Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Clear Creek Amana had a sizable advantage in its 4A regional semifinal against North Scott.

It was, quite simply, its size.

The Clippers rode a stifling post defense and the inside scoring of Ava Locklear to a 46-39 victory Saturday night at the Clipper gym before a big, enthusiastic crowd.

Clear Creek Amana (16-6) will play at Central DeWitt (18-4) Tuesday for a state tournament berth.

North Scott finished 14-9,

Time after time sophomore twin towers Ava Locklear, 5-foot-11, and Bliss Beck, 6-2, swatted away the Lancers’ attempts to drive to the basket.

CCA coach P.J. Sweeney said the team doesn’t keep blocked shots as a game-time statistic, but unofficially the team accounted for 14 blocks. And the Lancers never stopped trying to drive the lane the whole 32 minutes despite the outcome.

“They were definitely used to getting to the rim and finish shots,” Sweeney said. “But with our posts and our size we were able to block shots.”

Beck shut down the Lancers’ leading scorer, 5-11 junior Lauren Golinghorst, and held her to two baskets.

She came in averaging 14.5 points per game.

“She fronted her the entire game,” Locklear said of Beck. “She did good with getting in her head because she blocked her multiple times. She was in her head, so (Golinhorst) couldn’t do what she normally liked to do.”

“We scouted her, and she was mainly right-handed,” Beck said. “So we tried to take that hand away.”

The Clippers started fast, getting out to a 17-6 lead behind an efficient offense and a belly button man-to-man defense.

Clear Creek Amana scored on seven of its first nine possessions.

“We came out really, really hot in the first three or four minutes,” Sweeney said. “We full-court pressured them, we got some easy baskets. And then in the second quarter, give them credit, they started to take away some stuff, the entry to our posts. We struggled some with their pressure.”

While North Scott adjusted to the Clipper pressure, it applied more defensive pressure itself and made a run at the lead in the second quarter.

The Lancers got within 22-21 before Locklear hit a buzzer-beater layup to end the half.

In the third quarter CCA went back to the post.

Locklear and Beck scored all 10 points in that quarter. Locklear finished with 22 points and had eight in the third period. Fourteen of her points came in the second half.

“We were going to pound it down to our posts,” Sweeney said. “In our mind we’re always going to have a mismatch with one of our posts. That kind of turned the tide for us the second half.”

“We practice all the time different ways to get it into the post,” Locklear said. “And I think that helped us. We knew how to execute it.”

“We work on it every day in practice, post entry. We clear out and let them go to work,” Beck said.

The lead, 34-30 heading to the fourth quarter, remained precarious and was as little as three points with 3:10 left, but the players said they never felt it was slipping away.

“We never, ever wavered,” Sweeney said. “We never got off the rails. That just showed me a ton right there.”

The Clippers made enough free throws in the final 2:32 (10 of 16) to hold off the frantic Lancers.

The shot blocking was a key to holding the Lancers’ to a .265 shooting percentage (13-49).

The Lancers did get a spark off the bench in junior Bailey Boddicker, who finished with a team-high 16 points, but the rest of the team was bottled up tight.

North Scott                              8   13    9   9  –  39

Clear Creek Amana              17   7   10  12 –  46

North Scott (39) – Hattie Hagedorn 3-11 5-7 12, Cora O’Neill 2-8 0-3 4, Lexi Ward 0-8 1-2 1, Kayla Fountain 0-1 0-0 0, Lauren Golinhorst 2-8 0-0 4, Bailey Boddicker 6-11 2-3 16, Sydney Skarich 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 13-49 8-15.

Clear Creek Amana (46) – Sam Schrage 3-7 2-2 9, Olivia Miller 2-6 0-0 6, Bliss Beck 1-1 0-0 2, Reese Stockman 1-6 3-4 5, Ava Locklear 8-15 6-8 22, Kaylee Stratton 0-0 1-3 1, Kalin Rotzoll 0-1 0-0 0, Eva Plathe 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-36 12-17.

Three-point goals – North Scott 3-7 (Hagedorn 1-1, O’Neill 0-2, Boddicker 2-3, Skarich 0-1). CCA 3-11 (Schrage 1-2, Miller 2-5, Stockman 0-3, Rotzoll 0-1) Fouls – NS 18, CCA 11. Fouled out – NS (Hagedorn).

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