The West Fork girls basketball team is among the Top of Iowa Conference-East leaders entering Christmas break at 5-2 and 2-1 in TIC East.
In the Warhawks’ five wins, they have held opponents to 48 points or less, and have scored over 50 points in four of five of them, with the exception being a 42-38 comeback win over Newman Catholic on December 13. The Warhawks two losses came against ranked in opponents #5 (3A) Forest City 59-22 on December 2 and #12(1A)Saint Ansgar (46-45) on December 20.
Head Coach Rodney Huber says leading scorer and assist leader Leah Weaver could be out for an extended period of time.
“She injured her ankle in practice. It could be a long-term deal, we’re not really sure. We’re still trying to figure out exactly what she did,” says Huber. “It could be out for a while, which will hurt, and other girls will have to step up. At least we have some time here to kind of figure things out, get some practices together and see where we go from there.”
Weaver leads the team with 19.5 points and 3.3 assists per game.
Huber on leaders they will look to take on more of an expanded role for the team.
“Karma McMorris was a second-teamer last year. A player that’s very athletic, can create a lot of havoc in our press and get to the hoop. I think she’ll take on a little bit more of a role. Then Nehir Kanat, is a foreign exchange student and she’s still getting more and more comfortable. She is very skilled, handles the ball well, but she’s still adjusting to what basketball’s like here in the states. I think she fits well with what we want to do and I think she’ll take on a little bit more of a role. The third person I think is Brylie Hubka, she’s a little bit of a tweener post for us, she plays inside and outside. She’s been a great offensive rebounder this year. I think she’s going to get more opportunities in the post and she’s pretty skilled down there. I am looking for her to step up as well and kind of help with some of that void that’s going to be there with Leah’s absence.”
Nehir Kanat is averaging 8.9 points per game and Karma McMorris adds 6.7 points per game, while both shoot over 30 percent from the field. Brylie Hubka leads the team in rebounds with 5.1 rebounds per game.
Huber on areas to improve in during break in preparation for the 2025 half of their season.
“Shot selection is something that we’re trying to really talk about because we take a bad shot and it can lead to the other team getting out in transition. We’re really trying to preach that to our girls in practice every day. Then defensively we need to do a little bit of better job of keeping the ball in front of us. Then in our run and jump press and our full court press we need to do the same. We need to keep people in front of us and when the ball does get past our man, everybody needs to get to the paint to make sure that layups don’t occur. There’s definitely things that we’ll be working on and trying to improve as we get this break here.”
West Fork will open the 2025 half of their season at Iowa Falls-Alden in non-conference matchup on Friday, January 3.
