Girls hold off Tipton 2nd-half push to win
by Ryan Stonebreaker, Tipton Conservative · Sports · December 14, 2017
What a difference a year makes.
Last season, the Bears swept the season series with Tipton by an average of 24 points.
This year, in the first of two regular-season match ups, West Branch escaped with a seven-point, 64-57 win.
Last season, West Branch won by 13 (53-40) at Tipton and won a lopsided rout at home by 35 points (81-46).
Last week, the Bears seemed well on their way to another one-sided win, leading by 20 points in the first half, but Tipton chipped away at the Bear lead, though the Bears held on in the end.
West Branch senior Tatum Koenig scored a game high 30 points in the win. It was her second straight 30-plus-point game.
She broke Kate Tuttle’s single-game point record with 34 points in a loss at Monticello earlier last week.
The team honored Koenig, who received a standing ovation between the girls and boys games.
“She is a great player. I appreciate how she carries herself. She lets her play do her talking for her,” Head Coach Jarod Tylee said.
“Her teammates absolutely love her. She is a great teammate and it was great to see our fans and students give her the appreciation she deserves, was great. It was a great moment,” he said.
A scoreless game through the first two and a half minutes, things escalated quickly. West Branch used a 10-2 run in the final five minutes of the quarter to take an 8-point lead after the first quarter. That run continued into the second quarter, as West Branch took a 19-point lead, 23-4 and a 20-point lead, 26-6 with four minutes left in the first half.
Tipton responded with an 8-3 run to get the score to 29-14. The Tigers would cut the Bears lead to 13, 33-20 by halftime.
Tipton trailed by 14 points 49 to 35 after three quarters. The Tigers and Bears played evenly in the third quarter with the Bears holding a 16-15 scoring advantage in the quarter.
Tipton would outscore the Bears by seven points, cutting a 14-point lead in half by the end of the game. The Tigers cut the Bear lead to four, once in the final quarter, and six, twice, before settling for a seven-point loss.
“I give Tipton credit. We had them down big in the second quarter and they had it down to four in the fourth quarter. They didn’t quit and kept fighting back and made it a good game. We had to make some big shots down the stretch,” said Tylee.
West Branch was led by three players reaching double figures. T. Koenig scored 30 points in the basketball game including four three-pointers and going 4-for-6 from the free-throw line.
Koenig nearly recorded a triple double, adding 8 rebounds and 8 assists in the game.
Taylor Thein scored 13 points off the bench including three three-pointers and Taya Young scored 11 points and had 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals.
Tylee said that he is happy with his team’s progress especially as the Bears have routinely started two freshmen and a sophomore early on this season. West Branch is only one of two RVC teams that are starting one or more freshmen and/or have at least three starters that are not a junior or senior.
“The young kids are doing a good job. It’s a learning curve for the kids. For us we treat it like pre-Christmas and post-Christmas. We use the pre-Christmas for learning time. We want to get wins, but after Christmas and during break we want to be honing in on ourselves to where we are playing our best basketball after the break,” said Tylee.
Freshmen guards Sasha Koenig (11.4 ppg) and Taya Young (8.0 ppg) are the second leading scorers on the team and sophomore Kaiya Luneckas is the Bears top rebounder through the first five games.
Tipton fell to 0-3 to start the season and 0-3 against River Valley Conference opponents. Amanda Smith recorded career highs in points (24) and rebounds (16) in the game to lead the Tigers in both state categories. Emily Hermsen scored 9 points and had two assists and Jamie Kofron scored 6 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. Samantha DeMoss also had 6 points in the game. Tipton shot 10-for-15 from the free-throw line in the game and out-rebounded West Branch 38 to 26.
1 2 3 4 T
Tip 2 18 15 22 57
WB 10 23 16 15 64
West Branch stats: Abbey Fryauf (f) 1-1 0-2 2, Tatum Koenig 11-18 4-6 30, Taya Young (g) 5-11 0-2 11, Sasha Koenig (g) 1-7 2-6 4, Riley Vaughan 0-3 0-0 0, Bridget Buol 1-1 0-0 2, Taylor Thein 4-5 2-2 13, Mackenzie Heise 1-3 0-3 2. Totals: 24-49 8-21 64.
