The West Prairie varsity and junior varsity boys’ basketball teams had a busy, but productive week to start off the new year as both squads extended winning streaks for the season.
On the varsity side, the Cyclones began the week by downing non-conference foe Barry Western on the road 44-38 on Jan. 5.
It was a defensive battle throughout the contest as the Cyclones held only a 12-10 lead after one quarter before both teams were limited to just two second quarter field goals apiece as WPHS took a slim 17-16 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The Cyclones took advantage of poor free throw shooting by the hosts in the third quarter to maintain a 29-26 advantage going into the final eight minutes.
The Wildcats converted on just 4-of-9 attempts from the foul line in the period.
West Prairie was slightly better from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter by converting on 8-of-14 attempts to hold on for the victory.
Braden Coplan led the Cyclones with 12 points while Holden Coplan and Ryan Clark finished with 11 points each.
Eli DeCounter had five points, Matt Whitman had three and Brody Cordell added two points to round out the WPHS offense that shot 39 percent (13-for-33) for the game.
Orion Bowen led BW (3-9) with a game-high 15 points. In JV action, West Prairie jumped out to a 14-0 lead after one quarter and never looked back as the Cyclones went on to defeat Western 56-34.
Gannon Shipman led WPHS with 12 points while Ivan Beck and Ayden Lacey added 10 points apiece.
Other scorers for West Prairie were Mason Whitman with seven points, Holden Coplan and Tyson Carnes with six points each and Max French finished with five points for the unbeaten Cyclones.
WPHS returned home on Jan. 6 for another non-conference matchup, this one against Ridgewood (AlWood/ Cambridge).
The Cyclones struggled early and then had to fight off a late Spartans’ comeback to pull out a hard-fought 63-52 victory.
Ridgewood came out on the attack in the opening quarter and capitalized on WPHS foul trouble by converting seven of its 14 first quarter points from the foul line to take a 14-10 lead into the second period.
The Cyclones came to life in the second quarter and used a tenacious defense and a 14-0 run, highlighted by Braden Coplan’s 12 points during that stretch, to close out the quarter and take a 32-22 halftime lead.
WPHS held the Spartans to just two three-point field goals and a pair of free throws in the period.
Ridgewood refused to go away and cut the deficit to just 37-35 with three minutes remaining in the third quarter before the Cyclones went on a 7-2 run over the last two minutes to take a 44-37 lead into the final eight minutes.
The Spartans got within 49-43 at the 5:28 mark, but the Cyclones managed to outscore Ridgewood 14-9 the rest of the way to secure the victory.
Braden Coplan led WPHS with a game-high 32 points while Clark and Matt Whitman added 11 points each.
Other Cyclones in the scoring column were Holden Coplan with seven points and Austin Nelson finished with two.
Ridgewood (1-10) had four players in double figures and were led by Chase Owen with 14 points, Byron Catour had 13 while Brenen Bolduc and Karter Hays finished with 11 and 10 points respectively.
Despite the winning streak, West Prairie head coach Ian Conkling wasn’t entirely happy with his team’s performance over the last two contests.
“We’re just not playing the quality of basketball we expect to be playing,” said Conkling. “That’s in all facets of the game, defensively and offensively. We’re kind of becoming, a little bit, the hunted when normally, we used to be kind of the hunter mentality. We’re going to get teams’ best shot on any given night now.”
In the opener, the WP JV squad needed five overtimes to edge past Ridgewood 61-59 as freshman Gannon Shipman sank a layup right before the final buzzer to keep the Cyclones undefeated at 10-0 for the season.
Freshman Mason Whitman led a trio of Cyclones in double figure scoring with 18 points while Holden Coplan had 15 and Shipman added 11 points.
Beck had nine points, Carnes added four while Cam Melvin and Lacey finished with two points each to round out the scoring for the hosts.
In the finale for the week, WPHS played host to Elmwood on Jan. 8 in another non-conference matchup.
For the second time in three nights, Shipman played the hero, this time with a varsity buzzer-beater to give the Cyclones a 58-57 victory over the Trojans.
The first half saw the Cyclones trail 17-16 after one quarter before tying the game at 28-28 by halftime.
Both teams continued to go back and forth in the third quarter which would also end deadlocked at 42-42.
Elmwood eventually took its largest lead of the second half at 53-48 with just under three minutes remaining.
Braden Coplan hit two long-range treys, the last coming with only 1:17 to go, to give WPHS a 54-53 lead.
Quinton Johns gave the Trojans a 55-54 lead with under a minute left, but Shipman would answer with a basket at the 29 second mark to put WPHS back up 56-55.
Elmwood answered with a Hason Hubbard basket underneath with only 10 seconds remaining to set the stage for Shipman’s game-winning heroics.
After taking an inbounds pass from Holden Coplan with 2.8 seconds on the clock, Shipman dribbled left a couple of steps and drained a midrange jumper as the horn sounded to send the Cyclones to their ninth straight win and improve to 14-4 overall.
“I was thinking that I was going to have to shoot the three, but then I remembered I had two seconds so I went right around (defender) and shot it...and it went in,” said Shipman.
“That definitely wasn’t how the play was drawn up,” said Conkling. “It was kind of like a balance play that gives you four options and we needed something quickly. We had (Shipman) available in the corner and he made a heck of a play with the ball and did a little midrange floater...a special moment for the team.”
Braden Coplan led WP with a game-high 26 points including 12 points in the fourth quarter while Holden Coplan added 20 points.
Clark finished with six points, Shipman had four and Matt Whitman added two points to round out the scoring.
Johns led Elmwood with 19 points while Miles Addison had 16.
In JV action, WPHS improved to 11-0 with a 31-21 win over Elmwood.
Carnes led the Cyclones with seven points while Shipman and Lacey added six points each.
Beck also finished with five points, Mason Whitman had three while French and Mason Sorrells each had two points.
The Cyclones will next play at Rockridge in another non-conference tilt on Tuesday.
