by Marianne Gasaway
Clear Lake withstood some challenges last week, but emerged victorious in three contests.
This will be a monster week for the Lions (15-1, 9-1). They were slated to take on Humboldt (14-3, 10-2) Tuesday, Feb. 7, and will meet Webster City (15-1, 8-1) Friday with a chance to claim the North Central Conference title outright. Game time is 7:45 p.m. The Lions and Lynx both had one loss in the NCC heading into the game. Humboldt suffered a loss to Webster City last week which dropped the Wildcats out of a three-way tie in the league.
Clear Lake is ranked second in Class 3A in the new Iowa High School Athletic Association boys basketball rankings. The Lions are behind Bondurant-Farrar who holds down the top spot. Following Clear Lake in the 3A rankings is Marion, MOC-Floyd Valley and Newton in the top five. Cedar Rapids Xavier is sixth, Webster City is seventh, Charles City is eighth, followed by Mount Pleasant and Humboldt.
CL 63, Algona 55
The Clear Lake boys held off a late charge by Algona to win 63-55 Tuesday night in North Central Conference play. The victory put the Lions in a three-way tie with Humboldt and Webster City for the North Central Conference lead with 8-1 conference records.
The Lions were steady throughout the game, while it took Algona a while to ramp up from a 31-19 deficit at the break.
“I thought we came out with a good start and moved ball well and got great shots and took control of game early to build a lead,” said Clear Lake Coach Jeremey Ainley. “Ben Loge and Titan Schmitt did a great job of getting some offensive rebounds early to get some early second chance points. We got Thomas (Meyer) going early to control the paint and build a lead at half. In the third, we were able to build our lead up to 20, but credit Algona for making some shots and getting it a little closer than I would have wanted.”
In the fourth quarter the Bulldogs outscored the Lions, 21-15, to make things interesting.
Scoring was balanced for the Lions. Travaughn Luyobya had 18 points and dished out nine assists.
“Travaughn really controlled the game,” said Ainley. “Thomas Meyer controlled the paint and finished with 12 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots.”
Titan Schmitt scored 10 and pulled down 10 rebounds. Cael Stephany was next with nine points, Dylan Litzel scored eight, Gavin Anderson five and Ben Loge chipped in one point.
“Ben did a great job defensively and finished with eight rebounds,” added the coach.
Litzel also rejected two Bulldog shots.
“It was a big conference road game against a very athletic and dangerous team,” added Ainley. “We didn’t shoot it our best, but I thought we defended well and made up for it by getting second chances.”
CL 71, GHV 44
Clear Lake and Garner-Hayfield-Ventura broke out to a fast, even start, but the Lions steadily pulled away for a 71-44 non-conference victory.
Coach Ainley said his team was a little sloppy defensively and let the Cards get to the basket a little too easily and get easy looks.
“We established our post game a little more in the second quarter and got some better looks at the rim and finished the second quarter on a 8-0 run last three-minutes of half,” said the coach. “In the third quarter I thought we did a great job of making them take tough shots and got out to a big lead and took control of the game.”
Travaughn Luyobya and Thomas Meyer handled the bulk of Clear Lake’s scoring with 29 and 22-points respectively. Luyobya made 11 assists and was also the leader in rebounds with seven.
Starters Cael Stephany and Titan Schmitt had five apiece and Ben Loge scored two. Dylan Litzel drained two of three-shots form the field for four points, while Gavin Anderson and Derek Erpelding each scored two.
“Travaughn continued to show why he is one of premier players in the state with 29 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds — but also holding their leading scorer to nine points,” said Coach Ainley. “Thomas Meyer also had a nice game with 22 points and I thought we had a lot of really good performances off the bench, as well. It was a great team win for us and a lot of guys did good things.”
CL 79, IF-A 35
The Lions’ depth continued to shine in a Friday victory over Iowa Falls-Alden, 79-35.
“We played a little shorthanded without Cael Stephany due to illness and I thought we really had a nice team win,” said Coach Ainley. “We got going early defensively and moved the ball well on offense.”
Team leader Travaughn Luyobya did a nice job attacking and distributing the ball with 20 points, 12 assists and only one turnover.
Titan Schmitt connected on four three-pointers, finishing with 14-points.
The coach complimented Gavin Anderson for filling in nicely and shooting it well. Anderson added nine-points to the Lion total. Trevor Theobald came off the bench and also scored nine-points.
The remainder of the scoring came from Thomas Meyer with eight, Branden Kuhlmeier with six, Ben Loge and Dylan Litzel with four apiece, Derek Erpelding three and Trey Olthoff two-points.
“I thought it was a very workmanlike performance where we did good things on defense and moved the ball well and shot it well,” added Coach Ainley. “It was a good team win that sets up for a big week this week with Top 10 teams coming to town.”
