CL girls move to 7-1 in NCC

By Marianne Gasaway

The Lions framed  a couple of sluggish quarters with dominating ones on their way to a 55-34 victory over Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Tuesday, Jan. 15.  The victory puts Clear Lake at 10-3 overall and 7-1 in the North Central Conference.

The Lions were scheduled to play Webster City (4-9, 2-5) Monday night and Crestwood (10-4) Thursday, Jan. 24.  Both games are at home. They are on the road Friday to take on St. Edmond (2-11, 1-7).  Tuesday, Jan. 29, they will host Algona (13-1, 7-1) in a key NCC game.  Algona is the only conference team to knock off the Lions this season.

CL 55, C-G-D 34

Clear Lake jumped out to an 18-3 first quarter lead, but the Cowgirls’ effective defense in the second quarter slowed down the offense and by halftime the Lions’ lead was 26-17.   C-G-D (7-8, 2-5) went on to outscore the home team in the third period, 13-10, and pull within six points, but the Lions roared back for the 21-point win.

“Clarion did a nice job defending the three tonight.  Offensively we couldn’t find open look from the perimeter in their zone and we didn’t make good decisions with the basketball. We have to clean up our turnovers,” said Clear Lake Coach Bart Smith.   “Our first and fourth quarters were good, but we lacked some consistency in the others and that was due to our decisions making on offense.  I was pleased to see our girls find other ways to score when we weren’t scoring from the threes.”

Sara Faber led the Lions with 19 points, followed by Julia Merfeld with 10 points and a team-high six rebounds.

Zoe Fasbender had a good night with eight points and five rebounds.  Chelsey Holck put in six points and also had five boards.  Lexi Fasbender and Mikayla Vanderploeg each had four points and four rebounds. Kaitlyn Vanderploeg had four points and three rebounds.