IOWA CITY - The Iowa City West Trojans cruised to the Class 4A state title last year with a 26-0 record and won the state championship game by 15 points.

Kennedy Coach Bob Fontana thinks the top-ranked Trojans might be even better this year.

Iowa City West belted the Cougars, 77-44, in a Mississippi Valley Conference mismatch Tuesday night in Iowa City.

"I told Coach (Steve) Bergman after the game - he and I are good friends - I said, 'It might be the best team you've had that I've coached against,'" Fontana remarked. "And he said to me, 'Some nights they are and some nights they aren't."

Iowa City West won its 40th straight game with an impressive display of defense, passing and overall court awareness. Kennedy committed 24 turnovers and its guards had all sorts of trouble against Iowa City West's array of Division I talent.

"It's a bunch of guys that have been around for a long time," Bergman said. "They're very capable of playing good defense. We kind of challenged them tonight."

The Trojans have three future NCAA Division I players with senior Dondre Alexander (Southern Miss), senior Jeremy Morgan (Northern Iowa) and junior Wyatt Lohaus (Northern Iowa). Several other underclassmen are being recruited by D-I colleges.

"It's going to take a helluva basketball team to beat them," said Fontana.

Myzeah Batie-Gaddy, a rugged 6-foot-4 senior, led Iowa City West with 18 points. Lohaus netted 17 and sparkled with his defense and passing.

Morgan and Alexander scored only six points apiece, but contributed in many other ways with their talent and athletic ability.

All five Iowa City West starters are averaging between 9 and 12 points per game. "That's pretty impressive," said Bergman. "We're sharing the ball."

The Trojans (14-0, 9-0) have a winning margin this season of 24.8 points per game and have posted victories by 43, 42, 40, 36, 33, 31 and 30 points.

Kennedy (9-4, 6-3) never gave itself much of a chance with sloppy passing, poor ballhandling and porous defense.

"We told our guys that we needed to take care of the ball, which we obviously didn't do," said Fontana. "There was way too much dribbling and too many long passes. Our perimeter passing was not good."

Iowa City West scored 13 straight points to grab a 25-7 lead early in the second quarter. The Trojans led 39-15 at halftime and opened a 33-point bulge late in the third quarter.

Blake Murdock and Ben Struss led Kennedy with nine points apiece.

KENNEDY (44): B.Murdock 3 2-2 9, Carter 2 0-0 5, Fuller 0 1-2 1, Bardsley 2 0-0 4, Buck 1 0-0 3, Martin 2 1-2 5, Koelling 2 0-0 4, Johnson 0 0-0 0, C.Murdock 0 0-0 0, Holzer 1 0-0 2, Heitland 1 0-0 2, Struss 3 3-3-4 9, Gilmore 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 7-10 44.

IOWA CITY WEST (77): Fleming 2 0-0 5, Alexander 2 2-2 6, Morgan 3 0-0 6, Lohaus 7 2-2 17, Batie-Gaddy 8 1-2 18, Swank 1 0-0 2, DiLeo 2 2-2 7, Shear 1 0-1 2, Yarbrough 2 1-1 5, Stewart 1 1-2 3, Ukah 3 0-0 6. Totals 32 9-12 77.

Halftime - Iowa City West 39, Kennedy 15. 3-point goals - Kennedy 3 (B.Murdock 1, Carter 1, Buck 1), Iowa City West 4 (Fleming 1, Lohaus 1, Batie-Gaddy 1, DiLeo 1).