Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – In his short time as head coach at West High Nate Frese has learned quite a bit about his team.

At the top of the list of things Frese has learned is that clutch time is Meena Tate time for the Trojans.

Tate scored nine of her game-high 25 points during a 14-0 fourth quarter run as Class 5A seventh-ranked West High pulled away from 4A eighth-ranked Clear Creek Amana in its season opener on Tuesday in Tiffin.

“We told her it’s got to be you,” Frese said of Tate. “You are our senior leader, you are the best player on our team, you are a returning captain, a returning all-state player you have to take it the hole, you have to be aggressive. And she stepped up.”

Tate’s time to shine on Tuesday came in the final four minutes.

The Dartmouth recruit scored the final six points of a 14-0 West High burst that snapped a 43-all tie.

“I was pretty frustrated with how I started the game,” Tate said. “I just had to change something and I was able to make some plays late in the game.”

West High escaped with a win in the head coaching debut for Frese on Tuesday but the time for Clear Creek Amana (1-1) is coming, likely sooner rather than later.

The Clippers got 21 points and 10 rebounds from junior Ava Locklear and had the game tied with under seven minutes to play.

“They are a very good team, they are going to win a lot of games,” Frese said. “Locklear is one of the best bigs we are going to play all year whether its MVC or WAMAC she’s a heck of a player and they play hard and they run their stuff really well.”

Clear Creek Amana led by as many as eight points in the opening six minutes and led 14-9 after one quarter.

The Clippers led 19-12 when freshman Averie Lower hit a 3-pointer less than a minute into the second quarter.

West High responded with a 12-2 run that featured six points from Tate and led 33-27 at the half.

“This year we are returning basically everybody but everything is different,” Tate said. “I think it was a little adjustment and adjustments take time and that’s what the rocky start was.”

West High junior Lucy Wolf had three 3-pointers in the second quarter and scored 12 of her 15 points in the quarter to jump start the Trojan offense.

“Everyone just needed to slow down and get some rhythm,” Wolf said. “Once we got over that little hump we played together as a team.”
West High led by as many as 11 in the third quarter before Clear Creek Amana charged back.

The Clippers used a 14-2 run that featured 3-pointers from juniors Reese Stockman and Sam Schrage to take a 41-40 lead with 50 seconds left in the third quarter.

“This game showed me a ton of growth from our group,” Clear Creek Amana coach PJ Sweeney said. “We had a big lead early and they got it into double digits but we battled back and got it to one-possession game in the fourth quarter.”

It was tied at 43-all when Bliss Beck scored in the paint with 7:19 remaining.

The rest of the game belonged to Tate and the Trojans.

Junior Melae’ Lacy started the run with a jumper in the paint and Tate scored the next three points before a corner triple from senior guard Keiko Ono-Fullard made it 51-43.

“I think everyone’s energy pushed us,” Tate said. “Melae’ was great on defense, everybody was hitting shots it was really a team effort.”

Lacy took over on Locklear after the junior scored 11 first-quarter points and played a key role in holding the junior standout in check the rest of the game.

We thought we were going to have Tate on her to start and switched it over to Melae’,” Frese said. “She plays “against her in AAU so she had a little more knowledge of some of her moves and I think Melae’ did a good job of just contesting shots and keeping a hand up.”

Tate put the finishing touches on the 14-0 fourth-quarter run with six consecutive points.

The final bucket came on a steal and layup that gave West High a 57-43 lead with 3:21 to play.

Locklear was the lone Clipper in double figures as Clear Creek Amana shot 38 percent from the floor and was just 7-of-18 at the free throw line.

“That’s one of the best if not the best team we are going to play all season and I think playing these games really helps us see what we are missing,” Locklear said. “We struggled rebounding, we missed some shots, missed some free throws but we have a lot of things we need to get better at.”

Stockman had eight points and Lower, Schrage and Beck all had five for the Clippers.

“Maybe we got a little tired, maybe we were a little gassed,” Sweeney said. “Free throws, I don’t know what our free throw percentage was but if you are going to beat a good team like West you have to be able to hit your free throws and we just didn’t do that tonight.”

Senior Anna Prouty had three points and 12 rebounds for West High while Lacy finished with seven points and seven rebounds.

Clear Creek Amana              14  13  14   6   –  47

West High                               9   24  10  18  –  61

Clear Creek Amana (47) – Kiera Rogers 0-1 0-0 0, Averie Lower 2-4 0-0 5, Sam Schrage 2-7 0-0 5, Olivia Miller 1-8 0-0 3, Kennedy Stratton 0-1 0-0 0, Bliss Beck 2-4 1-4 5, Reese Stockman 3-8 1-4 8, Ava Locklear 18-47 7-18 47.

West High (61) – Lucy Wolf 5-7 1-1 15, Meena Tate 11-25 1-4 25, Carolyn Pierce 2-8 0-0 5, Aly Skala 1-1 0-0 2, Melae’ Lacy 3-5 0-2 7, Keiko Ono-Fullard 1-1 0-0 3, Anna Prouty 2-4 0-2 4, Zola Gross 0-1 0-0 0, Grace Fincham 0-2 0-0 0, Totals 25-54 2-9 61.

3-point field goals – CCA 4-13 (Lower 1-2, Schrage 1-2, Miller 1-6, Stockman 1-3), ICW 9-23 (Wolf 4-5, Tate 2-7, Pierce 1-5, Lacy 1-2, Ono-Fullard 1-1, Gross 0-1, Fincham 0-2). Rebounds – CCA 37 (Locklear 10), ICW 31 (Prouty 12). Turnovers – CCA 15, ICW 11. Total fouls – CCA 9, ICW 13. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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