Lions dominate a game; drop another by one-point

(Above) Clear Lake’s Jessica Faber applies some tight defensive pressure to a New Hampton player in Monday night’s home contest.  The Lions dominated the Chickasaws, 61-25.  -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy

The Clear Lake girls won one game by a landslide, but dropped another by only one-point in action last week.

CL 61, New Hampton 25

The Clear Lake girls  dominated New Hampton in a non-conference tilt Jan. 11.  The Lions outscored the Chickasaws 26-4 in the third period to coast to a 61-25 victory.

The game started much closer than the score reflects.  The Lions were up by one, 11-10, after the first period and 25-15 at the half.

“We played very unselfish tonight.  I was pleased with how we pushed the ball and made extra passes,” said Coach Bart Smith.  “Our defense ignited our run in the third quarter and when we are good defensively it gets our offensive game going by being able to push the ball and get into a nice offensive rhythm.”

The coach’s comments were reflected in the statistics.  Balanced scoring had Emily Snelling at the top with 12 points, followed by Jessica Faber and Jordyn Barragy with nine apiece.  Gretchen Jones and Chloe Mueller each put in eight points, while Mckenna Backhaus had seven.  Erin O’Tool added six points and Ellie Biebesheimer scored two.

Mueller led the way on the boards with seven rebounds.  Snelling and Biebesheimer each pulled down four.

Snelling had six of Clear Lake’s 22 steals in the game.   Snelling and O’Tool each dished out six assists.

Humboldt 47, CL 46

The Clear Lake girls dropped a heartbreaking one-point game in North Central Conference action against Humboldt (8-4, 6-1) on Friday, Jan. 15.

The first half was close, with the Lions managing a one-point lead by halftime, 20-19.  

Clear Lake came back from the half ready to play and outscored the Wildcats 20-14 in the third quarter.  Jordyn Barragy helped the third quarter cause by sinking five three-point shots to take a strong 40-33 lead.  The Lions fell apart in the fourth quarter and let the Wildcats back in the game, being outscored 14-6.  The game came down to the wire, but Humboldt came out on top by one point, 47-46.

“I thought we played a pretty good game,” said Coach Bart Smith.  “We just didn’t finish the game.  We made some turnovers late and throughout the game that ended up being the difference in the win.”

Barragy had a strong night, collecting a career high 20-points.  She also had two steals and one rebound.

“Jordyn had a great night.  She’s doing a nice job of making some shots when she’s open,” said Smith.

Emily Snelling was the second leading scorer with 12-points.

Erin O’Tool led the team under the boards with six rebounds, followed by Snelling and Ellie Biebesheimer with five rebounds apiece.

Snelling led the team in steals and assists.  She had seven steals and five assists.  Chloe Mueller grabbed three steals and three assists.

The Clear Lake girls host St. Edmond Friday night.  Game time is 6:15 p.m.