After picking up their first loss of the season against Dubuque Senior on Tuesday, the boys basketball needed to get back on track. Steve Bergman’s team produced two good days of practice, and it didn’t take long before they were back in the winning column. West High’s boys basketball team won 53-40 against Linn-Mar on Dec. 20.

Knotted at six early in the first quarter, the Trojans, with help from a Nick Pepin ’20 three and a couple of easy lay-ins from Even Brauns ’20, were up by eight at the end of the period. Another Pepin three and control of Linn-Mar’s John Steffen ’20 on the defensive side put West up 22-16 at the half.

To start the third quarter it was raining threes as Marcus Morgan ’21 and Nick Pepin ’20 both knocked down outside shots to extend the Trojan lead to 31-19. Christian Barnes ’22 and Joe Goodman ’20 held the Linn-Mar offense in check with yet another well-played defensive game for them both.

To put the game away six-foot-nine Even Brauns ’20 slammed home back to back dunks going into the fourth up 44- 30. The start of the fourth quarter felt like deja vu as Linn-Mar started to climb back, but Brauns wasn’t done yet. With 3:56 left to play he powers through the double team for another impressive dunk to push the Trojans past Linn-Mar 53-40.

Brauns led the team in scoring and finished with 19 points only two points ahead of Nick Pepin ’20 who scored 17.

West High moves to 4-1 and will be back in action on Jan. 3 as they travel to Cedar Rapids to face off with Xavier.

Gallery • 23 Photos

Owen Aanestad

Even Brauns '20 goes up for a dunk against Linn-Mar. Brauns open enrolled at West at the end of his sophomore year in order to be eligible for his junior and senior seasons.