No. 4 Lions heat up to hand No. 10 Bulldogs their first loss

HAMPTON – Already leading 31-22 at halftime, the Class 3A No. 4 Clear Lake girls’ basketball team started to heat up from the field as the Bulldogs went cold in an eventual 59-44 loss for the home team.

That didn’t change much until the final minute of the third quarter when coach Miranda Valley’s team went on an 8-0 run to pull within 45-32.

“We went ice cold,” Valley said. “They switched into a 1-3-1, which is fine with us if we’re hitting shots, and we weren’t. They all got great shots and great looks and we went cold, couldn’t hit a bucket. If we do that against a good team, we’re going to find ourselves in a deficit, so that is what the third quarter was.”

Indeed, after starting hot, the Bulldogs held a 13-10 advantage at the end of the first quarter. The Lions’ first lead came at the 4 minute, 5 second mark until halftime and they would not relinquish it from there, building a 28-20 lead with a little more than a minute left until the break, forcing Valley to call timeout.

Then, the Bulldogs got quiet, finishing the game 14-of-47 from the field, by far their worst shooting performance of the season, 29.5 percent, and even more so from three (5-of-24 for 20 percent). They now average 38.6 percent from the field and 27.3 from beyond the arc after the performance.

It was the third quarter start that contributed to that as the Bulldogs went 1-of-12 from the field before hitting their last three shots. The Bulldogs were led by Avery Hanson with 13 points. Lauren Meader added 11. Clear Lake’s Chelsey Holck came off the bench to lead the Lions with 20 points, 15 in the first half.

Things got even more heated in the first few minutes of the fourth quarter with the momentum heading in the Bulldogs’ direction, two timeouts by Clear Lake coach Bart Smith, the second of which had him saying something to the official that drew two straight technical fouls which had him ejected.

Courtney Miller went on to sink three of the four free throws on the technical fouls, but the Bulldogs were unable to get a basket on the extra possession and Clear Lake came down on the other end and was fouled to make 1-of-2 free throws as the Lions started to pull away again. 

“I have no idea,” Valley said of what exactly occurred to incur the technical fouls, “I know he was upset with the foul calls, I don’t know. I just know we got four free throws and we capitalized on 75 percent of them, so that was good. It would have been huge if we had converted on the ball after.”

After starting the season 11-0, it was the first loss of the season for the Bulldogs, who had just moved up two spots into the Class 3A top-10 in anticipation of this game. Valley said that this will only serve as motivation for her team.

“They’re hungry,” Valley said. “They’ve got goals and one of their goals was to beat Clear Lake at home. It is a game, it goes down as a loss and what we talked about and we move on just like we move on after we win a game.

“We’ll get better, they’ll look at things and we’ll get them again at the end of the season and hopefully get better and get a little hotter from the three-point line.”

The Bulldogs were scheduled to play Class 4A No. 9 Waverly-Shell Rock on Saturday, Jan. 18, but weather had a hand in postponing/canceling that match-up. It would have been a big test for coach Valley’s team considering the Go-Hawks were the only team to hand Clear Lake a loss so far this season. The Bulldog vs. Lion contest had been moved up a day because of a Winter Weather Advisory for the entire state of Iowa on Friday.

“We know what we’re getting if we get them,” Valley said after the loss. “We’ll work and compete for 32 minutes and we’ll move on to the next game.”

Clear Lake 59, Bulldogs 44

Clear Lake (11-1, 7-0)– Sara Faber 3-15 2-5 8, Julia Merfeld 3-4 0-0 8, Darby Dodd 2-3 0-0 6, Ali Maulsby 1-1 0-0 3, Chelsey Holck 6-9 5-6 20, Jaden Ainley 2-3 0-0 4, Emily Thiess 1-2 0-2 2, Kaitlyn Vander Ploeg 2-4 1-2 5, Zoe Fasbender 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 22-44 8-15 59.

Bulldogs (11-1, 6-1) –Kaci Arjes 1-5 1-2 3, Lauren Meader 4-9 2-2 11, Maci Arjes 1-4 0-0 3, Calista Polk 0-5 0-0 0, Courtney Miller 1-10 3-4 5, Avery Hanson 4-8 2-3 13, Briana Grover 3-6 3-5 9. Totals 14-47 11-16 44.

Cl. Lake     10   21   14   14      -   59

Bulldogs    13     9   10   12      -   44

Three-point goals– CL 7-12 (Holck 3-4, Dodd 2-3, Merfeld 1-1, Maulsby 1-1, Theiss 0-1, Faber 0-2); H-D 5-24 (Hanson 3-6, Meader 1-2, M. Arjes 1-3, Polk 0-3, K. Arjes 0-4, Miller 0-6). Rebounds– CL, 26, 7 off., 19 def. (Merfeld 7, Faber 5, Maulsby 4, Vander Ploeg 4, Dodd 2, Holck 2, Ainley, Fasbender); H-D 22, 9 off., 13 def. (K. Arjes 5, Meader 5, Hanson 5, Miller 3, Grover 3, M. Arjes). Assists– CL 19 (Faber 6, Maulsby 5, Holck 3, Fasbender 2, Merfeld, Dodd, Ainley); H-D 6 (K. Arjes 2, Hanson 2, Polk, Miller). Steals– CL 9 (Faber 4, Merfeld 2, Dodd, Maulsby, Holck); H-D 8 (Miller 4, Hanson 2, K. Arjes, Meader). Blocks– CL 3 (Vander Ploeg 3); H-D 1 (Hanson). Total fouls– CL 17; H-D 17. Fouled out – None.