CL girls are NCC champions

(Above) Senior Chloe Mueller is all concentration as she looks for an outlet pass during Tuesday night’s game against IF-A. -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy

The Clear Lake girls didn’t play their best ball, but they did enough to add two more North Central Conference wins to their total last week.  The Lions are now 18-2 overall and are the NCC champions.  They begin the post-season Saturday, hosting Garner-Hayfield-Ventura in a 7 p.m. game.

CL 41, IF-A 35

Iowa Falls-Alden used good defense and gave the Lions a good test when they came to Clear Lake Tuesday, Jan. 30.  The home team came out on top of the low-scoring affair, 41-35.

“We just couldn’t get in a good rhythm to pull away tonight,” said Coach Bart Smith.  “Iowa Falls guarded us very well and limited us to very few second chance points.”

The game started out with a lot of back-and-forth, with the Lions finishing on top after one quarter off play, 13-12. The second quarter was more true to form and Clear Lake outscored the visitor 15-7 for a 28-19 halftime lead.

The Cadets actually outscored the Lions in the second half, but couldn’t put in enough points to get the win.

The Lions shot a cool 33 percent in the game.

Sara Faber paced the Lions with 18 points and nine rebounds.  There was balanced scoring among Faber’s teammates.  Jordyn Barragy and Lexi Fasbender each scored seven points.  Zoe Fasbender came off the bench and contributed six points and Gretchen Jones ended with three.   Jones led the team in steals and assists, with four and three respectively.

“We took care of the ball very well and did just enough to get a win and clinch the conference title.  The girls should be proud of being undefeated at this point of the conference schedule,” said Coach Smith.

CL 70, St. Eds 28

Clear Lake’s offense came alive in Friday night’s outing to St. Ed’s.  Sara Faber’s 29-point performance was flanked by Zoe Fasbender’s 14 and Lexi Fasbender’s 12 points in a lopsided 70-28 victory.

“We had a good offensive output at St. Ed’s.  A lot of it was dictated by our defensive pressure, but I thought our half court offense was more in rhythm and we put pressure on their defense to guard us.  We made good decisions and had better spacing.  We need to continue this into next week’s games,” said Coach Smith.

In addition to steady offense, the Lions played smothering defense and held the Gaels to just six points in the first and second quarters.  Clear Lake held a 38-12 lead at the break.

Clear Lake reserves received valuable playing time in the second half and maintained the Li

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ons’ command in the second half.

Sara Faber again lit up the Lion offense with 29 points on 55 percent shooting.  The sophomore also had eight of the Lions’ 18 steals in the game.  Freshman Zoe Fasbender made four of five three-point attempts and finished with 14 points.  Her sister, sophomore Lexi Fasbender, also had a hot hand and had 12 points, including two treys.

Jordyn Barragy was the Lions’ leader on the boards with 7 rebounds.  The senior also scored five points.  Julia Merfeld and Mikayla Vanderploeg had four points apiece and Ali Maulsby scored two.

The Lions were slated to wrap up the regular season Tuesday, Feb. 6, at home against Webster City.

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