The West Prairie High School boys basketball team used a swarming defense and received some timely offense to earn a pair of back-to-back homecourt victories this week and improve to 5-3 for the season.
On Monday night, the Cyclones shut out Biggsville West Central in the fourth quarter to secure a 68-34 non-conference victory over the Heat.
West Prairie used a 14-0 run in a turnover-filled first quarter to jump out to a 23-5 lead.
But West Central responded with an 11-1 run of its own in the second quarter to close within 24-16 with just under three minutes left in the half.
The Cyclones would regroup as Braden Coplan drilled a trey and Matt Whitman followed with a basket. WPHS also converted seven consecutive free throws down the stretch to take a 36-19 halftime lead.
West Central heated up in the third quarter and hit three straight three-pointers, including a pair by Sam Deverell, to get within 40-28 before West Prairie regained control to take a 49-34 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Cyclones would outscore the Heat 19-0 over the final eight minutes to close out the victory.
West Central fell to 2-4 with the loss.
Braden Coplan led WPHS with 28 points, while Whitman and Holden Coplan finished with 11 points each.
“We’ve been trying to pride ourselves a little bit more on the defensive end,” said West Prairie head coach Ian Conkling. “We had to go to man (defense) because they started shooting the ball out of our zone and our rotations got a little slow. So we decided to turn it up a bit.”
West Prairie also won the JV contest by defeating West Central 42-38.
Holden Coplan led the Cyclones with 10 points.
Tuesday night saw Lewistown pay a visit for a Prairieland crossover contest.
The visiting Indians jumped out to an early lead before the Cyclones came storming back to earn a physical 46-30 victory.
Lewistown got three-pointers from Owen Kelley and Paul Connolly to spark the Indians to their largest lead of the night at 14-8 after one quarter.
The Cyclones came back as Braden Coplan began to heat up in the second quarter by drilling three treys. Meanwhile, the WPHS defense allowed only one basket by Connolly with under three minutes to go. That allowed the Cyclones to grab a 21-16 halftime advantage.
The third quarter was an end-to-end, but sloppy affair as Lewistown managed to get within 27-25 before a Braden Coplan threepointer and a basket by Eli DeCounter allowed the Cyclones to maintain a slim 32-27 lead entering the final period.
For the second consecutive night, the WPHS defense turned it up over the final eight minutes and was on the verge of another shutout before a Gauge Kruzan trey with just 1:59 remaining broke the drought to account for the final score.
Braden Coplan led the way for WPHS with a game-high 20 points and DeCounter added 12.
Connolly led Lewistown with 13 points as the Indians fell to 2-4.
“We knew this was going to be a physical game,” said Conkling. “They kind of took it to us at the beginning of the game and we didn’t match their physicality or energy.”
“We just preach patience with our offense and defensively, we knew we had to kind of tighten things up,” he added. “We went on a little run and it kind of woke us up.”
West Prairie made it a sweep for the evening as the JV squad downed the Indians 45-21.
Tyson Carnes and Gannon Shipman shared scoring honors for the Cyclones with 11 points apiece.
West Prairie hits the road Friday night to face North Fulton in a Prairieland Conference crossover battle in Cuba.
On Saturday, the Cyclone varsity heads to United High School to begin play in the United Holiday Tournament.
The Cyclones will face Geneseo at 4:30 p.m. and Ridgewood at 7:30 p.m.
The tournament continues next week with the Cyclones facing West Central, Knoxville and host United.
