No. 6 Lions fall to No. 2 Trojans
IOWA CITY – Defeating the Iowa City West boys basketball team always presents a difficult challenge, even with two-fifths of its starting lineup missing.
Sixth-ranked Linn-Mar found that out the hard way Friday, losing to a depleted West squad 77-71 at the West High gymnasium.
Senior forward Wali Parks led four West players in double figures with 24 points, including 17 in the second half. Freshman forward Patrick McCaffery moved into the starting lineup for Friday’s game and contributed 14 points, while senior Nate Barnes more than doubled his 5.9 scoring average with 13 points.
The 27 points scored by McCaffery and Barnes helped fill the void left by missing starters Connor McCaffery and Tanner Lohaus.
Connor McCaffery, who is Patrick’s older brother and the son of Iowa basketball coach Fran McCaffery, missed Friday’s game because of a concussion, while Lohaus has been out for a nearly a month with a foot injury.
“Them not having two players obviously hurt them, but they’re so good,” Linn-Mar coach Chris Robertson said. “I mean they’ve got guys who can play. So we knew that type of an effort was coming and I thought our guys matched their effort.
“I thought our effort was really good, but we gave up some untimely offensive rebounds. That was the tough part for us tonight was on the offensive glass.”
