Bench play keeps spark going for No. 3 Warhawks

SHEFFIELD – Once the starters have exited, there is no let-down for Class 1A No. 3 West Fork.

The bench picks up where the Warhawk starting five have left off, and in fact, give a hard case for more playing time.

Case in point is junior Cail Weaver, who made the most of his minutes by leading coach Frank Schnoes’ squad with 19 points, three rebounds and two steals as West Fork blew past visiting Central Springs, 84-37, on Tuesday, Jan. 28.

Weaver had nine points by halftime and buried a three and another mid-range jumper in back-to-back trips up the floor in the third quarter.

“Everybody played and I thought played pretty well,” Schnoes said. “Cail came off the bench and had opportunities scoring. He’s just a real steady player for us, he can knock down some threes, really good defender, gets a lot of steals. Real complimentary player, so it was nice to see other players step up and score for us. He does a nice job.”

Cail Weaver’s play complimented three starters in double-digit scoring, with 16 for Ian Latham, who had 13 in just the first quarter alone, 12 for Kayden Ames and 10 more for Brett Weaver. Both Brett Weaver and Jakob Washington finished with six assists with Washington leading the Warhawks in rebounding with eight.

While improving to 16-1 overall and 12-0 in the Top of Iowa East Conference, the Warhawks have jumped up two spots in the Iowa Associated Press Class 1A poll to No. 3. That is of no concern to Schnoes, however.

“I don’t think so,” Schnoes said. “We don’t talk about it at practice. Maybe they talk amongst themselves. I’ve seen three or four (teams) who are behind us who are better than we are from knowing them at camp. I don’t know how much they have improved or not improved. I don’t put a lot of stock in ratings.

“We have to win out to win the conference out-right and that’s what we are focused on right now. If we win out, we should be the No. 1 seed in the district, so we have a lot of things to shoot for and St. Ansgar should be a tough one Friday, we beat them by four at our place, so it will be interesting to see how we match-up with them.”

With the continuous clock already rolling to start the second half, the Warhawks still managed to put up 30 points on the Panthers, who got most of their offense from Angel Jose, who came off the bench for them with 17 points. Trenton Wirtjes scored 16 to combine for all but four of their squad’s points.

West Fork shot nearly 62 percent from the field, 53 percent from three-point range. The Warhawks had three straight road tests before finishing off the regular season at home against Osage.

“The kids were shooting well from the outside, so anytime we are playing defense like we have, can hit the outside shots, we’re pretty tough,” Schnoes said. “We finish the regular season with Osage. We’ll have to shoot for it, the kids are really focused and stepping up while playing. This kind of game you are never quite sure how they’ll play out but we’ve been really focused in quite a few games now. We’re not always shooting really well, we shot well tonight. We need to continue to shoot more like that and play some defense.”

West Fork 84, Central Springs 37

Central Springs (2-15, 2-10)– Mattia Paoletti 0-2 0-0 0, Tyler Marino 0-1 0-0 0, Owen Dannen 0-3 0-0 0, Drew Kelley 0-6 0-0 0, Jayce Prymer 0-1 0-0 0, Cayden Kelley 1-1 0-0 2, Jacob Prymer 1-1 0-0 2, Mason Hanft 0-0 0-0 0, Angel Jose 7-10 3-3 17, Trenton Wirtjes 7-10 0-1 16. Totals 16-35 3-4 37.

West Fork (16-1, 12-0)– Ian Latham 6-9 1-3 16, Brett Weaver 5-7 0-0 10, Kayden Ames 4-4 0-0 12, Noah Maske 2-3 0-0 6, Colin Martinek 1-2 0-0 3, Jakob Washington 1-5 1-2 3, Nate Hubka 0-2 0-2 0, Ren Heimer 3-4 0-1 7, Edison Caspers 0-0 0-0 0, Cail Weaver 8-13 0-0 19, Jason Meier 1-3 0-0 2, Brayden Vold 3-3 0-0 6. Totals 34-55 2-8 84.

Cent. Sprgs4   13   11     9      -   37

W. Fork      25   29   13   17      -   84

Three-point goals – CS 2 (Wirtjes 2-5, Marino 0-1, Dannen 0-2, D. Kelley 0-2, Jose 0-2); WF 14-26 (Ames 4-4, C. Weaver 3-5, Latham 3-6, Maske 2-3, Martinek 1-2, Heimer 1-2, B. Weaver 0-1, Hubka 0-1, Washington 0-2). Rebounds– CS 18, 2 off., 16 def. (Wirtjes 7, Jay. Prymer 3, Hanft 2, Jose 2, Dannen, D. Kelley, T. Marino); WF 26, 5 off., 21 def. (Washington 8, Heimer 4, Latham 5, C. Weaver 3, Hubka 2, Vold 2, B. Weaver, Martinek, Caspers, Meier). Assists– CS 2 (Wirtjes 2); WF 20 (B. Weaver 6, Washington 6, Heimer 3, Latham 2, Maske 2, Hubka). Steals– CS 3 (J. Marino, Hanft, Jose); WF 10 (Latham 2, Heimer 2, C. Weaver 2, Ames, Maske, Washington, Vold). Blocks– CS 2 (Paoletti, Wirtjes); WF, None. Total fouls– CS NA, WF 5. Fouled out – None.