IOWA CITY - When an Iowa City West boys basketball player saw a loose ball, he was like a kid in a candy store. The candy store happened to belong to Cedar Rapids
Washington, and it was raided on Tuesday night.

Top-ranked West forced 24 turnovers, and carried that momentum onto the offensive side of the court, as it defeated the Warriors 60-33 at the Iowa City West gym.

The Trojans showed a full-court press from the get go, and didn’t allow many Washington shot attempts.

“It was very disruptive,” said Warrior Coach Brad Metzger. “They speed you up and take you out and we gave them a lot of points obviously on turnovers. And those are possessions where we didn’t get to shoot the ball. So we were really shooting ourselves in the foot twice.”

It took the Warriors a while to figure out the pressure, as they committed 10 turnovers in the first quarter and the Trojans jumped out to a 16-6 lead.

Iowa City West has length and quickness all over the court, and their ability to poke the ball away from unsuspecting hands led to several scoring opportunities.

“They’ve got athletes, they’ve got speed, and they’ve got some things going on out there that are difficult to deal with,” said Metzger. “If you don’t pull back and deal with it, then they can just read you.”

When the Warrior squad was able to settle into their half-court defense in the first half, they fared admirably. But West was out and running the majority of the time, and knocked down a few threes near the end of the half, making it 32-12 Iowa City West at intermission.

Washington (0-6, 0-4 MVC) came out in the second half looking determined, scoring on its first three possessions. David Tann hit a 3-pointer and proceeded to dish a few dimes to Warrior big men.

But West kept the foot to the pedal and maintained a lead upwards of 16 for the entire second half.

West (8-0, 5-0) rode the talents of Dondre Alexander and Jeremy Morgan throughout the game. Both finished with 19 points, accounting for nearly two-thirds of their team’s points. Morgan found his three-point stroke in the second half, nailing three treys, and Alexander cleaned up inside.

Metzger knew his team had their hands full.

“Those two are tough matchups. Inside and outside they are both strong kids, good basketball players and good athletes. It’s just a tough matchup, and I don’t think we had our hand up enough on Morgan. But still he is going to get some no matter how hard you go because he is a good player.”

The potent Trojan combination along with stifling defense was too much for the Warriors.

“They are good, there is a reason they are who they are,” said Metzger.

WASHINGTON (33): David Tann 1 0-0 3, Cybyran Moa 1 0-0 3, Jason Oney 0 1-2 1, Sean Bredl 2 2-2 6, Paul Nash 1 2-2 4, Logan Schulte 0 0-0 0, Brock Butterfield 0 0-0 0, Austin Bergstrom 1 0-0 3, David Rosenthal 3 0-0 6, Heath Clark 1 2-2 5, Sam Bil 0 1-2 1, Zachary Williams 0 1-2 1. Totals  10 9-11 33.

IOWA CITY WEST (60): Jeremy Morgan 6 3-4 19, Richard Brytant 0 0-0 0, Dondre Alexander 8 2-2 19, Myzeah Batie-Gaddy 4 1-2 9, Wyatt Lohaus 3 3-6 10, Jacob Gylten 0 0-0 0, Mark Lowe 1 1-2 3, Jason Stewart 0 0-0 0, Justin Fleming 0 0-0 0, Melvin Chatmon 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 10-16 60.

Halftime - Iowa City West 32, Washington 12.  3-point goals - Washington 4 (Tann, Moa, Bergstrom, Clark), Iowa City West 6 (Morgan 4, Alexander, Lohaus).