By Rodrick Anderson

American Press

GRAND LAKE — Iowa missed its first seven shots in the championship game of the Grand Lake tournament, but its defense kickstarted a big run, and the Yellow Jackets rolled to an 81-38 win over Westlake to remain undefeated.

Dashawn Ceaser, who scored a game-high 26 points, got a steal with 6:13 left in the first quarter and made a pair of free throws after being fouled to tie the game at 2-2.

He added two more from the charity stripe for the lead, and Desamonte Gradney turned a steal into a fastbreak as Iowa went on a 12-0 run. Half of those 12 points came off turnovers. Iowa held Westlake to 31.1 percent shooting.

“I like our defense,” Iowa head coach Rob Melanson said. “It is a team defense. We have some tough kids this year.”

Iowa is off to a 7-0 start for the second consecutive season.

11 of 12 in the Iowa lineup scored at least one point. Cameron Washington had 11 points and Gradney had 16 points and four assists.

“It’s the team chemistry,” Melanson said. “Each night, It seems like somebody has been hot.

“One night, it might be Landon Langley, one night Dashawn Ceaser. Tonight, Cameron Washington came out in the first quarter and hit some big buckets for us. Our bigs, they may not be scoring a whole lot, but they are doing what we need them to do.”

Westlake was able to cut Iowa’s lead to eight, 20-12, on a bucket by Ryan Allen with 1:18 left in the first quarter, but Iowa responded with a 7-0 run to push its lead back to double-digits, 27-14.

Kevin Rideau led Westlake (4-3) with 11 points, and center Jaqualon Pettieway missed a double-double by a point with 10 rebounds and nine points.