Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – West High coach Nate Frese will breakdown the film and dissect the stats from his teams’ non-conference contest with Clear Creek Amana on Tuesday.

Frese doesn’t need to do all that work to find the difference in the game.

It’s pretty simple – in the fourth quarter the Trojans hit shots. Mostly, 3-point shots.

“We are so 3-point dependent,” Frese explained. “We don’t cut people up, we don’t have a bunch of 6-foot-3 people so our offense is only going to work if we see some shots go in.”

When West High needed it most on Tuesday they saw plenty of big shots go down.

Class 5A No. 13 West High went 5-of-6 from 3-point range in the fourth quarter to erase a six-point deficit on its way to a 61-57 win over 4A fifth-ranked Clear Creek Amana in Tiffin.

Sophomore Sasha Baldwin had three 3-pointers in the final seven minutes and scored 12 of her game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter as West High improved to 3-1.

“Once Sasha hit that first one in that run I saw kind of a different look on all of our girls’ faces,” Frese said. “That’s what I think it is, we just have to see shots go in.”

Junior Ava Frese had a pair of fourth-quarter triples and finished with 11 points as West High outscored Clear Creek Amana (0-2) 14-8 over the final 4:37.

“It helps a lot just to see one go in,” Ava Frese said. “In my mind once that first one goes in it feels like they are all going in.”

West High’s 3-point shooting was the story from the outset.

The Trojans made three 3-pointers in the opening four minutes and took a 15-8 lead less than five minutes into the game.

Clear Creek Amana outscored West High 20-10 over the final 11 minutes of the first half and took a 28-25 lead into halftime.

West High was 1-of-8 from 3-point range in the second quarter.

“I think we play differently when we see the ball go through the hoop,” Nate Frese said. “I believe our confidence is very much affected by that.”

Clear Creek Amana led by as many as 10 in the third quarter as West High missed its first two 3-point attempts of the half.

A 3-pointer by junior Kate Van Waning started an 8-4 West High surge to end the third quarter that was capped by a Baldwin 3-pointer.

“I would say it was mostly confidence and hitting a couple shots boosts our confidence so much,” Baldwin said. “We know we can make those shots but its tough when we aren’t seeing them go in and we have to keep reminding ourselves to keep our heads up because we know we can hit.”

Baldwin opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer and back-to-back triples by Frese and Baldwin gave the Trojans their first lead of the second half at 47-46.

“We struggled to shoot in the third quarter and our energy on the bench and on the court was much better in the fourth,” Ava Frese said. “We started to talk more and our defense really helps with our offense, it’s what makes our offensive thrive. When we get defensive stops we start hitting shots.”

Clear Creek Amana took the lead back on an Averie Lower 3-pointer but Frese hit her second triple of the quarter 20 seconds later to give West High the lead for good.

The Frese 3-pointer from the top of the key started a 10-0 West High run that featured a Baldwin 3-pointer and was capped by four consecutive points from Abby Neumiller.

“We need a third and a fourth scorer and if that’s Ava one night and Abby another night or whoever it is,” Nate Frese said. “Ava stepped up tonight.”

Grace Fincham had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds for West High, which was 7-of-10 from 3-point range in the second half and 11-of-29 from beyond the arc for the game.

“We moved the ball better and we were moving better off the ball,” Baldwin said. “We did a great job of keeping our heads up and finding the open person.”

Lower had 20 points and 12 rebounds for Clear Creek Amana while Kennedy Stratton had 15 points and Lena Evans had 12 for the Clippers.

West High                              15  10  13  23  –  61

Clear Creek Amana            15  13  16  13  –  57   

West High (61) – Ava Frese 4-8 0-2 11, Kate Van Waning 2-5 0-0 6, Abby Neumiller 2-4 2-2 6, Elle Barnett 0-5 2-2 2, Grace Fincham 4-15 3-6 11, Lauryn Hynek 1-2 0-0 2, Sasha Baldwin 7-13 3-4 23, Totals 20-52 10-16 61.

Clear Creek Amana (57) – Alex Schrage 0-1 0-0 0, Averie Lower 8-16 1-1 20, Lena Evans 4-9 4-4 12, Kennedy Stratton 7-16 0-0 15, Nakia Tangang 0-1 0-0 0, Brooklyn Lee 2-5 0-0 6, Kelsey Leathers 2-3 0-0 4, Bailey Simpson 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 23-52 5-5 57.

3-point field goals – Clear Creek Amana 6-17 (Lower 3-7, Stratton 1-2, Evans 0-3, Lee 2-5), West High 11-29 (Frese 3-6, Van Waning 2-4, Barnett 0-4, Fincham 0-4, Baldwin 6-11). Rebounds – Clear Creek Amana 34 (Lower 12), West High 32 (Fincham 12). Total fouls – Clear Creek Amana 15, West High 11. Turnovers – Clear Creek Amana 13, West High 11. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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