Lions end post-season by falling to Cowboys, 59-43

This Clarion-Goldfield-Dows player meets a wall of defending Lions as he tries to head to the basket.  Pictured for Clear Lake is Thomas Storbeck, Cody Matz, Ryan Atkinson and Zach Lester.  -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy

Clarion-Goldfield-Dows outscored Clear Lake 31-17 in the second half to oust the Lions from post-season play Thursday, Feb. 16.  The Cowboys advanced to the District final with a 59-43 victory.

“It was a tough loss to a much improved opponent,” said Clear Lake Coach Jeremey Ainley.  The meeting between the two North Central Conference teams was a rubber-match.  C-G-D (12-11) won the first time they met back in December by four points.  A month later, it was the Lions who won by four.

It appeared the post-season game would also be a close contest, as the Lions jumped out early, hitting two quick three-pointers.  Senior Thomas Storbeck provided Clear Lake’s first eight points.

The Cowboys responded to the challenge and ended the first quarter ahead by three, 14-11.

The Lions regained the lead midway through the second quarter, but again the Cowboys came back and took the lead, 26-25, with just over a minute left in the half.  A Lion turnover gave the Cowboys the ball under their own hoop with 1:07 remaining and they capitalized to go up 28-25.  A pair of misses and a free throw from Ryan Atkinson made the halftime score 28-16 Cowboys.

“We went into halftime down two, but felt if we could just finish some baskets and keep getting great looks that we would be fine,” said Coach Ainley.

Unfortunately, in the second half the Lions had some turnovers and continued to shoot very poorly despite getting some great looks.  

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“We could never muster a run and finished shooting 31 percent from the field.  It was too bad that we suffered our worst shooting percentage in the most important time of the year,” said Coach Ainley.

And while C-G-D wasn’t shooting the lights out (18/43, 42 percent), their 20 made free throws in 32 attempts were the difference.  The Lions connected on just five of 10 attempts from the charity stripe.

The two-point lead the Cowboys held at the start of the second half quickly grew to eight midway through the third period.  The Lions pulled to within four, 34-38, with three minutes left in the third, but that was as close as they would get.  By the end of the period the difference was 10 and the Cowboys began to slow their game down.

Late fouls by the Lions gave C-G-D a chance to pad their lead and record the win.

Thomas Storbeck finished his great high school career with 21 points and a team-high eight rebounds.  Drew Enke joined him in double digits with 10 points.

The Cowboys did an outstanding job holding down Zach Lester, who had scored 34 and 26 points in the first two games with C-G-D, In the District semi-final he was held to nine points.

The only other Lions to score were seniors Cody Matz, with two points, and Ryan Atkinson with one.

“Overall, I was very pleased with the growth we made as a team,” said Coach Ainley.  “When we were 5-7 on the season things did not look too good, but the guys dug in and bought into what we were teaching and finished by winning eight of their last nine games and a solid second place in the league.  Our young guys grew up and played well, and the senior class went out with a successful senior campaign.”

The Lions say good-bye to five seniors, Storbeck, Matz, Atkinson, Torian Lee and Evan Krause.

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