Iowa City West rounding into form, downs Cedar Rapids Xavier

CEDAR RAPIDS — Jack McCaffery sees it.

“We’re getting a lot better,” the Iowa City West junior forward said Friday night after his Class 4A 10th-ranked Trojans knocked off 3A No. 7 Cedar Rapids Xavier, 61-53. “I think we really improved over the break. I think we have the ability to be one of the best defensive teams in the state. And I think we have the ability to be one of the best teams in the state.”

McCaffery’s notoriously hard-to-please head coach says he sees that same thing, too.

“We have the capability of having a top-five, six, seven, eight team,” West Coach Steve Bergman said. “But we’re not there, yet. We’ve just got to keep plugging away.”

West plugged away, defensed away here to win by a margin that wasn’t truly indicative of the game. The Trojans (7-1) led the whole way, by as many as 20-plus points late, a sloppy last couple of minutes helping Xavier get the spread back to respectability.

Something for the Saints (5-4) to build on with another game coming Saturday against Marion.

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Photos: Iowa City West at Cedar Rapids Xavier boys’ basketball

“I thought they pressured our wings defensively, and our guys have to be able to learn to play with pressure,” said Xavier Coach Mike Freeman. “I think that’s a maturity thing, a coaching thing, I’ve got to coach them better. But as with all our groups, they respond. They battled. We didn’t give in.”

Bergman always has been a defensive savant as a coach, and his guys were dialed in to a game plan that, as Freeman noted, was a lot about pressuring Xavier’s guards, a couple of whom are sophomores. That produced missed shots, turnovers and run outs the other way for West.

“I liked our defense for about 80 percent of the game,” Bergman said. “We had seen them play. They’re young, and I thought ‘We’ve got to get after them.’ We sometimes don’t follow the game plan, but I thought we did a good job tonight.”

Forward Mason Goering and guards TaeVeon Stevens and Jacob Koch had good offensive first halves for West, with McCaffery taking over a lot that way in the second half. Thirteen of the junior forward’s game-high 16 points came in the final two quarters, as he was able to hit some mid-range jumpers and draw fouls that got him to the free-throw line.

Koch finished with 12 points for the Trojans and Stevens 10.

“They were kind of pressuring up on me, putting a smaller guy on me to kind of get up in my space,” said McCaffery, youngest son of University of Iowa head basketball coach Fran McCaffery. “So I knew I had to rip and drive to try and get fouled. Made a couple of pull-ups, got to the line finally, which was nice. Berg told me, we started going to the high post, the top of the key area to get me to rip and drive.”

Kaleb Wilgenbusch tied McCaffery for game-high scoring honors. Sophomore guard Zander Murray added 13 points, including a trio of treys, for Xavier.

West also has a Saturday game on tap, at home against West Des Moines Dowling.

“I thought we worked super hard over break,” Bergman said. “We got in better condition, I think. We worked hard on our defense. Still some hiccups with our offense. But when our defense led to offense it was good.”

“We just need to lock in on that defensive end because offensively we have guys who are going to score,” McCaffery said. “That’s not what I’m worried about. On the other end is what I’m worried about.”,

Iowa City West 61, Cedar Rapids Xavier 53

AT CEDAR RAPIDS XAVIER

IOWA CITY WEST (61): Kareem Earl 0-1 5-6 5, Jack McCaffery 4-12 7-8 16, Jacob Koch 6-10 0-0 12, Canaan Barnes 0-3 1-2 1, Julian Manson 4-9 1-4 9, TaeVeon Stevens 4-4 1-2 10, Mason Goering 4-5 0-0 8, Jack Wallace 0-0 0-0 0, Adrien Westergard 0-0 0-0 0, Henry Elser 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-44 15-22 61.

C.R. XAVIER (53): A.J. Evans 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Netolicky 2-7 4-7 8, Dominic D’Amico 1-5 0-0 3, Kaleb Wilgenbusch 7-10 2-4 16, Zander Murray 5-14 0-0 13, Preston Lang 0-1 0-0 0, Lorenzo Pino 2-3 0-0 5, Aiden Miller 2-3 0-0 6, Jack Downey 0-0 2-2 2, Lee Gamez 0-0 0-0 0, Wyatt Montgomery 0-0 0-0 0, Wayne Montgomery 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-43 8-13 53.

Halftime - West 28, Xavier 17. 3-point goals - West 2-10 (Earl 0-1, McCaffery 1-4, Koch 0-1, Barnes 0-1, Manson 0-2, Stevens 1-1), Xavier 7-13 (D’Amico 1-3, Murray 3-10, Pino 1-1, Miller 2-2). Rebounds - West 25 (Earl 5), Xavier 26 (Netolicky 5). Total fouls - West 17, Xavier 21. Technical fouls - McCaffery, Xavier Coach Mike Freeman. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - West 5, Xavier 13.

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