A pair of Class 2A’s top boys basketball teams will square off tomorrow when top-ranked West Marshall meets #4 Denver in Waverly as the marquee game of this year’s North Iowa Cedar League Shootout. Both teams are 12-0 going into games this evening. Denver coach Darrin Berggren says that while some are calling his team a surprise this year, he had a feeling they’d have a pretty solid team.
Berggren says they had the top four scorers back from their 15-win team last year, but he says you also have to have a little luck along the way. The Cyclones have three players averaging more than ten points per game this season, and Berggren says that balance has been one of their strengths.
West Marshall features one of the state’s top scorers in center Michael Newton, as well as some athletic guards in Dalton and Duncan Ferch. But Berggren says that containing Newton will be Denver’s focus on defense, as he says Newton is shooting around 75% from the field.
With the district tournament starting in about a month, Berggren says the game against West Marshall should give Denver a bit of a playoff preview. So far he says things have gone well and the secone time through the conference things start to get tougher.
The NICL Shootout runs all day tomorrow at Levick Arena in Waverly. The Denver-West Marshall game is scheduled to tip off at 10 AM.
By Jesse Gavin, KCNZ, Cedar Falls