Lions off to a solid start

Clear Lake’s Travaughn Luyobya drives past a Charles City defender during Thursday night’s game.  The Lions barely got past the Comets in a 64-62 battle. 

by Marianne Gasaway

The Clear Lake boys are off to a 2-0 start this season with  non-conference wins over West Fork and Charles City last week.  This week the Lions were in Mason City Monday.  They will travel to Humboldt Friday and will be back on their home court Tuesday, Dec. 14 to host Clarion-Goldfield-Dows.

CL 66, West Fork 36

The Lions wasted no time getting their season off to a good start.  They jumped out to a lead early with their defense and got some easy looks in the first quarter for a 22-10 advantage.  

In the second quarter the Lions implemented the press for some easy baskets.  They were able to increase the lead to 53-18 at the half.  They won going away, 66-36.

“In the second half we were able to play a lot of guys and get some guys some good playing time to work on building confidence with our depth,” said head Coach Jeremey Ainley.  “I thought we shot it well -- 51 percent from the two and 7/24 from the three (point line). We played pretty clean ball for the first game. I am looking forward to this team— I think they are fun to watch.”

Carson Toebe shot it well to lead the Lions with 18 points.  Freshman Thomas Meyer had a nice debut with 17 points and six rebounds.  Point guard Travaughn Luyobya made some strong drives and finished with seven points and seven assists.  Tucker Jones had a nice overall game with eight points and Cael Stephany came in and showed some shooting ability, also scoring eight.

Keegan Ihde came in to score four points.  Joe Faber and Gavin Anderson had two apiece.

CL 64, Charles City 62

With five-seconds remaining and the score tied, a perfect pass from Jagger Schmitt to Thomas Meyer resulted in a game winning basket against Charles City Thursday, Dec. 2.  

“Charles City tied it up with 15 seconds to play and we called a timeout with five-seconds to draw up a game winning opportunity,” explained Coach Ainley.  “Jagger made a great pass to Thomas, who adjusted and made a great reverse layup to put us up two with little time left.  Overall, it was a nice team win -- we didn’t shoot it our best but it was nice to see guys execute down the stretch to win a tough game.”

Ainley said he knew Charles City would be a very athletic team which would give the Lions a great early test.

  The Lions started a little slow in the first few minutes, but got some easy baskets from their defense and open looks attacking the basket to build a 23-16 lead after the first quarter.  

In the second quarter the team hit some shots from outside and were able to build an 11 point lead at the half, 38-27.

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Schmitt sparked the team with three three-pointers in the second quarter, but the Comets began closing the gap by outscoring Clear Lake 13-12.  

The Lions still maintained a 50-40 lead heading into the final quarter. 

“Unfortunately we got a little tired, got some foul trouble and gave up too many second chance looks and points in the paint and Charles City actually took the lead twice,” said Ainley.  

Each time the Lions fought back and reclaimed the lead.  The Comets tied the score with 15-seconds remaining, but again the Lions rose to the challenge and pulled out a victory.

Carson Toebe led the team with 21-points and eight rebounds.  He was followed by a trio of Lions in double digits.  Thomas Meyer battled through foul trouble to score 13 points.  Travaughn Luyobya had 12 points and Jagger Schmitt finished with 11.  Tucker Jones had a great game off the bench, scoring four-points and grabbing seven rebounds.  Cael Stephany put in three points.

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