Clear Lake rolls with two big wins

(Above) Clear Lake’s Zach Lester pumped in 37-points against Humboldt to lead the Lions in a 66-50 victory.   -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy

The Clear Lake boys played two of their best games of the season last week.  With one game remaining before the holiday break, the Lions had a record of 4-2 overall and 3-1 in the North Central Conference.

CL 81, C-G-D 57

The Lions made an impressive showing on the road at Clarion Tuesday, Dec. 12, and earned an 81-57 victory.

“This was our best effort of the year on both sides of the ball to date against a good opponent,” said Head Coach Jeremey Ainley.  “Clarion has their top three guys back from last year and I thought we did a great job defensively on them.”

After a back and forth first quarter that Clear Lake led 20-15, the Lions really got in a groove offensively and hit some shots.  Drew Enke and Sam Pedelty got some shots to fall and led a big charge to go up by 17 at half time, 47-30.

In the third quarter the Lions did just enough to maintain their lead and in the fourth it was Zach Lester’s and Tate Storbeck’s chance to hit some key baskets to cruise to the unexpected easy victory.

“Lester had a great game with 28 points, seven rebounds and six assists.  Drew Enke had a nice bounce back game with 18 points and six rebounds, and most importantly for us, our guys that we count on to shoot the ball from outside, Sam Pedelty and Tate Storbeck, had 11 and nine points.  The six threes combined from them really take a lot of pressure off Zach and Drew – and that will be key for us going forward.”

Sean Wendel had a good night with six points and seven rebounds.  Ryan Thomas put in four points, while Alex Snelling and Hunter Gerhardt had two apiece.  Jared Penning added one.

“Overall, I was very pleased with our effort after a tough loss Friday night.  We need contributions from everybody if we want to succeed later in the season towards our goals,” said Coach Ainley.

With the loss, C-G-D dropped to 2-2 overall, 2-1 in the NCC.

CL 66, Humboldt 50

A quick start helped the Lions to another conference win at home Friday night.  The Lions jumped out to a 32-20 halftime lead, then held on for a 66-50 victory over Humboldt (1-5, 0-3).

“We knew that Humboldt would be a scrappy opponent and up to the challenge and we came out with our best energy of the year so far,” said Coach Jeremey Ainley.

The Lions took a quick 9-0 lead and their press provided some easy baskets, which the coach appreciated seeing. 

“We were dealing with a lot of sickness on our team and I felt that we just started to run out of gas in the second half.  We couldn’t match the intensity level we had in the first half and played to a tie the third quarter.  Credit Humboldt for making some shots to stick around,” said Coach Ainley.

The Lions’ shots were not falling like the previous game and Humboldt was able to cut the lead to six at one point in the final minutes.

Senior Zach Lester put the team on his back down the stretch and scored 18-points in the final quarter to help his team to the 16-point win.

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“It was a very gutsy effort by Zach, who was not able to practice the day before while battling the flu,” noted Ainley.

Lester finished with 37 points overall on 16/22 shooting.

Alex Snelling had his best game of the season, scoring eight points and grabbing six rebounds.

Nick Danielson and Sean Wendel scored five points each.  Drew Enke and Jared Penning finished with four apiece and Sam Pedlety had three points.

“Overall I thought we struggled shooting the basketball this game, we just couldn’t get in a rhythm in the second half; but I thought our defense in the second half carried us,” added the coach.  “We were kind of in a rut early in the fourth and Zach kind of took over.  He didn’t force it, but rather got some steals and transition baskets and scored in the flow of the offense.  It was needed.”

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