CL girls have eyes on the prize

(Above) Clear Lake’s Taylor Krull looks for an outlet pass during the Regional game against GHV on Saturday night.  She’s being tightly guarded by GHV’s Paige Roberts.  The Lions defeated the Cardinals, 57-46, to move on in tournament play.  -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy

by Marianne Gasaway

The Clear Lake Lions wrapped up their regular season as North Central Conference champions and opened post-season play with a win over Garner-Hayfield-Ventura.  They will take on Forest City tonight (Wednesday, Feb. 18) in the Regional semi-final.  The game will be played at CLHS at 7 p.m.  Forest City was a 52-41 winner over Humboldt in their opening game.  The winner of the Clear Lake (20-2) vs. Forest City (11-5) game will advance to the Regional final against either Okoboji (21-1) or Algona (13-9) with a State berth on the line.  That game will be played Saturday, Feb. 22, at a site to be announced.

CL 68, H-D 45

The Lions put the punctuation mark on their conference and regular season with a 68-45 victory over Hampton-Dumont Tuesday, Feb. 11.  The win left Clear Lake on top of the NCC with a 13-1 record.  H-D finished as NCC runner-up with an 11-3 record.

“We got off to a good start and they never were able to get into any kind a rhythm,” said Clear Lake Coach Bart Smith.  “I like how we were aggressive and we were attacking from the start.”

The Lions put the Bulldogs in a hole early by racing out to a 20-5 lead through the first quarter.  By halftime, the lead was 46-18.

Smith let all of his players contribute to the win with wholesale substitutions in the second half.  Eleven Lions had a hand in scoring the 23-point win.

Senior Sara Faber led the way with 19-points and seven rebounds.  Darby Dodd came off the bench and finished in double digits with 10.

Lexi Fasbender and Kaitlyn Vanderploeg each put in nine points for the Lions, followed by Jaden Ainley with seven and Chelsey Holck with five-points.  Ali Maulsby put in three-points, Emily Theiss and Zoe Fasbender each had two, and Layne Lester added one-point.  Vanderploeg was the top rebounder with 10.

“It feels good to be conference champs all by ourselves,” added Coach Smith.  “I thought the girls played together all year.  It’s a great group of kids.”

CL 57, GHV 46

The Lions didn’t get off to a good start, but they maintained their composure and followed their game plan to a 57-46 opening round win in Regional play Saturday.

GHV jumped ahead 7-0 before the Lions got on the board, but Clear Lake ended the first quarter with a 17-9 lead and was up, 30-18 at the break.

“Not the start we wanted the first few— but we found our stride late in the first quarter,” said Coach Smith.

“I think we felt like ‘hey we

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can play with these guys the way they play’ and then forgot about getting back and being solid in the back court,” said GHV Coach Matt Frank said.

Although they began to assert themselves, the Lions still weren’t able to completely put the Cardi- nals away.

“I was pleased with our bench play.  They gave a well-needed spark at the end of the third quarter to give us a comfortable lead going into the fourth quarter,” said Coach Smith.

Clear Lake’s lead was 47-30 after three, which was enough to hold off a late charge by GHV.  The Cardinals outscored the Lions, 16-10 in the final period.

Sara Faber and Chelsey Holck paced the team with 17 and 13-points respectively. Darby Dodd finished with eight-points.  Emily Theiss and Kaitlyn Vanderploeg came off the bench and scored six apiece.   Julia Merfeld and Zoe Fasbender each scored three-points. Jaden Ainley had one.

Faber and Vanderploeg led the team in rebounds with four apiece.

GHV was led by Jayden Frank with 16-points.  Morgan Ryerson collected nine points, all from the three-point line.  Chloe Frank also had nine-points, she was 9/10 from the free-throw line.

Chloe Frank led the team under the basket with seven rebounds.  She also had four assists.

The Cardinals ended their season with an 8-14 record.

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