CL girls move record to 9-1 in the North Central Conference

(Above) Clear Lake’s Sara Faber brings the ball down the floor.  Faber hit a scoring milestone against St. Ed’s by collecting her 1,000th point in her high school career.  -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy

By Marianne Gasaway

The Clear Lake girls set up a North Central Conference title showdown with two more wins over league opponents this week.  The Lions are now 9-1 in the NCC.  They were slated to face 10-1 Algona Tuesday night, but the game was postponed due to weather.  The game has been rescheduled to Saturday, Feb. 2, at home at 4 p.m.  Algona, who is 16-1 overall, is the only conference team to top the Lions this season.

The Lions are slated to wrap up the regular season next week with games scheduled at Garner Thursday, home against Humboldt Friday, and on the road at Hampton and Iowa Falls Feb. 5 and Feb. 7.

Clear Lake will begin post-season play at home Saturday, Feb. 9, against Pocahontas Area (5-10) in a 7 p.m. game.

CL 62, Webster City 34

The Lions went on attack to get a victory over Webster City (4-12, 2-7) Monday, Jan. 21.  Clear Lake was simply too much for the Lynx in a 62-34 game.

“I was really pleased with how we attacked their defense to start the game,” said Clear Lake Coach Bart Smith.  “They had a hard time matching up with us when they went man-to-man.”

The quick feet of the Lions helped them to outscore the visitor 18-8 in the first quarter.  And solid defense in the second frame held Webster City to just six points, making the halftime score 35-14.

“Our defense was good and I was pleased with how our half court defense is playing,” said Coach Smith.  “We still need to clean up our turnovers.  We are committing to many mental mistakes for this part of the season.  That has to be improved.”

Three Lions finished in double figures.  Julia Merfeld led the team with 18 points, followed by Zoe Fasbender and Chelsey Holck with 10 apiece.

Sara Faber put in nine points and recorded six steals in the game.  Ali Maulsby contributed six points and Lexi Fasbender had five.

Rebounds were split almost evenly, with four players grabbing three boards apiece.

CL 76, St. Ed’s 30

Clear Lake’s offense was clicking on all cylinders in a lopsided win over Fort Dodge St. Edmond (2-14, 1-9) Friday night, Jan. 25.

“It was a great night offensively for us.  We had a lot of contributors in the scoring column tonight,” said Coach Bart Smith.

The coach noted Lexi Fasbender and Julia Merfeld had particularly strong outings.

Junior Sara Faber hit a scoring milestone in the game, collecting her 1,000th point in her high school career.

“I thought Lexi shot the ball extremely well and  is very capable of doing that every night.  Sara was Sara, she continues to play at a high level at both ends and it was nice to see her get her thousandth point for her career.  I also thought Julia had her best game of the year as well.  She’s starting to see things offensively that can make her a very dangerous player toward the end of the season.”

(Individual statistics were not available for this game).