Iowa City West hands Iowa City High its first loss, 52-49

IOWA CITY — B.J. Mayer’s pink mask concealed a wide grin.

“I’m smiling big-time, trust me,” he said.

Anna Prouty registered 15 points and nine rebounds, and Class 5A seventh-ranked Iowa City West knocked No. 2 Iowa City High off the roster of girls’ basketball unbeatens, 52-49, in a Mississippi Valley Conference encounter Friday night at West High School.

“We had a new defense tonight,” Prouty said. “We knew (City) had good scorers. We wanted to shut down their shooters and have an inside presence against them, too.”

The Trojans (11-2 overall, 8-1 MVC) held Iowa State recruit Kelsey Joens to 12 points on 4-of-19 shooting from the floor, and avenged a 65-52 loss to the Little Hawks (11-1, 7-1) last month.

“They did a nice job; they deserved to win tonight,” City Coach Bill McTaggart said. “We got a little frustrated. We got out of our offense. That’s to West High’s credit.”

West parlayed a 17-5 second-half run into a 42-33 lead with 7:47 to go, then held on.

City High got within 42-39, then 50-47, then 51-49 on Andie Westlake’s drive with 12 seconds left.

Keiko Ono-Fullard made the first of two free throws with nine seconds to go to make it 52-49. City’s Eviyon Richardson missed a 3-pointer shortly before the horn.

“I’m proud of the kids,” Mayer said. “I’m not sure they believed they could play with those guys. But they came in at halftime, it was 23-23 and they were going crazy. They were saying, ‘We can do this.’

“Sometimes, against the good teams, we’ve melted a little bit. We didn’t do that tonight.”

Meena Tate added 10 points for the Trojans. Melae Lacy and Lucy Wolf tallied eight apiece.

Richardson paced City with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Joens scored 12, Andie Westlake 11.

Westlake’s 3-pointer gave the Little Hawks their final lead, 33-32, with 2:35 left in the third quarter. But the Trojans scored the next 10 points — five from Prouty.

Boys: Iowa City West 68, Iowa City High 62

Pete Moe scored 23 points, including the go-ahead free throws following a flagrant foul with 36 seconds left, and the Trojans overcame a 14-point third-quarter deficit.

West (9-2, 4-2) trailed 47-33 before a 16-2 run got them even at 49-all. It was 62-62 before Moe made two free throws and Christian Barnes hit four in a row.

Jack McCaffery and Kareem Earl added 13 points apiece for the Trojans, who completed a season sweep of the Little Hawks (4-8, 1-5).

Jamari Newson led City High with 20 points.

The Little Hawks scored 18 straight points at the end of the first half and led 34-22 at intermission.

Iowa City West 52, Iowa City High 49

At Iowa City West

IOWA CITY HIGH (49): Georgia Kimm 1-2 0-0 2, Kelsey Joens 4-19 3-3 12, Eviyon Richardson 5-16 4-5 16, Andie Westlake 4-8 1-2 11, Bella Cooley 3-8 0-1 6, Emmy McComas 1-3 0-0 2, Kacie Earl 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-56 8-11 49.

IOWA CITY WEST (52): Avery Vest 2-3 0-0 5, Meena Tate 4-11 2-4 10, Melae Lacy 3-6 0-0 8, Keiko Ono-Fullard 1-6 1-1 3, Anna Prouty 5-12 5-8 15, Lucy Wolf 2-3 3-4 8, Carolyn Pierce 1-6 1-2 3. Totals 18-47 12-19 52.

Iowa City West 15 8 17 12 — 52

Iowa City High 13 10 10 16 — 49

3-point goals: City 5-22 (Joens 1-9, Richardson 2-6, Westlake 2-5, McComas 0-2), West 4-14 (Vest 1-2, Tate 0-2, Lacy 2-2, Ono-Fullard 0-3, Wolf 1-1, Pierce 0-4). Team fouls: City 16, West 12. Fouled out: none. Rebounds: City 36 (Richardson 10), West 34 (Prouty 9). Assists: City 7 (Joens 3), West 9 (Ono-Fullard 4). Steals: City 8 (Richardson, Westlake, McComas 2), West 6 (Tate 3). Turnovers: West 13, City 13.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com