Lions on top of the league

(Above) The home crowd was treated to witnessing Zach Lester score his 1,000th career point during the New Hampton game. Lester is the fifth player in school history to accomplish the feat. -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy

The Clear Lake boys improved to 8-4 with a pair of wins last week.  The Lions stepped out of the North Central Conference Monday, Jan. 8, to take on New Hampton, then hosted Fort Dodge St. Ed’s Friday and picked up their sixth conference win.  The Lions are currently on top of the league.  This week they will host Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Friday and then travel to Algona Tuesday, Jan. 23.  Algona currently sits in a tie for third place in the conference with a  4-2 record.

CL 85, New Hampton 67

Clear Lake’s Zach Lester scored his 1,000th career point and helped to lift the Lions to an 18-point victory over New Hampton, 85-67.

“Bouncing back from a tough performance (loss to Forest City) we wanted to get back to what we preach and that is to run and get good easy looks at the basket,” said Coach Jeremey Ainley.

His team took the message to heart and started out with good pace to go up 14-0 to start the game.  The Lions forced some quick shots and drained some open looks to lead 21-11 after one quarter of play.

“In the second quarter we let our guard down a little bit and allowed them to get back into the game,” said the coach.  The Chickasaws cut the Lions’ lead to four points before jumping back out to an eight-point half time lead, 56-30.

In the third quarter the Lions again used pace to jump out to a double digit lead, led by Lester scoring 15 in the quarter.  Lester finished with 35 points in the game.  His line also included six assists, four rebounds and three steals.  Lester is the fifth player in school history to accomplish the feat.

Drew Enke had another nice game with 16 points and five rebounds.  The junior scored 11 of his points in the second half.

“Sam Pedelty shot the ball well again and had 11 points.  Tate Storbeck shot it well, as well, and had eight points.  Jared Penning continues to give us a good presence in the paint with eight points and seven rebounds.”

Sean Wendel added four points.  Jaylen DeVries added two points and Hunter Gerhardt had one.

“Overall, I was very pleased with the whole team effort,” added Coach Ainley.

 CL 63, St. Ed’s 55

Lester continued to score at will against the Lions’ next opponent, Fort Dodge St. Edmond.  He contributed almost half of Clear Lake’s points in an important 63-55 win.  The victory provided the Lions with sole possession of the NCC lead with a 6-1 record.  St. Ed’s is now 5-1.

The Lions got off to a fast start and hit some early shots to get a nice 21-13 lead by the end of the first quarter.  Clear Lake led by six at halftime, despite some serious foul trouble from the teams’ two best players, Lester and Enke.

“In the second half we were