Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – After last season ended with a 31-point quarterfinal loss at the 4A state tournament Clear Creek Amana coach PJ Sweeney knew there was plenty for his team to improve on entering this season.

Sweeney never singled out defense as an area where the Clippers needed to develop entering this season.

It turns out he didn’t need to, the players picked up on that themselves.

“It’s not something we directly talked about but I think it was an internal thing that we knew we had to get better on defense,” Clear Creek Amana senior Ava Locklear said. “We knew we could score, we knew we had the offensive threats, we have height we have shooters. But we understood that defense was going to be the thing that could break us.”

The area that Locklear and her teammates once thought could break them is what has made Clear Creek Amana one of the favorites to claim the 4A state title later this month.

Top-ranked Clear Creek Amana turned in another in a growing list of stellar defensive outings on Tuesday in a 63-31 win over Williamsburg in a WAMAC West Division contest in Tiffin.

“Defense has definitely been our strong suit this year,” Clear Creek Amana senior Bliss Beck said. “We are locking down on teams and getting their shooters out of rhythm but I don’t think it was a huge priority for us coming into the season it has just come about.”

Clear Creek Amana allowed 61 points in a season-ending state quarterfinal loss to North Polk last season.

The Clippers haven’t given up more than 47 points in a game this season, have allowed more than 40 points just five times and haven’t given up more than 37 points in a game since January 9.

Clear Creek Amana (20-0) has held opponents to just 29.8 points per game this season while wrapping up a fourth WAMAC West Division title in five seasons and its first outright West Division crown.

“There are a lot of things that we can work on as a team so we didn’t just single out defense but I think after break we have spent a lot more practice time working on it,” Sweeney said. “It wasn’t one of those things going into the season where we said we have to get better defensively it just kind of naturally happened and now the girls are starting to believe.

Clear Creek Amana was as dominant as ever on the defensive end on Tuesday.

Williamsburg (13-8) entered Tuesday riding a six-game win streak during which the Raiders were averaging better than 61 points per game.

Clear Creek Amana held the Raiders to 24 percent shooting, forced 18 turnovers and didn’t allow more than 11 points in a single quarter.

“We all know our job, we all know our role,” Locklear said. “Our coaches do a great job of scouting and telling us what we need to do and I we understand the personnel that we are playing. We all know what we need to do.”

Williamsburg trailed just 14-11 after Makenna Hughes hit a 3-pointer that just beat the first quarter buzzer.

Clear Creek Amana responded by outscoring Williamsburg 20-0 in the second quarter to take a 34-11 halftime lead.

Williamsburg missed all 12 second-quarter field goal attempts and had five turnovers.

“It’s 14-11 going into the second quarter and the next thing you know we have a 20-0 run and that was the difference in the game,” Sweeney said. “We were getting after it defensively.”

Averie Lower had nine of her game-high 21 points in the second quarter as Clear Creek Amana blew the game open.

Lower led three Clippers in double figures as Beck had 13 points and six rebounds and Locklear had 11 points and 20 rebounds.

The Clippers held a 43-23 rebounding advantage that included 17 offensive rebounds.

“Really we are focusing on us right now,” Beck said. “We aren’t playing down to anyone’s level and I think that’s important for us.”

Locklear finished with six assists and seven blocks to go with her 11 points and 20 rebounds and sophomore Lena Evans had nine points.

Ava Hocker led Williamsburg with seven points as Clear Creek Amana held Williamsburg junior Carly Rich, who entered averaging a team-high 13.6 points per game, scoreless on 0-of-6 shooting.

“We held their leading scorer to zero,” Sweeney said. “I have a lot of respect for (Rich) she is a player you have to know where she is at and what she is doing and tonight we held her to zero points.”

Williamsburg                          11   0   10  10  –  31   

Clear Creek Amana              14  20  18  11  –  63                                                                                                     

Williamsburg (31) – Carly Rich 0-6 0-0 0, Clara Sinclair 0-1 0-0 0, Zoe Allen 2-8 2-4 6, Makenna Hughes 1-4 0-0 3, Ava Hocker 3-7 0-0 7, Taylor Sanchez 2-5 1-2 6, Taylor Heitman 1-1 0-0 3, Kennedy Skaggs 1-9 3-4 6, Totals 10-41 6-10 31.

Clear Creek Amana (63) – Kaylee Stratton 0-5 1-2 1, Kiera Rogers 0-0 2-2 2, Averie Lower 8-13 4-5 21, Sam Schrage 2-4 0-0 4, Lena Evans 2-8 5-6 9, Kennedy Stratton 1-4 0-0 2, Lexi Moran 0-1 0-0 0, Bliss Beck 6-8 1-1 13, Ava Locklear 4-10 3-6 11.

3-point field goals – WIL 5-16 (Rich 0-2, Allen 0-1, Hughes 1-2, Hocker 1-2, Sanchez 1-3, Heitman 1-1, Skaggs 1-5), CCA 1-12 (Kay. Stratton 0-1, Lower 1-5, Evans 0-4, Ken. Stratton 0-1, Moran 0-1). Rebounds – WIL 23 (Rich 3, Sinclair 3), CCA 43 (Locklear 19). Turnovers – WIL 18, CCA 8. Total fouls – WIL 8, CCA 14. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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