Lions come away with hard fought win over GHV

By Marianne Gasaway

Clear Lake used a balanced attack and executed their game plan to perfection to come away with a hard-fought 63-57 victory over Garner-Hayfield-Ventura Thursday, Jan. 31.

Lions Coach Jeremey Ainley acknowledged Cards stand-out James Betz, a Division I recruit, will get his points.  Clear Lake’s game plan was to shut down Betz’s teammates.  And they did.  Betz accounted for more than half of the Cardinals’ point production with 30.  Teammate Jared Graham and Landon Dalbeck had eight and seven-points respectively.  Justin Reding and Josh Suby each finished with five-points and Kevin Meyers had two.

“We pride ourselves on being able to guard people and again we held a team to 35 percent shooting and controlled the boards and the paint,” said Ainley.  “It was sloppy and we turned it over way too many times and didn’t shoot it well, but I was proud of the effort defensively.”

Six days without practice had an early effect on the Lions, according to their coach.  Both teams had trouble finding the bottom of the basket early, but GHV got hot toward the end of the first period and held a 20-16 lead after one.  The Lions outscored the Cards 9-3 to start the second and surged ahead, 31-29, at halftime. “Their zone allowed us some open looks and we got going a little bit offensively,” said Ainley. “In the third quarter we continued to attack the zone inside and out.  Unfortunately some bad turnovers cost us some opportunities on offense.”

The Lions got an offensive spark from Jack Barragy off the bench.  His three-pointer put the Lions ahead, 42-35.  Betz answered with a trey of his own to cut the margin to five and eventually Zach Suby capitalized on a steal to pull within one point, 42-41.

The Lions roared back to lead, 46-41 at the end of three.

Clear Lake stepped up their defensive pressure in the final period, attempted to take a little air out of the ball, and led by as many as 12 at its halfway point.  Still, the Cards wouldn’t go down easy.  They closed the gap to eight, but missed opportunities down the stretch and wound up losing by six.

“In the fourth we were able to rely on our defense to string together some stops and build the lead to double digits and get a comfortable lead and pull out a 63-57 win,” said Coach Ainley.

Carson Toebe and Tate Storbeck led the Lions with 17 points apiece.   Barragy hit some big threes and scored nine points.  Andrew Formanek had six points and eight rebounds and drew praise from his coach for a nice overall game.  Jaylen DeVries had four points and 13 rebounds.

“Drew Enke only had four points, as he received a lot of defensive attention, but showed a lot of selflessness by getting others open for easy shots.  He also played a great game defensively,” added the Lion coach.

Despite the loss, GHV Coach Jake Young was proud his team gave great effort all night against one of the highest ranked teams in the state.

“Even though we didn’t get the win, we came out and executed our game plan very well and have ourselves a chance in the fourth quarter.  Late in the season every possession matters, so we need to do a better job of working to a great shot offensively and playing solid defense consistently.  Overall, I was very pleased with the energy and focus of the guys against a quality team.”