by Marianne Gasaway
The Lions bounced back from a tough conference loss last week to Humboldt and upended Webster City and Hampton-Dumont-CAL to create a deadlock at the top of the North Central Conference standings. The Lions, Humboldt and Webster City are each 5-1 in the league.
This week they are slated to play two teams at the bottom of the NCC rankings, Clarion-Goldfield-Dows and St. Edmond, both with just one NCC win.
Rankings released Monday, Jan. 23, by the Iowa High School Athletic Association had Clear Lake third in Class 3A beating Bondurant-Farrar and Cedar Rapids Xavier.
CL 55, Webster City 49
The Lions prevailed, 55-49, in a big matchup of NCC teams played in a classic venue— Jefferson Gym in the Webster City Middle School.
“I felt that we matched up well and had a great game plan against them,” said Lions Coach Jeremey Ainley about taking on the unbeaten Lynx. Webster City entered the game with an unblemished 9-0 record, 5-0 in conference play and ranked number five in Class 3A by the Iowa High School Athletic Association. Clear Lake was ranked sixth with just one loss.
Ainley said he felt his team controlled the game for the most part, with the exception of a couple of defensive lapses mid-first quarter and mid-third quarter.
“But overall, it was just another good quality win on the road in conference. Other than those mishaps on defense and we were a little sloppy with the ball, I thought we had a nice overall clean game. We battled some foul trouble and adversity, but guys stepped up again and filled in with great minutes.”
Travaughn Luyobya continued to provide senior leadership for the team with a solid overall game. He collected 14-points and made 11 assists while controlling the pace of the game. Luyobya broke the school record for assists in a career in the game, surpassing Carson Toebe’s school record of 398 assists in a career.
“That is a great testament to how unselfish Travaughn has been in his career and making great basketball plays,” said Coach Ainley.
Sophomore Titan Schmitt had a great game offensively with 22-points, including some big shots in the fourth quarter to give the Lions a lead.
Defensively, Schmitt and senior Ben Loge effectively held Webster City’s best player, Jaime Grossoehme, to just seven-points, which is 13 below his average.
Thomas Meyer got going in the paint in the second half and finished with 12-points and a team-high 11 rebounds.
Cael Stephany put in five-points and Ben Loge had two to round out the Lion scoring.
CL 79, Hampton-
Dumont-CAL 46
The Lions came out with great energy and jumped to an 8-0 lead and never looked back against Hampton-Dumont-CAL Friday night. They cruised to a 79-46 win.
Cael Stephany hit two three-pointers early and got his team going. Travaughn Luyobya and Thomas Meyer added some easy baskets and by halftime the Lions were ahead, 41-21.
“Defensively we gave up too many easy looks, but cleaned it up in the second quarter and in the third and fourth we were able to lean on our bench and still build a lead,” said Coach Ainley.
It was a tight contest all the way, as the Lynx came charging back to trail by three going into the fourth quarter. They knotted up the game at 42-42 in the fourth. However, Clear Lake responded to the challenge and posted the 55-49 win.
Scoring was balanced, with Meyer and Luyobya picking up 17 and 16 points respectively. Luyobya made an astonishing 12 assists.
Stephany finished with 14. Titan Schmitt and Ben Loge and nine and eight-points.
Dylan Litzel came in to score 10-points. Freshman Trevor Theobald added four-points and Gavin Anderson had one.
“Overall, on a night with a lot of stuff going on, I thought we came in with a workman like attitude and played really well,” said Ainley. “We shot it well — almost 71 percent overall, and shared the ball well and took care of it — with 26 assists and five turnovers. It’s good to get in a rhythm and continue with games on a regular basis!”