Tipton stats: Zoe Rezac (g) 1-4 0-0 2, Samantha DeMoss (g) 3-4 0-0 6, Emily Hermsen (g) 3-12 2-2 9, Amanda Smith (f) 10-19 6-7 24, Jamie Kofron (f) 3-14 0-1 6, Tiffany Schott 2-3 0-1 4, Laken Hermiston 0-3 2-2 2, Allie Ryan 1-1 2-3 4. Totals: 23-60 10-15 57.
3-Pt. FG: Tipton 1-10 (Hermsen 1-7, Rezac 0-2, Smith 0-1), West Branch 8-18 (T. Koenig 4-7, Thein 3-4, Young 1-3, S. Koenig 0-4). Rebounds: Tipton 38 (Smith 16, Kofron 7, Rezac 5, Hermiston 3, Hermsen 2, Schott 2, Ryan 2, DeMoss 1), West Branch 26 (T. Koenig 8, Young 5, Luneckas 4, S. Koenig 3, Heise 2, Fryauf 1, Vaughan 1, Buol 1, Thein 1). Assists: Tipton 11 (Smith 3, Rezac 2, Hermsen 2, Kofron 2, Ryan 1, Hermiston 1), West Branch 19 (T. Koenig 8, S. Koenig 6, Young 4, Luneckas 1). Steals: Tipton 7 (DeMoss 3, Smith 2, Rezac 1, Kofron 1), West Branch 9 (S. Koenig 3, Young 3, Fryauf 2, Heise 1). Blocked Shots: Tipton 1 (Kofron 1), West Branch 3 (Heise 2, Young 1). Total Fouls: Tipton 18, West Branch N/A. Fouled Out: Tipton DeMoss. West Branch N/A.
West Branch 49,
Solon 35
The West Branch girls basketball team beat former Eastern Iowa Hawkeye Conference foe Solon 49 to 35 on Thursday, December 7 to improve to 3-2 overall. It’s the first time this season the Bears inch over the .500-mark. West Branch has won two straight games after starting the season 1-2.
West Branch led 11-5 after the first quarter and used an 18-8 run in the second quarter to take a 29-13 halftime lead. The Spartans outscored West Branch 22-20 in the second half, but it wasn’t enough.
Tatum Koenig led West Branch with 17 points, 7 steals and 7 assists. Sasha Koenig chipped in 8 points and Kaiya Luneckas pulled down a team high 7 rebounds. Solon was led by Jenna LaDage with 10 points off the bench. West Branch’s defense held leading Solon scorers Brianna Smith (11.3 ppg) and Gabby Marty (10.3 ppg) to 6 and 5 points respectively in the game. Solon fell to 2-4 with the loss.
1 2 3 4 T
WB 11 18 15 5 49
Solon 5 8 11 11 35
West Branch stats: Abbey Fryauf 1 0-0 2, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal; Riley Vaughan 1 0-0 2, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 foul; Kaiya Luneckas 1 0-1 2, 7 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block, 2 fouls; Tatum Koenig 7 1-2 17, 2 3-pointers, 3 rebounds, 7 assists, 7 steals, 2 fouls; Bridget Buol 2 0-1 4; Taylor Thein 2 0-0 5, 1 3-pointer, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 2 fouls; Taya Young 0 3-4 3, 2 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 fouls; Sasha Koenig 3 0-1 8, 2 3-pointers, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, 1 foul; Mackenzie Heise 3 0-0 6 1 rebound, 3 assists, 1 steal, 3 fouls. Team totals: 20 4-9 49, 5 3-pointers, 20 rebounds, 14 assists, 16 steals, 1 block, 13 fouls.
Solon stats: Haley Melchart 1 0-0 2, 2 rebounds, 2 fouls; Saige Haner 1 2-2 4, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 3 fouls; Gabby Marty 2 2-5 6, 10 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocks 2 fouls; Brianna Smith 2 0-1 5, 1 3-pointer, 2 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 5 fouls; Abby Smith 1 0-0 2, 7 rebounds, 1 steal; Jenna LeDage 4 0-0 10, 2 3-pointers, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, 2 fouls; Erin Kerkoff 3 0-1 6, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 fouls; unknown 2 rebounds. Team totals: 14 4-9 35, 3 3-pointers, 34 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks, 16 fouls
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