A win and a loss for CL boys

The Clear Lake boys treated the home crowd to a victory last week, but fell on the road, putting them at 10-9 overall and 8-5 in the North Central Conference.

Algona 65, CL 48

The Lions will be looking to show Algona (15-3) what they’re really made of when the Bulldogs come to town Thursday night, Feb. 11.  According to Coach Jeremy Ainley, his team simply didn’t play well at Algona Feb. 1, and fell 65-48.

The Bulldogs, who share the conference lead with Webster City at 10-1, started off hitting their shots and unfortunately the Lion could not keep pace.  They trailed 19-13 after the first quarter.

“Zach Tatum got us going and gave us a spark,” said Ainley. By the time we settled in after the second quarter we were down seven at half, but were playing well.”

 Unfortunately the Lion defense was not very good in the second half, admitted the coach. “We gave them way too many easy looks that got their best player going and we did not shoot it very well as a team.”

The Lions were down 50-30 after three quarters of play and despite outscoring the home team 18-15 in the fourth period, could not make up the deficit.

Tatum played well and led the Lions with 17 points and six rebounds.  Zach Lester also had a good night with 11 point, seven assists and five rebounds.

Thomas Storbeck finished with seven points, Parker Truesdell had six, and Parker Pitzen five points.  Jarod Anderson rounded out the scoring with a basket.

“They are a very good team and we will have to play better when we play them at home,” added Coach Ainley.

CL 85, Humboldt 71

The Lions played their best quarter of the season to open strong against Humboldt (6-12, 4-8) Friday night and never looked back.  Clear Lake won the North Central Conference contest, 85-71.

The Lions poured in 31 first quarter points compared to 10 for the Wildcats.  But while they continued to score in the second period, the Lions allowed Humboldt to score, as well.  The ‘Cats topped the Lions by 10 in the quarter to pull within 10 at the half, 53-43.

“After shooting the ball extremely well in the first half and being extremely efficient on offense, defensively we stopped guarding and gave them way too many easy baskets,” said Coach Jeremy Ainley.   

Humboldt started out the second half on a 12-2 run to tie it up at 55-55.  The Lions responded with a 10-0 run.

In the fourth quarter the Lions played defense again and held the visitor to 10 points and ended up winning by 14.

Thomas Storbeck shot the ball extremely well the first half and made eight free throws down the stretch to lead the Lions with a career high 35 points.

Zach Tatum played a great all-around game with 16 points and seven rebounds and Zach Lester continues to get more seasoned and had a good game with 15 points, eight assists and four steals.

Parker Truesdell hit some big shots in the first half and scored 12 points and Ryan Atkinson gave the team some huge minutes off the bench and had four points.

“It was also nice to see Justin Sholly have another big game with 10 rebound,” added the coach.  Sholly finished with three points.

“Overall it was a good win,” said the coach.  “Offensively we played great, defensively we need to come together for four quarters.”