Pat Harty

Your Prep Sports 

TIFFIN – One of the best seasons in quite some time for the Clear Creek Amana boys basketball team will continue on in the Class 3A playoffs.

The Clippers made sure of that on Monday by pounding Fort Madison 76-50 in a substate quarterfinal.

“We just got done talking, we did what we needed to do to win tonight,” said Clear Creek coach Brandon Clubb. “That’s actually our first post-season victory in four years. So we got that out of the way and we move on the next one.

“We were solid offensively, and then defensively we got some stops and did what we needed to do.”

The Clippers improved to 17-5 on the season and will face Keokuk (16-8) in a substate semifinal on Thursday.

Keokuk advanced with a 59-47 victory over Solon in the other quarterfinal game played in Tiffin.

“They’ll be good,” Clubb said of Keokuk. “They come out and pressure you a lot.

“This is a three-seed versus a two-seed, so I think it should be a great game.”

Keokuk could have its hand full trying to contend with Clear Creek’s balance on offense, which included five players scoring in double figures in Monday’s game.

Junior center T.J. Bollers led the Clippers with 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the field, while fellow junior Christian Withrow finished with 14 points.

Withrow scored eight points in the second quarter after not scoring in the first quarter, while another junior, Mike Potter, scored eight points in the first quarter, but none in the second.

“That’s the beauty of how we’re put together,” Clubb said. “Any guy can do it on any given night. We tell them every night we’ve got a ton of weapons.

“We have a guy who can go through a quarter and not do anything, and then somebody else steps up. And that’s what makes us hard to guard.”

It also helps having the 260-pound Bollers setting picks, grabbing offensive rebounds and making put-backs and blocking shots on defense.

“He’s just a monster down there,” Withrow said of Bollers, who is also one of the top football recruits nationally in the 2021 class. “He can just take over any post they throw at him.”

Bollers grabbed an offensive rebound and made a basket to give the Clippers a 27-16 lead with 6 minutes, 30 seconds left in the second quarter.

He also grabbed an offensive rebound and made another shot off the glass to give Clear Creek a 64-38 lead early in the fourth quarter.

“T.J. did a great job tonight,”Clubb said. “He was getting easy baskets on the inside. He got a lot of offensive rebounds and he got put-backs.

“He played his role to a T for us. He did a good job.”

The juniors and seniors for Clear Creek were in seventh and eighth grade the last time the Clippers won a post-season game.

“It’s a great season, it’s one of our best seasons in many years,” Withrow said. “Obviously, the coaches talk us up and every now and then people tell us everyone is rooting for you. We know what you guys can do. You guys are the team to beat.

“And we firmly believe that. And all it is is us getting a bigger target on our back and we just have to come out and perform better every night.”

Withrow and his teammates were fully aware of hiw long it had been since Clear Creek won a playoff game.

“It’s amazing. It’s amazing,” Withrow said. “You can hear them all in the locker room. We’re going crazy.’

Fort Madison              13  12   9  16 –  50

Clear Creek Amana    21 18  21 16  –  76

Fort Madison (50) – Dayton Davis 2-13 3-4 8, Michael Mosena 1-4 0-0 2, Miles Dear 3-8 0-0 7, Parker Denning 3-5 0-0 9, Jayden Fedler 4-8 1-3 10, Julian Navarro 2-4 3-4 8, Reiburn Turnbull 1-3 0-0 3, Matt Hopper 1-1 0-0 3, Tate Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Landes Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 17-47 7-11 50.

Clear Creek Amana (76) – Nick O’Connor 3-6 0-0 7, Tyler Schrepfer 2-9 0-0 4, Christian Withrow 7-13 0-0 14, Mike Potter 5-7 2-2 12, T.J. Bollers 7-8 2-2 16, Brock Reade 5-6 0-0 10, Ryan Navara 1-3 0-0 2, Kyle Schrepfer 3-5 2-2 10, Bryce Skow 0-0 0-0 0, Ben Swails 0-1 0-0 0, Mason Slaymaker 0-0 0-0 0, Riley Wolfe 1-1 0-0 3, Tanner Webb 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 34-59 6-6 76.

3-point goals – Fort Madison 9 (Parker Denning 3, Dayton Davis, Miles Dear, Jayden Fedler, Julian Navarro, Reiburn Turnbull, Matt Hopper). Clear Creek Amana 4 (Kyle Schrepfer 2, Nick O’Connor, Riley Wolfe). Fouls – Fort Madison 10, Clear Creek Amana 10.

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