In the second half of the night’s doubleheader Steve Bergman’s boys basketball team had one thing in mind: start fast. That’s exactly what they did, allowing them to dominate cross-town rival Liberty, 73-51. Pete Moe ’22 led the Trojans in scoring with 28 points on the night.

Jacob Koch ’23 brought the ball up the floor for the Trojans made two quick passes to set up Savion Taylor ’23 for an open three and just like that they were rolling.

“Our offense was hitting shots and executing well at the start but a big help to the early lead was that Liberty just wasn’t scoring very much and we were able to take advantage,” Koch said.

The boys basketball team jumped out to a 19-3 lead five minutes into the first after both Moe and Jack McCaffery ’25 connected from beyond the arc. West worked to settle down and run through some of their offensive sets as they headed into the second quarter up 24-10. Koch made a nice play and intercepted a Lighting inbounds pass then went coast to coast for an easy layup to make it 26-14, Trojans, with 5:38 left to go in the first half.

“These first games have been fun, it’s still a little stressful before games but once the games start the stress goes away. The varsity level is similar to the skill level I see in the bigger AAU tournaments,” Koch said.

If there was anything that Bergman’s squad struggled with it was rebounding. The Trojans gave up 21 offensive rebounds on the night allowing the Lightning to capitalize with some easy second-chance points. Liberty got out in transition for what looked like an open layup but Koch stole the ball and made a nice pass all the way down the court for a Moe one-handed slam to put the Trojans up 32-21 with three minutes left in the half. West closed out the half up 42-24.

“Playing in front of crowds this year has been awesome. We feed off the crowd’s energy which makes the games more fun and it defiantly makes us play better,” Moe said.

The Trojans continued to get past the Lightning’s full-court pressure and scoring in transition. Kareem Earl ’24 picked up two of his 11 points on the night when he euro stepped his way through the lane for a layup to put West up 50-29 three minutes into the second half. The Trojans headed into the fourth with a convincing 22-point lead. Bergman emptied the bench with about two minutes to play as West picked up their third win of the season by a score of 73-51.

The boys basketball team will be back in action on Dec. 14 when they make the trip to Dubuque to take on the Wahlert Catholic Golden Eagles.

Gallery • 15 Photos

Owen Aanestad

Brady Simcox '23 breaks the Lightning's half court press against cross-town rival Liberty on Dec. 10.