Jefferson coach Brandon Horman thought about ways to slow down Iowa City West, but none of them seemed to be a good option.

So he let his J-Hawks run with the state’s second-ranked team and they literally got run out of their own gym Friday night.

Scoring one way or another nearly every time they had the ball, the tall and fast Trojans stampeded Jefferson 102-74. And that was even with subs playing the last couple of minutes.

Horman said he considered several defensive ploys, including a full-court press and a zone defense.

"But they get down the floor in about a half-second,” he said, “and they can shoot over the zone.

“Really, it’s tough to slow down a team as good as Iowa City West.”

Few, in fact, have accomplished the feat in the past five years. Over that stretch their record is 113-7, with three of those losses to teams from the Twin Cities.

Though upset in the state semifinals last year to finish 25-1, they’ve won three of the last four championships.

“They’re just an all-around good team,” said Jefferson senior Adam Van Oort, who popped in 18 points. “They’re good at everything. Good defenders and good shooters.”

Quick, too.

It didn’t help Jefferson’s uphill task when the visitors kept stealing the ball and raced off to a 34-16 first quarter lead on a lot of layups.

“That slow start just killed us,” Van Oort acknowledged. “We just weren’t ready to go and we got in too big of a hole.”

Jefferson junior Kane Kramer, whose 18 points tied for team scoring honors with four three-pointers, said they knew what to expect from a 76-50 loss earlier in the season. But they couldn’t stop it.

“They forced a lot of turnovers (12 in the first half alone), and they didn’t miss too many shots.”

Trojan scoring came from all angles, too.

Junior Connor McCaffery (the Hawkeye coach’s older son) scored 21, mostly from the outside. His little 6-foot3 freshman brother Patrick had 13, mostly from around the rim.

Senior center Wali Parks chipped in with 19, including a couple of slam dunks. And point guard Devontae Lane added 14, almost all of them coming from drives down the lane.

For Jefferson, small guard Royshawn Webb was all over the floor all night and ended up with 16 points.

Iowa City (now 13-3 with its only in-state loss coming at the hands of Class 3A powerhouse Dubuque Wahlert) coasted to a 58-36 halftime lead.

But the J-Hawks, fresh from a 71-70 buzzer beater upset of Linn-Mar last week, regrouped at intermission and actually out-scored the Trojan starters 21-16 in the third quarter.

“We put the first half behind us, made some adjustments and cut the lead to 15,” Horman noted. “We’ve been in games before like that when anything can happen.

“But it’s hard to make a big swing against a team as tough as Iowa City West.”

IOWA CITY WEST (102): Parks 7 5-8 19, Henderson 4 3-4 14, Lane 4 6-8 14, C.McCaffery 7 4-4 21, Lohaus 3 0-0 6, Pederson 0 0-0 0, P.McCaffery 4 5-6 13, Majors 2 1-2 5, Barnes 1 0-0 2, Disterhoff 0 1-2 1, Nock 2 0-0 5, Ono-Fullard 0 0-0 0, Carter 0 0-0 0, Nicklaus 0 0-0 0, Van Roekel 0 0-0 0. Totals 35 25-34 102.

JEFFERSON (74): Webb 7 2-9 16, Green 2 0-2 4, Kramer 7 0-0 18, Van Oort 8 0-0 18, McKinney 2 0-2 4, Wiederin 1 0-0 3, Smith 0 0-0 0, Hulsing 0 2-2 2, Brown 1 2-4 4, McCauley 0 0-1, 0, Szabo 0 0-0 0, Shaw 0 0-1 1,Larsen 1 0-0 3, Burnett 0 0-0 0, Hawkins 0 0-0 0. Totals 29 8-22 74.

Halftime – Iowa City West 58, Jefferson 36. 3-point goals – Iowa City West 7 (C.McCaffery 3, Henderson 3, Nock 1), Jefferson 8 (Kramer 4, Van Oort 2, Wiederin 1, Larsen 1).