CL girls bounce back

(Above) Clear Lake’s Gretchen Jones applies some heavy defensive pressure to a Humboldt player in Friday night’s home match-up.  The Lions topped the Wildcats, 37-34.  -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy

The Clear Lake girls (13-7, 8-5) dropped out of the Class 3A ratings with a loss at Algona Feb. 1, but bounced back and are on the upswing heading into the post-season next week.  The Lions host Aplington-Parkersburg in a Regional game Saturday, Feb. 13, at 7 p.m.  The winner will advance to play the winner of the Forest City vs. Iowa Falls-Alden game being played in Forest City on Feb. 13.  That second round game will be played Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 7 p.m. in Forest City.

Algona 38, CL 29

Good defense helped the Lions stay close, but Algona (11-9) picked up the North Central Conference win Monday, 38-29.

“We had a bad shooting night, but were able to keep it close because of our defense,” said Coach Bart Smith.  “We are doing the little things right to stay in a game if we don’t have a good shooting night.  Defending and rebounding are things we can control, and we are doing that very well.”

Both teams struggled offensively in the first quarter.  The Lions edged the Bulldogs 6-5 in the period.  Algona took charge in the second quarter, outscoring the Lions 12-2 for a 17-8 halftime lead.

The Lions seemed to get on track in the third and topped the Bulldogs 13-8 in the quarter.  The burst was short-lived and they returned to single digits in the final period.

The coach credited center Ellie Biebesheimer as being an integral part of the successful Lion defense, which held the home team to eight third quarter points.  The senior pulled down 13 rebounds to go with her two points.

Jordan Barragy led the Lions on the scoreboard with 16 points, including four three-pointers.

“Jordyn continues to be our consistent scorer with Emily (Snelling) still nursing a knee injury,” said Coach Smith.  “Gretchen Jones is starting to see the floor better and is someone we can count down the stretch here into tournament time.”

Jones, a sophomore, didn’t score, but had three assists and a steal in the game.

Jessica Faber scored eight points and had four rebounds.  Erin O’Tool finished with two points and four rebounds, while Chloe Mueller had one point and three boards.

CL 37, Humboldt 34

Defense was again the name of the game for the Lions when they hosted Humboldt (12-7, 9-4) Friday, Feb. 5.  This time they won, 37-34.

“This was a big win for us.  Our girls played hard tonight,” said Coach Bart Smith.  “We were tough on the defensive end again.  Our two seniors were great at that end of the floor.  Ellie (Biebesheimer) had another double digit rebounding effort (12) for us and Erin (O’Tool) shut down their top scorer again.  She held her to three points in the first meeting and seven in tonight’s game.

The team started evenly, with the Lions holding a slim 10-9 lead after the first eight minutes.  The Lion defense was effective in the third and they topped the Wildcats 9-3 to take an 18-13 lead at the break.

After sputtering a bit in the third and only putting six points on the board, the Lions outlasted Humboldt

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down the stretch, 13-12, for a three point win.

Jessica Faber led a balanced Lion attack with 10 points and five rebounds.  O’Tool and Gretchen Jones each finished with six points.  Jones dished out six assists.  Chloe Mueller and Snelling each had five points.  Jordan Barragy put in three points.

“Humboldt is a good team.  They have some big girls that can move well which its tough for us to get a good look from the arc, but our girls were patient and took care of the ball and took good shots,” added Coach Smith.  “It was nice to see our girls over come some adversity being down six in the middle of the fourth and come back and take the lead to this win.  Fun game!”

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