Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – Offense has rarely been an issue for Clear Creek Amana.

Even in a couple of early season losses Clear Creek Amana showed it was capable of piling up points with anyone in Class 3A.

It was the other end of the court where the Clippers needed some fine tuning.

“In the back of my head I knew we could do it, especially offensively,” Clear Creek Amana coach Brandon Clubb said after a substate final win over Davenport Assumption last week. “We just had to get some things straight defensively.”

Whatever defensive wrinkles the Clippers were lacking got ironed out in Tuesday’s 3A state quarterfinal win over second-ranked Mount Vernon.  

Clear Creek Amana (20-5) picked the perfect time for its top defensive performance of the season holding the Mustangs to a season-low scoring output in a 59-45 win at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

“We knew going into this game that defense was going to be the number one thing,” Clear Creek Amana junior Christian Withrow said. “We know that we can put up shots and we can make shots so we had to really make sure we shut down their key players and I feel like we did a great job of doing that.”

Mount Vernon (22-3) entered the state tournament averaging nearly 62 points per game and put up 69 points on 52 percent shooting in a 17-point December win over Clear Creek Amana.

The Mustangs shot 48 percent from the field while reaching the state tournament.

Clear Creek Amana held Mount Vernon to 27 percent shooting on Tuesday and didn’t allow more than 13 points in a single quarter.

“I think we managed our emotions and showed a lot of poise and executed the game plan,” Clubb said. “They have been coachable and they are all bought in right now and we are a totally different team than we were at the beginning of the year and obviously we are playing at a higher level.”

At the center of the Clipper defensive masterpiece on Tuesday was senior Nick O’Connor.

The 6-foot-1 guard drew the unenviable assignment of shadowing Mount Vernon junior sharpshooter Keaton Kutcher, who came into the game ninth in 3A in scoring at 20 points per game.

O’Connor led a defensive charge that limited Kutcher to 13 points on 3-of-20 shooting.

“He is a great shooter, he moves around a lot,” O’Connor said. “I knew he was going to get some tough shots up my goal was to keep him as low as possible which I think I ended up doing a pretty good job of.”

The shift in defensive mindset began for Clear Creek Amana last week in a 79-66 substate final win over Davenport Assumption.

After allowing 40 points in the opening half, half coming from all-state forward Sean Peeters, the Clippers clamped down after halftime.

Clear Creek Amana held Peeters to two second half points on 1-of-7 shooting in the final two quarters while limiting the Knights to 16 points.

In its past six quarters of action Clear Creek Amana has held two of the top scorers in 3A to 15 points on 4-of-27 shooting.

That is digging in on defense.

“It’s a mentality now,” Withrow said. “We go out and perform and we do what we do and after a while it becomes a mentality.”

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