Wins give Lions a share of NCC title

The Clear Lake girls tallied a pair of North Central Conference wins in their final regular season outings last week.  The victories gave the 17-1 Lions a share of the NCC title, along with St. Ed’s.

CL 55, Algona 42

The Lions shook off a pesky Algona team, 55-42, Tuesday night.  

Clear Lake built on its one-point lead in the first quarter to take a 31-24 halftime lead.  A 9-1 run to close out the third quarter swung momentum their way and they handled the Bulldogs down the stretch to get the win.

“We couldn’t get the tempo we wanted until the middle of the second quarter,” said Coach Bart Smith.  “Once we got a seven point lead we did a nice job of getting stops on defense and then getting a quality offensive look to extend our lead.  It wasn’t flashy, but we got a good road win.”

The senior trio of Logan Anderson, Bailey Kibsgaard and Trudy Peterson comprised most of the Lions’ offense, with Anderson scoring 20, Kibsgaard 10 and Peterson eight points.  Anderson sunk three three-pointers.  Kibsgaard and Peterson were both 4/6 from the free throw line to help the team.

Kay Faber was 3/3 from the field and made her only free throw attempt to finish with seven points.  Madi Faber scored five points, Lindsey Loudenburg had four and Katie Hewett scored one point in the game.

Kibsgaard was the leading rebounder for the Lions with eight.

CL 64, Humboldt 46

It was mission accomplished for the Lions Thursday night.  The team was all business in a 64-46 victory over Humboldt which gave them a share of the North Central Conference title.   The girls split games with St. Ed’s during the conference season and both teams finished 17-1 to share the title.

“Conference Champs! This was a good way to end the season before tournament time,” said Coach Smith.  “This should give us some energy and passion going into tournaments.”

Against Humboldt, the Lions outscored the host team 20-15 and 20-9 in the second and third quarters to open up a lead.  

“We got back to attacking the lane and being aggressive on offense,” said Smith.  “We had a lot of contributors in this win tonight and that should give those girls more confidence as we head into tournament play.  It’s good to see hard work being paid off to these girls.  They deserve this conference championship and the girls should be proud of themselves.”

Logan Anderson again was the scoring leader for the Lions.  She ended with 14 points, helped by 7/9 shooting at the free throw line.  The senior also dished out seven assists and had two steals in the game.

Kay Faber was next with 13 points. The junior was 6/8 from the field.  

Also scoring in double figures was Bailey Kibsgaard.  She was 5/5 from the field on her way to 11 points in the game.  Trudy Peterson scored nine points and Madi Faber put in seven.  Faber also was the leading rebounder with five boards.  Lindsey Loudenburg and Katie Hewett got into the scorebook with six and four points respectively.