Clear Lake 47
New Hampton 28
The Lions moved to 2-1 on the season after downing the New Hampton Chickasaws Tuesday, Dec. 5.
The team was without its leading scorer in Madi Ott. The team had to rely on younger athletes to step-up, a challenge in which they rose to the occasion.
“We wanted to keep the big lineup and thought we could have an inside presence,” said Lions coach Bart Smith. “It’s nice when you can bring Ashleigh Amble at 6’3” out on the floor to make it tough. She did a great job bringing that presence for us. Madi does a good job working the inside and getting steals. With Ashleigh she can hold her hands up and we can get it to her.”
Sophomore Amble used her 6’3” frame to dominate under the hoop where she had one block, two steals, five rebounds and 10 points.
Freshman Taylor Schwenn scored 13 points on the night that included five points from the charity stripe and four goals, while also collecting six rebounds, three blocks and three steals.
Senior Xada Johnson led the team in points with 14, while making three-of-six goals, including two from beyond the arch and six from the free-throw line.
Johnson also led the team in rebounds with nine and had six steals.
“We have a lot of girls that can get that double digit score like we have had,” said coach Smith. “Xada was allowed to get around on the perimeter a little bit and get her some work. Our girls noticed a saggy defense and Addie Doughan hit some nice threes for us.”
While the numbers were good at the end of the game, the Lions were slow to start but by the end of the first, they had a five-point lead over the Chickasaws.
The second quarter saw the Lions find their rhythm and headed into halftime, with a 10 point lead, doubling their lead from the first quarter.
Out of the gate in the third, New Hampton stayed on top of things and played better than the first half, but were still behind the Lions by one at the end of the quarter.
Clear Lake was able to put the game away in the fourth and win their second contest of the season by a score of 47-28.
“I was very pleased with our balance of scoring we had,” said coach Smith. “They made a little run and we got it back and told our girls, ‘hey we are on a run let’s take advantage of it and keep it going’ and I was really pleased with how they responded to that.”
Waverly-SR 61,
Clear Lake 32
The Lion girls ran into a tough Waverly-Shell Rock team on Thursday, Dec. 7, falling, 61-32.
The Lions were consistent throughout the night, but were unable to match the high-powered Go-Hawk offense that scored 17 points in the first quarter, to Clear Lake’s seven.
By halftime, the Lions were down 38-14 and had a lot of ground to make-up in the second-half. While the scores were close, the Go-Hawks led the third 13-7 and Clear Lake led the fourth 11-10.
The Lions were led by Ashleigh Amble who scored 14 points with five rebounds and one steal.
Madi Ott was back with the team and scored two goals and was three-of-four on free throws to muster seven points.
Clear Lake 43
H-D-CAL 36
The Lions got back in the win column in front of a home crowd on Friday, Dec. 8, with a conference victory over the Hampton-Dumont-CAL Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs kept things interesting with a close 8-5 first quarter that saw the Lions leading by three, but by halftime Clear Lake only led by one.
The second-half was much of the same and the Lions had a two point lead after the third quarter.
The final eight minutes of regulation saw the Lions extend their lead and take the seven-point victory.
Leading the scorers for the Lions was Xada Johnson with 15-points, followed by Taylor Schwenn who had nine and Addie Doughan with eight.
Johnson had seven steals on the night, while Doughan collected five.
Johnson also led the team in rebounds with six and assists with five.
