Clear Lake boys pick up two road wins

The Clear Lake boys improved to 3-1 in the North Central Conference with two road wins last week.  The Lions bested Webster City and Hampton-Dumont to gain momentum heading into more key NCC games this week.  Last night (Tuesday) the Lions hosted Clarion-Goldfield and Friday they will take on St. Ed’s.  The Gaels are tied with Algona at 3-0 in the NCC.  Iowa Falls-Alden, which defeated the Lions in their first game of the season, sits atop the NCC standings at 4-0.

CL 50, WC 46

The Lions played their best quarter of the young season, according to their coach, and jumped to an 18-2 first quarter lead at Webster City Tuesday.  The Lynx battled back, but couldn’t pick up the win, 50-46.

“Over the last three quarters, we didn’t have very good possessions,” said Coach Kevin Kahler.  “We took some bad shots early and really struggled offensively.  I was happy with our defense though.  On a night where we didn’t perform offensively, our defense was there to pick us up.”

Davis Dieken came off of the bench to give the Lions a spark on defense.  The junior had a team-high eight rebounds, all on defense, to go along with his nine points in the game.  Junior Pete Swenson also helped the team with six of the team’s10 steals.  He also had six rebounds and three points.  

Spencer Davidson and Gavin Sheakley scored in double figures with 12 and 11 points respectively.  Bryson Hamilton put in six points and had four rebounds.  Luke Schiller finished with five points and three boards and Chase Lester scored four and had two rebounds.  

The Lions led 30-21 at the half and scored 10 in each of final quarters for the 50-46 win.

CL 73, H-D 47

The Lions stood up to the pressure of playing in a tough conference venue Friday, as they dominated in a 73-47 victory over Hampton-Dumont.  

Clear Lake held a 21-6 advantage at the end of the first quarter and led 44-14 at halftime.

  “We got off to a good start.  Hampton is always a tough place to play, but I thought we played better, especially on the offensive end.  We did a better job of running our offense and made better passes which led to good shots,” said Coach Kahler.

The Lions also did a good job of getting to the rim and drawing fouls.  The team shot 36 free throws and made half.  High scorer Spencer Davidson was 5/6 at the line on his way to 19 points.  Pete Swenson also had a good game, scoring 13 and pulling down 11 rebounds for the Lions.

The remainder of the Lion lineup provided balanced scoring.  Davis Dieken finished with nine points, Gavin Sheakley and Paul Raner each had eight, Chase Lester six and Jack Abbas five points.  Luke Schiller and JJ Theobald added three and two points respectively.  

Other rebounding leaders were Schiller with six, Dieken with five and Theobald with four.

“Defensively, I thought we rebounded much better tonight, and I was happy with our defensive effort, especially in the first half,” added Coach Kahler.