Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

MUSCATINE – Clear Creek Amana had all kinds of trouble slowing Davenport Assumption and its all-state forward Sean Peeters on Wednesday in the Class 3A, Substate 5 title game.

Until it mattered most.

Clear Creek Amana locked down the 6-foot-5 Peeters after halftime and outscored third-ranked Assumption 17-3 in the opening six and half minutes of the fourth quarter to pull away for 79-66 win at Muscatine High School.

“We talked all year about getting stops when we need to and that was the case the second half we got stops when we needed to,” Clear Creek Amana Clubb said. “We were confident that we could keep scoring on them and it was just a matter of how high could they go and we got stops in the second half.”

The second-half defensive effort on Wednesday combined with its usual offensive efficiency sent Clear Creek Amana back to the state tournament for the third time in program history and first since the Clippers made the second of back-to-back trips in 1992 and 1993.

Clear Creek Amana (19-5) will play a 3A quarterfinal on Tuesday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Pairings for the state tournament will be released on Thursday.

“If feels so good after putting in four years of hard work to get to this moment,” Clear Creek Amana senior point guard Tyler Schrepfer said. “There is nothing better.”

Clear Creek Amana was confident it would continue to put up points on Wednesday the way it has all season.

The question on Wednesday was if the Clippers could slow Peeters.

Throughout most of the frantically-paced first-half the answer was no.

The 6-foot-5 senior scored 16 of his 20 first-half points in the second quarter, including eight straight in the final 2:35 of the first half to give the Knights a 40-34 halftime lead.

“Defense all week was our number one priority, we knew we had to stop him and slow everybody else down and we didn’t do that so good the first half,” Clubb said. “We really got after them at halftime about guarding Peeters and we reestablished how we wanted to guard him from the get go and we did that finally in the second half and it worked out for us.”

Clear Creek Amana got Peeters in check after halftime, holding the senior scoreless on four shot attempts in the third quarter.

The Clippers scored the final four points of the quarter on a Mike Potter transition layup and a steal and layup by Schrepfer.

“We finally started to key more in on Peeters,” Schrepfer said. “He really hurt us in the first half and didn’t have any in the third quarter and that was huge for us.”

In the fourth quarter Clear Creek Amana locked down on defense and let its free flowing, fast breaking offense put the game away.

Clear Creek Amana rattled off an 8-0 run that started with a baseline fadeaway jumper by Schrepfer to turn a two-point game into a 65-55 with under three minutes to play.

The rest was just hitting free throws.

“We talked at halftime that maybe we took their best shot at the end of the first when they made a run,” Clubb said. “We knew we could keep scoring, we weren’t afraid of that it was just could they keep up with us because we wanted to push the pace, keep scoring and see how high they could get.”

Christian Withrow scored 17 of his game-high 26 points in the second half as Clear Creek Amana (19-5) shot 61 percent from the field in the second half.

Withrow led four Clippers in double figures as Potter had 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting, Schrepfer had 16 and TJ Bollers 10.

Clear Creek Amana shot 55 percent from the field, committed just seven turnovers and made 18-of-23 free throw attempts while scoring more than 74 points for the fourth straight game.

“This needed to be our best game tonight and I think it was,” Schrepfer said. “I’m glad we brought it out for this one of all of them.”

After allowing 40 first-half points on 56 percent shooting the Clippers limited Assumption to 26 points and 31 percent shooting after halftime.

The only second-half points for Peeters came on a tip dunk with 43 seconds left and the game out of reach.

“We knew that if we were going to win we had to shut Peeters down,” Withrow said. “We prepared all week for that, working on triple teams and how to help down and that’s all it was. Everyone knew what their job was and everyone did what they were supposed to do.”

Meanwhile the Clippers got better as the game wore on.

Clear Creek Amana hit seven of its final eight field goal attempts including 5-of-6 in the fourth quarter.

“We knew that it was going to be a dog fight,” Potter said. “We pushed the pace and I think we were able to get them a little tired.”

Clear Creek Amana               19  15  21  24  –  79

Davenport Assumption        19  21  13  14  –  66

Clear Creek Amana (79) – Brock Reade 2-5 0-0 4, Nick O’Connor 1-7 0-0 3, Tyler Schrepfer 6-12 1-2 16, Christian Withrow 10-15 6-8 26, Mike Potter 7-8 5-6 20, TJ Bollers 2-4 6-7 10, Totals 28-51 18-23 79.

Davenport Assumption (66) – Matt Tallman 1-1 0-0 2, Ray Tucker 1-3 0-2 3, Grayson Heiser 2-6 2-2 8, Dayne Hodge 7-15 1-2 18, Noah Mack 4-14 0-0 11, Bill Flaherty 1-2 0-0 2, Sean Peeters 9-17 4-7 22, Tyler Maro 0-2 0-0 0, Totals 25-60 7-13 66.

3-point field goals – CCA 5-14 (Reade 0-1, O’Connor 1-4, Schrepfer 3-8, Potter 1-1), DA 9-24 (Tucker 1-3, Heiser 2-3, Hodge 3-9, Mack 3-8, Peeters 0-1). Rebounds – CCA 28 (Potter 10), DA (Peeters 11). Turnovers – CCA 7, DA 14. Total fouls – CCA 10, DA 20. Fouled out – DA (Peeters). Technical fouls – None.

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