Defense key to Lion victory

Clear Lake handled fifth ranked (2A) St. Ed’s, 66-42, Friday night, improving to 1-1 in the North Central Conference and 2-2 overall.

Coach Bart Smith credited his teams’ defense with setting up with the win.  

“I was pleased with our defensive effort tonight. As a coach, it was nice to see the things that we worked on during the week show up in the game.”

The Lions effectively kept the Gaels’ guards out of the paint and off balance, shooting just 2/11 in the first quarter.   Meanwhile Clear Lake raced out to an 11-4 first quarter and 29-15 halftime lead.

They built on that by scoring the first 13 points of the second half to put the game on ice.

Senior post player Katie Hewett poured in 23 points to lead the team.  Emily Snelling and Kaye Faber were also in double digits with 12 and 10 points receptively.  There was good balance on offense, with Lindsey Loudenburg putting in nine points and Sidney Borrill adding eight.  Erin O’Tool chipped in four points.  

Loudenburg dished out 10 assists in the game.

Hewett and Borrill each pulled down nine rebounds for the team.  Loudenburg and Snelling had six apiece.

“We had a lot of girls do some really good things offensively,” added Coach Smith.  “Katie with her 23 points, Kay Faber continues to be consistent scorer, Lindsey Loudenburg dishing out 10 assists, Kylie Bottjen being active on the offensive boards, Emily Snelling being an outside scoring threat, and Sidney Borrill, who had her best game of the year, was active on the boards as well.  It was a total team effort.”

The Lions host Clarion-Goldfield in another NCC contest Friday night.