CL girls displaying mental toughness

by Marianne Gasaway

Clear Lake (11-0) remained undefeated in the North Central Conference with an exciting overtime win over Hampton-Dumont-CAL Friday night.  The victory capped a big week which included a close game with Class 4A power Waverly-Shell Rock and NCC rival Clarion-Goldfield. 

“I am proud of the mental toughness our girls are showing with these back-to-back games we’ve been having and will continue to have next week,” said Coach Bart Smith.  “This win puts us in a really good position to finish the season as conference champs.”

Following a Tuesday night game with Iowa Falls-Alden, the Lions host Garner-Hayfield-Ventura for a non-conference tilt Thursday, Feb. 3.  On Friday, Feb. 4, the team will be in Fort Dodge to play St. Edmond.

W-SR 45, CL 40

Tenth ranked (4A) Waverly-Shell Rock mounted a late comeback to edge Clear Lake, 45-40, on Monday, Jan. 24

“Waverly is a good team.  They play really good defense and I thought we handled their pressure pretty well.  Our focus was their post player and for the most part did a really nice job of containing and holding her under her average,” recapped Clear Lake Head Coach Bart Smith.

The teams were deadlocked 17-17 at halftime and the Lions were cloning to a one-point lead after three quarters, 27-26.

“There were just a few possessions in the fourth quarter on the defensive end that we needed to win to enable us to extend our lead in that fourth quarter,” said Ainley.  

The Go-Hawks surged ahead late to outscore the Lions, 19-13, in the final frame for the win.

Most statistical categories were as close as the game itself, with the exception being trips to the free throw line and rebounds.  

Waverly-Shell Rock had 25 shots from the line and made 19 (76 percent), while the Lions were six-for-11 (54.5 percent) from the charity stripe.  The Go-Hawks had a 32-23 advantage in rebounds.

The Lions shot 37 percent (16/43) from the field, compared to 28 percent (11/39) for the Go-Hawks, and recorded eight steals to W-SR’s seven.  Both teams had 10 turnovers.

“I thought we played a good game.   There were just a few possessions in the fourth quarter on the defensive end that we needed to win to enable us to extend our lead in that fourth quarter,” said Coach Smith.  

Jaden Ainley and Emily Theiss provided the majority of Clear Lake’s scoring.  The senior duo put in 17 and 11-points respectively.  Ainley, along with Jordan Mayland who scored two-points, paced the team with five rebounds apiece.  Mayland also had a team-high five assists.

Brooklyn Eden came off the bench and put in five-points.  Reese Brownlee, and Xada Johnson each had two-points and Ava Richtsmeier scored one.

CL 58, C-G-D- 29

The Lions took time to refocus at halftime and were able to pull away from Clarion-Goldfield-Dows on the road Tuesday, Jan. 25, by a score of 58-29.

After a close first quarter, which ended in Clear Lake’s favor, 14-10, the Lions outscored the Cowgirls 13-4 for a 27-14 halftime lead.    The Lion defense held their opponent to single digit scoring in the third and fourth periods for the easy win.

“The first half was rough for us,” said Coach Smith.  “We started the first two-minutes of the game really well and then we had an offensive struggle the remainder of the half.  We were able to refocus at halftime and get into an offensive rhythm and got a good conference win on the road.  

Jaden Ainley poured in 24 points for the Lions.  Reserves Reese Brownlee and Brooklyn Eden gave the team a lift with eight points apiece.  Emily Theiss scored seven. Xada Johnson finished with four points, as did Autumn VanHorn.  Ava Richtsmeier added three points.  Theiss was the leader on the boards with six.

CL 51, H-D-CAL 47 (OT)

Clear Lake held off Hampton-Dumont-CAL for a 51-47 victory Friday night.  The Bulldogs were the only team in the confer

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ence with a chance of challenging the Lions for the NCC title.  With the win, the Lions stayed perfect at 11-0, while H-D fell to 9-2.

“I am really proud of how we executed down the stretch to get this win,” said Coach Bart Smith.  “A lot of girls stepped in in multiple ways to get this win.  Brooklynn Eden defended really well all night on one of their top scorers. Emily Theiss got a big defensive stop for us to get the ball back to give a shot to tie the game up in regulation. Jaden Ainley hit a big shot to tie the game. Jaden and Jordan Mayland made some big threes in overtime to extend the lead and Ava Richtsmeier got us a big rebound and made clutch free throws to seal the victory.”

The Lions led for most of the game, but with less than one-minute to go Hampton took a two-point lead.

Ainley took an inbounds pass from Mayland and systematically drained a shot and was fouled. With the game tied at 37-37 she and the game was tied at 37-37.  Ainley missed the free throw, sending the game into overtime.

The extra minutes all belonged to the Lions, as Ainley and Mayland hit three-pointers for a six-point Lion lead.  The Bulldogs closed the gap to two, but Richtsmeier’s free throws sealed the win.    

“What gives us an advantage over other teams in our conference is our off-the-bench contributions,” said Coach Smith.  “We have had multiple games where our bench has come up big for us and is one of the factors in some of our wins and tonight was another one of those nights.”

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