Clear Lake girls are State bound!

Grace under pressure lifts CL girls over Hampton-Dumont in Regional final

The Clear Lake girls basketball team is headed back to the state tournament.   The 13th-ranked Lions used a 20-7 advantage in the third quarter to open up the game and never looked back in a 59-47 win over North Central Conference rival and eighth-ranked Hampton-Dumont in a Class 3A Regional final played in Mason City Saturday night.

The Lions (18-6) will open State Tournament play Tuesday, March 3, against second ranked Pocahontas Area (23-1) in a 5 p.m. tilt at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

“Pocahontas can score the ball,” said Clear Lake Coach Bart Smith, sizing up the opponent.   “They average 70 points a game and they have a sophomore point guard (Elle Ruffridge) that averages 27 points per game.  She has eclipsed the 1,000 point mark already with a career point total of 1,286 points.  A lot of the offense goes through her decision making. She’s not the only one that can score either.  She has a supporting cast that can shoot the three that will stretch our defense as well.”  Smith said he expects an uptempo game, noting the Indians are quick team which wants a lot of possessions on offense.

CL 59, H-D 47

The Lions showed grace under pressure in their Regional final win over Hampton-Dumont.  Clear Lake hit five three-pointers in the third quarter, with Kaye Faber hitting three of her four three-pointers on the night in that quarter.

“I’m very proud of how we won this game,” said Coach Bart Smith.  “We had a decent start, never lost our composure when they made a run in the second and fourth quarters, made our free throws and we were all solid defensively the whole night.”

Clear Lake trailed the Bulldogs, 28-24, at the half, but a 15-4 scoring run in the third helped the Lions move ahead.  Faber and Lindsey Loudenburg, who led the team with 23 and 17 points respectively, were instrumental in the offensive spurt.  The senior duo scored all but one of the points in the run.  Faber was 4/4 from behind the arc, 9/9 at the free throw line and 5/7 from field goal range.

“At half, we talked about moving the ball better and making the defense defend side to side and inside and out, and if we do that our shots are going to fall,” explained Coach Smith.  “That is how we made our run in the third quarter-- confidence and team work.”

Sidney Borrill was the third Lion to finish in double figures with 13 points.  She was also good at the free throw line, going 5/6.  As a team, the Lions sunk 21 of 27 free throw attempts.  Emily Snelling put in five points for the Lions and Erin O’Tool had one.

“Everyone was ready for this moment.  They defined it and decided it the whole night,” said Smith.

The Bulldogs couldn’t recover from Clear Lake’s 20-7 third quarter domination.  The fourth quarter was much closer and the Bulldogs managed to trim a 46-35 Clear Lake lead to 46-40 with 4:14 remaining.  However, the Lions buckled up on defense and took care of the ball better, forcing H-D to start fouling  and sending the Lions to the free throw line.

Hampton-Dumont, who won the North Central Conference title and split regular season games with Clear Lake, finished the season with a 20-3 record.