Lions finish as runners-up in NCC

(Above) It was a battle of the big guys under the basket Friday night, when Clear Lake’s Jared Penning looked to score over a Crestwood defender.  The Cadets topped the Lions in a close 80-75 contest.  -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy

The Clear Lake boys (13-8) knocked off North Central Conference leader Webster City (15-4) and moved themselves into a tie for the conference title in the final week of the regular season.  However, the next night the Lynx added one more victory to their NCC total, dropping the Lions to runner-up with a record of 11-3.  The Lynx won the title with a mark of 12-2.

CL 65, Hampton-Dumont 31

The Lions started the week by hosting Hampton-Dumont as a prelude to their game at Webster City.

“Not wanting to slip up against an opponent we were favored against, I was very happy with our aggressiveness that we displayed from the start,” said Coach Jeremey Ainley.  “We were able to play a lot of guys and have almost everybody that played score.”

The Lions jumped out to a 20-11 first quarter lead and were cruising by halftime, 42-17.

The outcome was never in doubt, as the Lions held their opponent to single digit scoring in the final two periods.

Zach Lester led the Lions with 15 points and Thomas Storbeck scored 10.  Drew Enke played a good all-around game and scored seven points and had seven rebounds.  Jared Penning also had a strong game with nine points and eight rebounds.

Ryan Atkinson and Cody Matz each scored four points.  Evan Krause got into the scorebook with three points, while Ryan Thomas, Sean Wendel and Alex Snelling each had two.  Hunter Gerhardt sunk a free throw for one point.

“Overall, it was a nice win and a great way to keep pace in the conference race,” said Coach Ainley.

CL 50, Webster City 45

“Going on the road to the conference leaders and needing to beat them to give us a chance at sharing the title, we knew we would have to play well,” said Coach Ainley.

The Lions did just that.  They stunned Webster City, 50-45, Tuesday to pull themselves even with the Lynx in the conference standings. Unfortunately, the Lynx broke the tie by defeating Iowa Falls-Alden Saturday to claim the NCC crown.

“Overall, it was a great effort defensively and proved that we belong in the conference race.  It was also our eighth win in a row,” added the coach.

After a back and forth first quarter, the Lions and Lynx were tied and Coach Ainley said his team was feeling pretty good about itself.  In the second quarter the Lions were able to keep pace and went into half time down one point, 25-24.

The teams were knotted at 36-36 heading into the final quarter.

The Lions broke the game open with an 8-0 run to go up 44-36.

“Drew Enke had some big baskets and a couple key steals,” said Coach Ainley.

Down the stretch the Lions were able to fight through some adversity, as Zach Lester fouled out with two-minutes to go and the Lions only up three points.

“Thomas Storbeck hit some huge free throws down the stretch to seal it and Jaylen DeVries had a huge offensive rebound and timeout sequence that allowed us to keep the ball,” explained the coach.

The coach praised Drew Enke with a great game offensively.  The sophomore finished with a team-high 17 points.  Thomas Storbeck contributed 16 points and Jared Penning had some big baskets to finish with six points.  Lester battled with foul trouble but scored eight points.  Evan Krause and Sean Wendel had two and one point respectively.

Crestwood 80, CL 75

The Lions knew Crestwood would be a very tough physical non-conference opponent Friday night to close out the regular season.  The Li

[wlm_nonmember]To read more of this article, please login or sign up for our E-Edition[/wlm_nonmember]

[wlm_ismember]

ons saw their first half lead whittled away in the final period and the Cadets took home an 80-75 victory.

Both teams shot the ball well.  The Lions connected on a season-bet 61 percent of their shots, but the Cadets put in an even more impressive 77 percent of their attempts.

The big difference came at the free throw line, where the Lions were six-for-nine and Crestwood made 19 of 28 attempts, including 10 of 12 in the final quarter.

“They started out very hot from the field and unfortunately for us, never seemed to miss,” said Coach Jeremey Ainley.

The Lions were able to shoot the ball very well themselves and built a lead of seven at half, 36-29.

After the break the Lions came out a bit cooler, but the Cadets remained hot.  They outscored Clear Lake 27-22 in the third to pull within two points, 58-56.

Crestwood moved ahead 60-58 early in the final quarter, only to have Thomas Storbeck sink a three-pointer for his 29th point in the game, making the score 61-61.  With 2:51 remaining he pushed his total to 31 and tied the score at 67-67, but that’s where fouls began to hurt the Lions.  The Cadets dropped two free throws for a 75-71 lead with :32 seconds remaining.

The Lions kept clawing and were down by two, 77-75, at the :10 second mark, but that was as close as they could get.  A Lion foul resulted in more free throws and the 80-75 win for the visitor.

“They were able to get the lead in the fourth quarter and we just couldn’t get stops and couldn’t get over the hump,” said Coach Ainley.  Storbeck finished with 31 points and was 7/10 from three-point range.  Zach Lester had 25 points and eight assists.  Drew Enke scored 11 points.

Evan Krause put in four points and Cody Matz and Jared Penning each scored two points.

“Again, for the fans it was a very entertaining game with a score of 80-75, but we got caught in a trap of playing really well offensively and thinking we could just out score a good team.  We did not play well defensively at all and will need to get better as post season starts,” added the coach.

[/wlm_ismember]