Ballard 62,
Clear Lake 26
The Clear Lake Lions girls basketball team hosted the 4A #3 Ballard Bombers on Tuesday, Nov. 21 to open the basketball season.
The Lions opened the game on a positive note as Madi Ott won the tip-off for the Lions, but it was a struggle for the Lions from there.
The Bombers jumped out to an early 7-3 and by the end of the first quarter, Ballard led the Lions 13-7.
Alexis Theiss, Addie Doughan and Taylor Schwenn combined for the team’s seven points.
The Bombers would start the second quarter with a bucket from three point territory and a quick rebound and score saw the Bombers add five within the first minutes of the second.
Ott found herself in the post spot against Ballard’s 6’3 Brooklyn Baumgardner and was able to maneuver around her to put the Lions in the frame with two points.
Ott led the Lions with 15 points on the night with three steals and four rebounds.
Xada Johnson was able to battle through a foul and get the bucket and one but the Bombers continued to outscore the Lions 19-9 in the second to lead at halftime 32-16.
The second-half was more of the same as the Lions looked for Ott underneath the net.
Through three quarters the Lions trailed 53-20.
The fourth quarter saw a running clock and went quickly despite nice shots by Doughan and Ott as the Lions fell in game one 62-26.
The Lions struggled at the freethrow line, hitting six-of-10 and a 25 percent field goal efficiency, sinking 10-of-40.
Despite the loss, Lion head coach Bart Smith saw positives through the loss.
“Our game plan was to make some good decisions on the offensive end and see if we can’t get that post presence going,” said coach Smith. “You can never really know how it’s going to go when going against someone that is 6’3. I thought our posts worked really hard to get position on her and we haven’t really done that much work carrying the ball into the post and that is kind of my fault but we have some work to do there and knowing where and when to throw it.”
Despite the early work needing to be done, coach Smith is confident that the kids are ready to be coached and eager to learn.
“They are good kids, they want to be coached and they play hard and that’s all we ask for,” said coach Smith. “I thought in the first half we had a two-minute stretch that we played really well. We did what we were supposed to be doing and something we have to do from there is take care of the ball after steals and convert those turnovers to points. I liked how we got some shots at the top with Ott and having a great presence down low.”
Ott was positive after the contest as well and knew going into the game she would be going against a girl that is nearly five inches taller.
“Our game plan was to fight hard and for me to come up against a 6’3 girl I knew she would block my shots and I would have to work around her, maybe do a double move but it was knowing that I can compete against her, it was really an inner game for me,” said Ott. “This game is always a good game for us. It’s a hard game, but it’s a good opener and this game will help us be better in our conference play and I think it went well.”
Conference play started Nov. 28 against Webster City which will appear in next week’s edition of the Mirror-Reporter.
Girls Basketball Stats
1 2 3 4 F
Ballard 13 19 21 9 62
Clear Lake 7 9 4 6 26
FG 3PT FT RB AST STL BLK PTs
Theiss 0-5 0-3 2-2 3 2 1 0 2
Doughan 2-10 1-7 0-0 3 2 3 0 5
Brattrud 0-1 0-0 0-0 4 0 1 0 0
Ott 6-12 0-0 3-5 4 1 3 0 15
Johnson 1-4 0-2 1-1 4 1 0 0 3
Loge 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
McGrath 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Amble 0-1 0-0 0-2 2 0 0 1 0
Schwenn 1-7 0-0 0-0 10 1 3 0 2
Team 10-40 1-12 6-10 30 7 11 1 27
