Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Building leads wasn’t a problem for Clear Creek Amana in its first two games of the season.

It was holding on to those leads late that proved problematic for the Clippers during an 0-2 start to the season.

In Friday’s WAMAC cross-divisional matchup with Solon once the Clippers gained control they made sure they didn’t let go.

Averie Lower had a 20-point, 11-rebound double-double and Lena Evans added 17 points as Class 4A ninth-ranked Clear Creek Amana fended off Solon (1-2) in a meeting of defending state champs in Solon.

“Those two losses gave us extra motivation to finish it tonight because it sucks losing,” Lower said. “We were able to figure some things out tonight to close the game out.”

Clear Creek Amana (1-2) saw late leads slip away in a season-opening loss to 4A sixth-ranked Maquoketa and 5A No. 13 West High.

The Clippers allowed 63 and 61 points in those losses and gave up 23 fourth-quarter points in the home loss to West High on Tuesday.

After allowing 19 points through the first 11 minutes on Friday Clear Creek Amana limited Solon to just 26 points over the final 21 minutes.

“My message at halftime was we’ve been in this situation before previous two games and we know how those went and sometimes that’s how you learn,” Clear Creek Amana coach PJ Sweeney said. “If we keep teams under 50 points we are going to win a lot of games. For us it’s all about getting the stops and tonight we got enough stops late.”

Clear Creek Amana took control of the game late in the opening half.

Lower scored 11 of her 20 points during a 15-0 Clipper run that snapped a 19-all tie and spanned the final 4:30 of the second quarter.

“My teammates did a really great job of screening for me,” Lower said. “They were switching and my teammates know to roll if they switch and that is where a lot of our baskets came from.”

Clear Creek Amana led 34-19 at the half and pushed the lead to 45-28 with a 6-0 burst late in the third quarter.

Evans had four points during the 6-0 run that pushed the margin to 45-28.

“All the teams we’ve played we were up in the first half and lost the lead in the second half and we learned our lesson,” Evans said. “Tonight we kept our minds in the game and we kept the lead.”

Clear Creek Amana took its biggest lead of the game at 50-30 on a Nakia Tangang bucket in the paint with 6:57 to play.

Solon responded to cut the lead to 11 on a 3-pointer by freshman Beckett Kruse with 3:46 remaining.

“I told our kids in the locker room that this game was on its way to a 30-point game and we came back and almost cut it to single digits,” Solon coach Jamie Smith said. “I thought we busted our butts. We were playing that box and one to start the game and that wore us out but I couldn’t be more proud of our kids’ effort.”

Clear Creek Amana used its 1-3-1 defense to hold Solon to 35 percent shooting and forced the Spartans into 19 turnovers.

Delainey Durr led Solon with 20 points of 6-of-13 shooting from 3-point range and Kruse added 11 points and nine rebounds.

“We made enough stops at the end,” Sweeney said. “Durr was really hurting us, she was hitting some deep threes and Beckett (Kruse) was hurting us a little in the post but once we started taking away those two we made things difficult.”

Solon                                      12   7  11  17  –  45    

Clear Creek Amana          15  19  11 14  –  59

Solon (45) – Kobi Lietz 2-9 1-2 5, Delainey Durr 7-19 0-0 20, Laney Johnson 2-5 0-0 5, Laeni Hinkle 0-2 0-0 0, Jerzey Haluska 1-5 2-2 4, Beckett Kruse 5-9 0-0 11, Totals 17-49 3-4 45.

Clear Creek Amana (59) – Averie Lower 8-15 2-2 20, Lena Evans 6-17 2-2 17, Kennedy Stratton 3-11 0-0 6, Nakia Tangang 2-3 0-0 4, Brooklyn Lee 1-5 0-0 3, Kelsey Leathers 4-5 1-2 9, Totals 24-56 5-6 59.

3-point field goals – Solon 8-27 (Lietz 0-3, Durr 6-13, Johnson 1-4, Hinkle 0-1, Haluska 0-4, Kruse 1-2), Clear Creek Amana 6-24 (Lower 2-8, Evans 3-10, Stratton 0-2, Lee 1-4). Rebounds – Solon 33 (Kruse 9), Clear Creek Amana 31 (Lower 11). Total fouls – Solon 12, Clear Creek Amana 7. Turnovers – Solon 19, Clear Creek Amana 17. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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