Girls remain in control of NCC; Drop game to FC

by Marianne Gasaway

The Clear Lake girls remained in control in the North Central Conference with a win over Webster City Friday night, but 15th ranked Forest City knocked off the seventh ranked Lions, 62-46, Saturday.  Clear Lake is 5-0 in the NCC and 6-2 overall.  This week they host St. Edmond (0-6, 0-9) Friday and Algona (3-2, 4-6) Tuesday, Jan. 18.

CL 63, Webster City 24

   The Lions were in control at Webster City from the start and cruised to a 63-24 victory.

“Pretty good for our first game back.  It took us a quarter to get settled in, but we started to take what the defense was giving us and that was open three’s from inside out passes,” said Head Coach Bart Smith.

The Lions opened with a 12-7 first quarter lead which they built to 33-14 by the halfway point.  They continued to score in double digits in the third and fourth quarters while holding the Lynx to just 10 second half points.

“We shot the ball really well from the perimeter, which is always nice,” added Smith.  

The Lions shot 50 percent from the field and had an effective field goal average of 59 percent.

“Finishing by the basket with contact seemed to be the biggest thing we noticed right out of the break that we need to concentrate on.”

Jordan Ainley had a good night, draining three of seven three-point attempts and going 9/16 from the field for 21-points.  Emily Theiss finished with 11 on 50 percent shooting, including three treys.  Reese Brownlee couldn’t miss and finished with seven points off the bench, including a three-pointer.

Also contributing greatly from the bench was Autumn VanHorn with six points and Annika Nelson with five.  Starting center Xada Johnson had 

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CL GIRLS

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five points in the win and Brooklyn Eden chipped in three.  Ashlyn Fread and Ava Richtsmeier rounded out the scoring with three and two-points respectively. 

Johnson led the team in rebounds with five.

Forest City 62, CL 46

  “A tale of two halves”  is how Coach Smith described Clear Lake’s game with Forest City on Saturday. Unfortunately it was the Indians that were strong in the second half and they upset the Lions, 62-46.

“I thought we started the game really well, defended well, got good looks in transition and had control of the game.  In the second half they got all the control and we couldn’t get it back,” said the Lion coach.  “They made a ton of shots and got really hot from the perimeter and we got really cold on the offensive end.  I did a poor job of making the adjustments offensively and defensively when they started making shots.  I loved our effort from the girls, they didn’t give up.”

Unlike the night before, the Lions shot just 34 percent in the game and made just five of 24 shots from behind the three-point arc.

Jaden Ainley led the Lion scoring with 19-points, followed by Jordan Maryland and Emily Theiss with eight apiece.  Xada Johnson was next with seven-points.  Ainley and Johnson each grabbed seven rebounds.

Reese Brownlee and Annika Nelson came in to score two-points apiece.

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