Sunday Fun Day at Xtream Arena as Iowa City High and West split varsity basketball doubleheader

CORALVILLE — Sunday Fun Day!

And a rare prep basketball day, which rivals Iowa City High and Iowa City West got to take advantage of, partaking in the first hoops games at Xtream Arena.

This quadruple-header began with sub-varsity games (JV girls and sophomore boys). It ended with West’s varsity girls beating City High, 58-43, and a thriller of a boys’ game that City High won with a late shot, 64-63.

“It’s a great facility,” said City High Activities Director Tracy Johnson.

“It’s just a different environment,” said B.J. Mayer, in his first year as West AD after a successful stint as the school’s girls’ head coach. “As a coach, we always tried to get into places like this, in case you got to the state tournament, something like that, so you would have that experience with backgrounds and more seats, things like that.”

This Sunday Fun Day comes on the heels of City High and Iowa City Liberty playing their football season opener this past fall at the University of Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium. The Harlem Globetrotters perform Monday night at Xtream Arena, so the floor already was installed (atop the ice used for Iowa Heartlanders hockey games).

“We were supposed to host West on Tuesday (January) 3rd, and this was the closest date,” Johnson said. “So it was like ‘Hey, let’s do it here. Let’s just take the 3rd and move it to the 8th.’ So, honestly, had it been Liberty and West that day, this would have been Liberty and West here. This is just how the schedule worked out.”

Johnson said conducting Sunday events are not an issue for either the Iowa High School Athletic Association or Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union. He pointed out during his stint as AD at Mason City, his school played Sunday baseball games during the summer against Mason City Newman.

City High and West already have scheduled games against other schools Tuesday, which necessitated playing Sunday. Xtream Arena is hosting a boys’ basketball varsity triple-header Tuesday, with Iowa City Regina playing Mid-Prairie at 4:30 p.m., Monticello and Northeast at 6 and Solon and South Tama at 7:30.

Representatives from the IHSAA are expected to be present to observe the arena’s basketball setup, with there being a possibility the facility could be used during the postseason. The entire girls’ postseason is played on the home court of the higher-seeded school.

“I’d love to get a 6 and 8 (p.m.) in here, or a 4, 6 and 8 on a Saturday for a substate game,” Mayer said. “I think that’d be great.”

West’s girls got 17 points apiece from Anna Prouty and Meena Tate and completely pulled away in the second half to win. Prouty also had 14 rebounds.

August Palmer led City High (2-6) with 17 points. West (8-2) is ranked 12th in Class 5A.

“Obviously not the venue we’re used to,” Prouty said. “It’s the biggest thing we’ll play in except for Wells Fargo, hopefully. It was really cool, and I thought we had a pretty good student section today. Obviously I would have loved to have played at City, but this was cool.”

On the boys’ side, City High (4-3) led most of the game, watched West (6-3) rally to go ahead by four with just over a minute left, but rallied itself to win. Thomas Ksobiech hit a huge 3-pointer to bring the Little Hawks within a point, got a defensive stop, then 6-foot-9 freshman Samuel Mbingazo got the winning shot on an offensive rebound with 10 seconds left.

“Once in a lifetime,” said City High’s Shamar Benton. “This is the first time happening (here), so I feel like this is life changing, honestly. A lot of people, great atmosphere. It was special.”

Benton and Trey Wright had 15 points apiece to lead City High. Jack McCaffery had 22 points and freshman Julian Manson 16 for West, which lost two games in three days on last-second shots, the other Friday night to Cedar Rapids Xavier.

AT IOWA CITY (XTREAM ARENA)

Girls

IOWA CITY WEST (58): Grace Fincham 4-8 0-0 10, Melae Lacy 1-4 1-2 3, Anna Prouty 5-8 7-8 17, Meena Tate 8-15 1-2 17, Carolyn Pierce 2-4 2-2 7, Aly Skala 0-0 0-0 0, Zola Gross 1-2 2-2 4, Elle Barnett 0-0 0-0 0, Laney Prelle 0-2 0-0 0, Kristiana Washington 0-1 0-0 0, Kate VanWaning 0-0 0-0 0, Lauryn Hynek 0-0 0-0 0, Abby Neumiller 0-0 0-0 0, Ava Frese 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-44 13-16 58.

IOWA CITY HIGH (43): Lauren Koch 2-8 0-0 4, Emily McComas 2-8 1-1 5, Mia Driscoll 0-1 0-0 0, August Palmer 4-16 7-8 17, Tessa Driscoll 3-9 2-2 9, Halle Larew 0-1 0-0 0, Norah Jesperson 2-3 0-0 8. Totals 13-46 10-11 43.

Halftime - West 34, City High 22. 3-point goals - West 3-11 (Fincham 2-4, Tate 0-2, Pierce 1-2, Gross 0-1, Prelle 0-2), City High 5-20 (Koch 0-4, Palmer 2-8, T. Driscoll 1-4, Jesperson 2-3). Rebounds - West 35 (Prouty 14), City High 22 (T. Driscoll 5). Total fouls - West 11, City High 12. Fouled out - Palmer. Turnovers - West 14, City High 13.

Boys

IOWA CITY WEST (63): Jack McCaffery 10-16 0-1 22, Julian Manson 5-10 6-8 16, Brady Simcox 4-5 1-1 10, Jacob Koch 2-4 0-0 5, Tae’Veon Stevens 2-6 4-4 8, Aidan Jacobsen 1-2 0-0 2, Ben Hoefer 0-1 0-0 0, Soumaila Sanogo 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-43 11-14 63.

IOWA CITY HIGH (64): Samuel Mbingazo 4-10 0-0 8, Evan Lampe 3-8 1-1 7, Shamar Benton 7-14 1-2 15, Thomas Ksobiech 2-7 0-0 6, Trey Wright 5-9 4-5 15, Matt Schaeckenbach 3-5 1-1 7, Andre Wright 2-4 0-0 4, Kris Freeman 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-57 7-9 64.

Halftime - City High 33, West 30. 3-point goals - West 4-14 (McCaffery 2-6, Manson 0-1, Simcox 1-1, Koch 1-2, Stevens 0-3, Hoefer 0-1), City High 3-13 (Lampe 0-1, Benton 0-3, Ksobiech 2-5, T. Wright 1-4, A. Wright 0-1). Rebounds - West 18 (Manson 7), City High 35 (Lampe 12). Total fouls - West 11, City High 14. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - West 11, City High 13.

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com