Uncommon talent, uncommon poise lifts top-ranked West past Kennedy

CEDAR RAPIDS - What sometimes gets lost in the talk about the individual talent and the winning and the number one ranking and everything else is that these Iowa City West Trojans are young.

David DiLeo is the only senior on the roster. The guard court consists of a pair of sophomores.

Their coach says sometimes that relative inexperience shows. But when it has mattered most in both of their close games this season, these 'kids” have played with uncommon poise.

'The talent, the size and the athleticism we have, it kind of makes it harder for people to tell we're so young,” said West's Tannner Lohaus, after a hard-earned 64-54 win at Cedar Rapids Kennedy. 'But we definitely make mistakes that more experienced people wouldn't make. We just kind of make up for that with all our skill and stuff.”

This was anyone's game down the stretch, with Kennedy within three points with about three minutes left. But those final three minutes belonged to West (15-0).

The Trojans didn't panic, didn't rush. A good offensive possession led to a good defensive possession, and an upset was averted.

'I think people just see a bunch of guys that are really good, and they expect so much out of us,” said West's Wali Parks, who returned to the lineup after a one-game absence because of a sprained foot. 'They don't realize we really don't have that much varsity experience.”

'They've all played a lot of basketball, and they know what they're doing. That's a good thing,” said West Coach Steve Bergman. 'We are a good team, a lot of good players. They just kind of have to stick to the game plan some games a little bit better.”

How's this for scoring symmetry? All five Trojans starters finished with either 13 or 11 points: Lohaus and Devontae Lane with the 13, and DiLeo, Lohaus and Connor McCaffery 11 each.

West led by as many as 12 points in the second half, but Kennedy (10-5) kept hanging around and whittled away at that lead. In the end, the Cougars simply couldn't get over the hump.

'There are times in every single game where we play the way we feel we can play, but we have too many down times,” said Kennedy Coach Jon McKowen. 'You can't play 16-minute games, I don't care who you are playing. I feel like we played a 16-minute game tonight.”

McKowen bemoaned his team settling for too many long jumpshots. Kennedy's aggressiveness at getting into the lane spurred its comeback.

West isn't a deep team, so Kennedy's continuous substitutions appeared to wear down the Trojans a bit. Zach Daniels led the Cougars with 15 points.

Brendon Mannning added 11 and Bryton Heisler 10.

This was West's 21st consecutive victory. Of course, the Trojans have won three consecutive Class 4A state championships.

'Solid basketball minds,” McKowen said. 'They play the game 12 months a year. For the most part, they don't have many multi-sport athletes. That gets them ahead to start, then they continue to develop. They don't beat themselves. We beat ourselves a lot tonight.”

'We're happy to get out of here with a win,” Bergman said. 'We didn't play awful, but we didn't play great. I'm sure they feel like they probably left some points out there, too.”

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AT C.R. KENNEDY

IOWA CITY WEST (64): Tanner Lohaus 6-8 1-2 13, Wali Parks 4-6 3-4 11, David DiLeo 5-13 0-0 11, Connor McCaffery 3-8 4-6 11, Devontae Lane 3-4 7-9 13, Alex Henderson 1-4 3-4 5, Dallas Majors 0-2 0-0 0, Nate Barnes 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-45 18-25 64.

C.R. KENNEDY (54): Derrick Diggins 2-4 2-2 7, Brendon Manning 5-5 0-0 11, Bryton Heisler 4-8 2-2 10, Zach Daniels 3-10 7-8 15, Cole Murdock 2-9 0-0 4, Drake Brewster 2-8 0-0 4, Matthew Gardner 1-3 1-2 3, Derek Girling 0-0 0-0 0, Max Techau 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-47 12-14 54.

Halftime - West 30, Kennedy 22. 3-point goals - West 2-8 (DiLeo 1-4, McCaffery 1-3, Majors 0-1), Kennedy 4-18 (Diggins 1-2, Manning 1-1, Heisler 0-1, Daniels 2-8, Murdock 0-4, Brewster 0-2). Rebounds - West 29 (Parks 8), Kennedy 19 (Brewster 7). Total fouls - West 16, Kennedy 22. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - West 11, Kennedy 11.

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