Boys basketball to play in substate five final Tuesday
After a 71-44 win against Pleasant Valley last night, West earns a game in the substate five final to play against Muscatine on Tuesday night at the Cell.
February 25, 2017
Those who look solely at a team’s record may have been surprised by the score of the West (19-3), Pleasant Valley (11-12) boys substate basketball game at the end of the first quarter where Pleasant Valley held the Trojans to just 14 points to their 13.
After having lost two games on the road (to Webster Groves of St. Louis at 76-68 two weeks ago and Cretin-Derhem Hall of St. Paul at 72-85), West returned to home last night for the first substate game and had some trouble jumping back on their feet.
“When you don’t play for a week, you’re just a little out of sync,” said head coach Steve Bergman. “Our defense got better in the second quarter, and then our offense started to flow better off that to.
I think we did a good job offensively once we got a little better organized and were running our stuff.”
However, West shot at 61 percent for the rest of the game, and Pleasant Valley wasn’t able to catch up. After that close first quarter, West brought in 57 points while Pleasant Valley had 31. Michael Meyer brought in some threes in the fourth, where Pleasant Valley typically scores a good chunk of their points, but West kept Pleasant Valley to ten less than their average points per game and won 71-44.
Offensively, Connor McCaffery ’17, who averaged 19.6 points per game before last night, brought in 24, making the first eight points for West and then adding 15 in the second half.
West will play in Tuesday’s substate five final game at the U.S. Cellular Center, facing off against Muscatine (15-6), who boasts Iowa commit Joe Wiescamp, averaging about 30.5 points per game. For now, West isn’t thinking about it.
“I never look one game ahead,” Bergman said.
