Trevin Jirak leads Valley boys basketball past Waterloo West, back to Iowa state tournament
West Des Moines Valley boys basketball put the exclamation point on its season with a convincing 64-41 win over Waterloo West on Monday, a victory that sent the Tigers to the state tournament.
It’s the first time Valley (18-5) will participate in postseason play at the Wells Fargo Arena since 2018. The Tigers won the title in 2016, and were runners-up in 2014 and 2017.
But Valley has won 14 of its last 16 matchups and heads into the state tournament with confidence.
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“It’s an awesome feeling because there (are) seniors here that haven’t been to the Well,” said Valley sophomore center Trevin Jirak. “That was our main focus this year, getting these seniors what they deserve.”
Jirak led the Tigers with 16 points in the substate championship game. Fellow sophomore Zay Robinson contributed another 11 points in the victory.
Waterloo West (17-6) senior Si’Marion Anderson led the team with 14 points in his final game of high school basketball.
Valley is set to play Norwalk (20-3) in the state semifinal on Wednesday, March 8 at 3:45 p.m. The Tigers secured the 4-seed in the tournament, Norwalk is the 5-seed.
Valley defense wins out in substate final
Despite beating Waterloo West by 25 points, this game wasn’t an offensive masterclass by Valley.
Curtis Stinson Jr. – who was limited by foul trouble – didn’t have his typical scoring night, although the sophomore guard was able to run the offense well at times. Trevian Carson and Kiki Deng, two of the Tigers’ top five scorers, were also limited.
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“Understanding that offense is not going to be there every night,” said Valley coach BJ Windhorst. “No matter how well you shoot it, (the) ball’s not gonna go in that rim all the time. But you can go play defense every night, and they bought into that.”
Valley leaned heavily on Jirak’s production on both ends of the floor, and for good reason. The 6-foot-8 center was a mismatch nightmare for Waterloo West, with its tallest starter coming in at 6-5.
Jirak was the catalyst for a lot of the Tigers’ defensive stops, solely because of his size. Valley, in general, also forced West to speed up its game and take messy shots instead of setting up better looks.
Tigers need to tighten things up before state tournament
Valley’s substate win was far from perfect. There were several turnovers from sloppy passes and simple miscommunications.
While the Tigers recovered from those mistakes – thanks mostly to an offensive uptick in the second half – they won’t get away with handing opponents extra opportunities in the state tournament.
“It wasn’t a pretty game,” Windhorst remarked. “The nice thing is, we didn’t play well offensively and still won the game by 20 points. We’ve got a week to get back to work and see how much better we can get when the shots don’t go in.
“These guys are still sophomores. This is a game we haven’t been in in years, and to get over that hump, I think they’re feeling that.”
Alyssa Hertel is the college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Trevin Jirak leads Valley boys basketball past Waterloo West
