 69.

CEDAR RAPIDS PRAIRIE (49): Taylor Moenk 4 1-1 9, Lynsey Altenhofen 2 1-1 6, Emilie Rotter 0 1-2 1, Ranelle Herold 2 0-0 4, Maddie Adams 1 2-4 4, Lauren Kuch 0 0-0 0, Olivia Usher 3 3-4 11, Jenna Wagemester 1 0-0 2, Halle Person 3 0-0 7, Makenzie Stoffer 1 3-4 5, Totals 17 11-16 49.

Halftime-West 38, Prairie 17. 3-point goals-West 8 (Craig 3, Tafolla 3, M.Morgan 1, Harder 1), Prairie 4 (Usher 2, Altenhofen 1, Person 1). Rebounds-West 31 (M.Morgan 7), Prairie 28 (Usher 8). Assists-West 20 (Tafolla 6), Prairie 8 (Adams 3, Usher 3). Turnovers-West 15, Prairie 19. Total fouls-West 17, Prairie 14. Fouled out-None.

l Comments: douglas.miles@thegazette.com