Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Clear Creek Amana had one of the most successful seasons in program history last winter.

The Clippers capped an 18-win season with their second ever state tournament trip.

One thing Clear Creek Amana did not do a year ago was beat Benton Community.

Really, the Clippers didn’t get all that close to beating the Bobcats, losing games by 17 and 15 points to WAMAC West rival Benton Community.

That fact was not lost on Clear Creek Amana this season.

“Last year we obviously did not play our best against Benton so we came in this year knowing that we had to play good and we wanted revenge,” Clear Creek Amana senior Sam Schrage said. “That was enough motivation to play well.”

A motivated Clear Creek Amana squad was an impressive from the outset in a 67-42 win over Class 3A eighth-ranked Benton Community in a WAMAC West Division top-10 showdown in Tiffin.

Clear Creek Amana shot 50 percent from the floor and didn’t commit a turnover in the opening half while building a 38-14 halftime lead.

Four Clippers had at least nine points as Class 4A second-ranked Clear Creek Amana snapped a two-game skid to the Bobcats and remained unbeaten on the season improving to 8-0.

“I told our girls the WAMAC West title is going to go through Benton,” Clear Creek Amana coach PJ Sweeney said. “They beat us twice last year by double digits and I said if we are going to be conference title contenders we have to beat Benton and we did that tonight.”

Clear Creek Amana got a game-high 18 points from sophomore sharp shooter Averie Lower and Lena Evans came off the bench to score 13 points.

Sam Schrage and Kennedy Stratton each had nine points as Evans, Schrage and Stratton combined to 11-of-19 from the floor including 7-of-10 from 3-point range.

“It’s really awesome that every game you get to see all the skill we have throughout our team,” Schrage said. “Teams will hone in on our main scorers like Ava and Averie and we have people come out ready to shoot and make shots.”

As Clear Creek Amana used balanced scoring to shoot 50 percent for the game including 11-of-22 from 3-point range the Clippers focused their defensive efforts on stopping the top two Bobcat scorers.

Clear Creek Amana limited the Benton backcourt combo of Emma Townsley and McKenna Kramer to 21 points on 9-of-22 shooting.

Townsley entered the game averaging 20.1 points per game and Kramer was averaging 15.8 per contest.

Kramer finished with nine while Townsley had a team-high 13.

“We definitely were good at locking up their shooters,” Stratton said. “We were really locked in on defense and focused on taking away (Emma) Townsley and (McKenna) Kramer.”

Clear Creek Amana led 12-9 after the opening quarter after Schrage hit back-to-back 3-pointers over the final 2:57 of the first quarter.

The Clippers took control before halftime outscoring Benton 26-5 in the second quarter.

Clear Creek Amana made 11-of-17 second-quarter field goal attempts and closed the half on a 19-0 run.

“We found our rhythm really fast, we were shooting really good,” Evans said. “We got people open, we passed the ball to our posts and they got it back out for 3s. It was just really good movement.”

Clear Creek Amana didn’t commit a first-half turnover and finished with just five in the game.

“When you can take care of the ball and pay good solid defense you are going to win a lot of games,” Sweeney said. “Benton is a good team, they are a very good team.

Benton Community              9    5   12  16  –  42               

Clear Creek Amana             12  26  19  10  –  67                             

Benton Community (42) – Sophia Seeck 1-2 2-2 5, Emma Townsley 6-13 0-0 13, Piper Nelson 3-10 0-0 6, McKenna Kramer 3-9 2-3 9, Aubrey Kelly 1-6 1-1 3, Avery Kramer 0-1 0-0 0, Zoey Junge 1-3 0-0 2, Hannah Greiner 1-2 0-0 2, Jessa DeMoss 1-2 0-0 2, Totals 17-48 5-6 42.

Clear Creek Amana (67) – Kaylee Stratton 1-4 0-0 3, Addesyn Campbell 1-1 0-0 3, Kiera Rogers 0-2 0-0 0, Averie Lower 8-14 0-0 18, Sam Schrage 3-5 0-0 9, Lena Evans 4-7 2-2 13, Melissa Sweeney 0-1 0-0 0, Kennedy Stratton 4-7 0-0 9, Kelsey Leathers 1-2 0-0 2, Bliss Beck 0-1 4-6 4, Ava Locklear 3-7 0-2 6, Totals 25-51 6-10 67.

3-point field goals – BC 3-17 (Seeck 1-1, Townsley 0-2, Nelson 0-2, M. Kramer 1-6, A. Kramer 0-1, Junge 0-1), CCA 11-22 (Kay. Stratton 1-3, Campbell 1-1, Rogers 0-1, Lower 2-7, Schrage 3-4, Evans 3-4, Ken. Stratton 1-2). Rebounds – BC 28 (Greiner 4, Kelly 4), CCA 32 (Locklear 9, Lower 9). Turnovers – BC 10, CCA 5. Total fouls – BC 5, CCA 8. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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