Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Adding the pressure of the playoffs to the frantic, full-court pace applied by Keokuk presented a difficult equation for Clear Creek Amana in Thursday’s substate semifinal.

The Clippers solved both with the poise of postseason veterans.

Clear Creek Amana shot 64 percent in the second half. consistently beating the Keokuk full court pressure for easy baskets while pulling away for a 76-66 win over the Chiefs in a Class 3A, Substate 5 semifinal in Tiffin.

“We knew they were going to out scrappy and try to get hands on balls and we worked through the press and it worked out tonight,” Clear Creek Amana junior Mike Potter said. “When they are in your face that’s all you can do is keep calm. We had to make sure we took care of the ball then just went from there.”

Christian Withrow scored a game-high 26 points, many coming on transition baskets at the rim, as Clear Creek Amana (18-5) moved a win way from its first state tournament appearance since 1993.

Clear Creek Amana will face third-ranked Davenport Assumption (19-4), which rallied past Mount Pleasant 64-54 on Thursday, in the Substate 5 title game on Monday at 7 p.m. at Muscatine.

Keokuk closed the season (16-8).

“We were focused on Keokuk all week, we never mentioned Monday, but I think our kids knew it was out there,” Clear Creek Amana coach Brandon Clubb said. “We focused on their press because they do a heck of a job pressuring but we really handled it especially in the second half and really didn’t bother us much.”

Clear Creek Amana had turnovers on its opening three possessions of the game, committed six of its 14 turnovers in the first quarter against the Chief’s full court pressure and trailed 16-15 after the opening quarter.

The Keokuk lead didn’t last long.

Clear Creek Amana took control with a 12-2 second-quarter run that was fueled by eight points from Withrow.

“Every single practice the first thing we worked on was straight pressure,” Withrow said. “We were doing five on six or five on seven doing everything to prepare for that and when we first started it was a little but rough but we got it under control.”

Senior guards Tyler Schrepfer and Nick O’Connor were pivotal in protecting the ball against the Keokuk pressure.

Christian Withrow was often the one reaping the rewards of the effort of the senior backcourt mates.

The 6-foot-2 junior hit his final seven field goal attempts of the first half, including all five in the second quarter with most coming from point blank range.

“We preached all week about being composed, we used that word a lot this week,” Clubb said. “We just wanted to be the better team fundamentally because they want to speed you up and when you get sped up you make mistakes and I thought we did a great job of not losing our composure.”

Clear Creek Amana led 32-28 at the half and 47-44 after three quarters after a 10-1 Chief run to end the third quarter.

The Clippers steadily put the game away in the final quarter.

They score in bursts we just had to handle runs and I think we took their best punch at the end of the third and did what we needed to do in the fourth quarter,” Clubb said. “We got some easy baskets.”

Clear Creek Amana committed just one turnover and hit 10-of-12 field goal attempts in a 29-point fourth quarter.   

“We were just trying to get a feel for it the first quarter, the second quarter we corrected some things and the second half is when we really felt comfortable,” Withrow said. “We really took off.”

Withrow had a game-high 26 points to lead four Clippers in double figures.

Schrepfer had 15, Potter had l4 and TJ Bollers added 11 points and nine rebounds.  

“We have lots of people that can score the ball in multiple ways,” Potter said. “We have lots of shooters we have guys that can get to the basket and get easy buckets.”

Now comes the big test for Clear Creek Amana.

The Clippers had their season end with a 63-46 loss to Assumption last season.  

“I’m bouncing off the walls,” Withrow said of Monday’s matchup. “I’m ready to start preparing and tomorrow after school we’ll get in the gym and start getting the work done.”

Clear Creek Amana  15   17  15  29  –  76

Keokuk                      16   12  16  22  –  66

Clear Creek Amana (76) – Ryan Navara 1-1 0-0 2, Brock Reade 0-3 0-0 0, Nick O’Connor 1-6 5-6 8, Tyler Schrepfer 5-13 2-2 15, Christian Withrow 10-12 6-10 26, Mike Potter 6-6 2-5 14, TJ Bollers 5-8 1-4 11, Totals 28-49 16-27 76.

Keokuk (66) – Eddie Lee 2-5 0-0 4, Braylon Martinez 0-1 0-0 0, Isaiah Seay 5-15 3-6 16, MJ Davis 2-9 0-0 4, TyJai Mueller 3-9 0-0 7, Callum Tackes 6-9 1-2 15, Jondarian Hodges 0-1 0-0 0, Anthony Potratz 7-12 3-4 20, Totals 25-61 7-12 66.

3-point field goals – CCA 4-15 (O’Connor 1-6, Schrepfer 3-8, Reade 0-1), KEO 9-24 (Martinez 0-1, Hodges 0-1, Seay 3-7, Davis 0-3, Mueller 1-5, Tackes 2-2, Potratz 3-5). Rebounds – CCA 39 (Bollers 9), KEO 28 (Potratz 6). Turnovers – CCA 14, KEO 8. Total fouls – CCA 13, KEO 20. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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