The Iowa City High Little Hawks made three changes in their starting lineup for Monday night's basketball game against Cedar Rapids Washington, benching some guys and rewarding others.

It didn't help Washington a bit.

The Little Hawks overwhelmed the winless Warriors, 63-42, in a Mississippi Valley Conference mismatch at the Washington gym.

Iowa City High (5-8, 2-6) cruised to a 31-point lead in the fourth quarter before settling for the 21-point conquest.

"Call it what you want, whether we're sending guys a message or just rewarding some guys that have worked hard," City High Coach Adam Loria remarked. "Some guys got some minutes tonight in the first half that hadn't gotten any minutes this year. I thought they responded well."

It was good news for the Little Hawks, but continued bad news for the Warriors. Washington lost its 10th straight game and dipped to 0-8 in the MVC.

"I believe we'll get better," Washington Coach Brad Metzger said. "I think things will get better even this year, because at some point we'll reach the point where they have to get better."

It was pretty much the same song, 10th verse, for the Warriors, who committed a string of turnovers, shot poorly, allowed too many offensive rebounds and gave the Little Hawks too many easy buckets.

Metzger knew it might be a tough year after losing Josh Oglesby to Iowa and Wes Washpun to Tennessee, but the Warriors are headed to one of the worst seasons in school history.

On the bright side, the Washington sophomore team raised its record to 7-3 Monday and Metzger thinks the feeder system is working.

"Every grade we've got playing is doing the best they can. They're working hard," he said. "It's not just the sophomores. It's freshmen, 8th graders, 7th graders, 6th graders ... all the way down to 3rd grade.

"I think everybody is active and doing what they need to do to prepare themselves to be a varsity player some day. It's just going to take more time."

The Warriors committed turnovers on their first two possessions, but they settled down and tied the game 7-7 on a driving shot by Cybryan Moa. The good stretch did not last, however, and the Little Hawks rattled off 12 straight points and took command at 19-7.

Washington did not make a field goal for nearly six minutes in the second quarter and trailed 37-16 at intermission, and by then it didn't matter who the Little Hawks had on the court.

City High doubled the count on the Warriors, 56-28, early in the fourth quarter and grabbed its biggest margins at 59-28 and 61-30 before both clubs played out the string.

Cortez Barfield led the Little Hawks with 14 points and Jerel Moore scored 13 off the bench. Sean Bredl led Washington with 12 markers.

Loria was happy with his team's performance.

"I thought we played hard, which is something we stressed over the last five days," he said. "It's amazing what you can get done in five days of practice when you don't play games.

"I thought our kids really learned how to compete over those five days a little bit more than what we have been. I was pleased."

IOWA CITY HIGH (63): A. Perry 2 2-2 7, Hein 1 0-0 2, T. Perry 3 1-1 9, Barfield 7 0-0 14, Young 1 0-0 2, Johnson 1 2-2 4, Thompson 2 0-0 4, Moore 5 2-2 13, Rouabhi 1 0-0 2, Chester 1 0-0 2, Craig 1 0-0 2, Ritter 1 0-0 2, Spears 0 0-0 0, Reuter 0 0-0 0, Overton 0 0-0 0, Ingram 0 0-0 0. Totals 26 7-7 63.

WASHINGTON (42): Tann 2 1-2 5, Moa 3 0-0 7, Holmes 2 0-0 4, Oney 1 1-1 3, Bredl 5 2-4 12, Rosenthal 0 0-0 0, Bergstrom 0 0-0 0, Nash 1 0-0 2, Bil 1 0-0 3, Schulte 1 1-2 4, Williams 0 0-0 0, Butterfield 0 0-0 0, Clark 1 0-0 2. Totals 17 5-9 42.

Halftime - Iowa City High 37, Washington 16. 3-point goals - Iowa City High 4 (T. Perry 2, A. Perry 1, Moore 1), Washington 3 (Moa 1, Bil 1, Schulte 1).