Susan Harman

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Clinton High scrapped and contested and kept firing shots in the second half of its Class 4A Regional Final against No. 4 Clear Creek Amana.

For those not looking at the scoreboard, it seemed like the River Queens were getting close in the fourth quarter and were putting pressure on the favored Clippers.

CCA had two senior starters on the bench for nearly a quarter with four fouls, including second-leading scorer Lena Evans and sparkplug guard Kennedy Stratton.

“Obviously foul trouble is not what we want to do, but when we get into it we just have to rely on other people,” Stratton said. “(Alli Haskell) stepped up on their team; you have to respect that. They hustled; they never gave up. They gave it their best shot.”

But if you did look at the scoreboard you saw that Clear Creek Amana was never in any danger despite being outscored in the final quarter.

That’s because the Clippers were supernatural in the first half and built a lead to withstand whatever the plucky River Queens could dish out.

Clear Creek Amana advanced to the state tournament with a solid, 72-56 victory over 15^th-ranked Clinton (15-9).

The Clippers (20-2) will play Carlisle (23-1) in a quarterfinal on Tuesday at the Casey’s Center in Des Moines.

The first quarter was indicative of what was in store as the Clippers built a 27-10 lead.

Clear Creek Amana scored in 11 of its 16 possessions, committed only one turnover, and star Averie Lower scored 16.

At the other end Clinton made five baskets and committed five turnovers.

Clear Creek Amana led 45-28 at halftime after making 9-of-13 2-point shots and 8-of-15 3-point shots.

Lower had 23 points and made 5-of-8 threes.

She finished with a game-high 37.

At half Evans had 12, making 5-of-7 shots, and finished with 16.

“Just sharing the ball. That one extra pass, the threes were going in, and we were cutting well,” Stratton said. “I think it’s just the fact that we’re unselfish. We want everybody to participate.”

“Clear Creek Amana is an amazing team,” Clinton coach Cathy Marx said. “They have great leadership, and they’re solid from top to bottom. And Lower comes out and drains, drains, drains, drains, drains. We don’t have that kind of shooter.”

Evans was all over the court when she wasn’t forced to watch from the bench.

She disrupted the feeds to Clinton’s senior post Aubrey Fergurson and hustled to slap loose balls off opposing players.

“I feel as I’ve grown up I’ve kind of been all over the place,” Evans said. “Our defense is made for other people to give help. That frees me up to see the floor more.”

With sophomore star Jhaliana Guy (24.4 ppg, 87 3-pointers) out with a hamstring injury, Clinton concentrated on getting the ball inside to Fergurson early.

The Clippers were ready.

“That was on our scouting report, blocking out their post,” Evans said.

“We knew coming in that (Fergurson) was going to be an issue. That was one of our focuses,” Stratton said. “We knew she could score a lot of points.”

“We worked a lot on that in practice, dropping and making sure we had good help,” Lower said.

Fergurson led the River Queens with 17 hard-earned points.

“Those senior post players, Carryn Sattler and Aubrey Fergurson, I’ve never seen Sattler tired before. She gave her all,” Marx said. “I’m super proud of them.”

But the Clippers forced 21 turnovers, many of them from unsuccessful post feeds.

“Defense was an emphasis for us tonight, and I think that led to a lot of our offense,” Lower said. “That’s a whole team effort. If one person is slacking on D then it all goes downhill. That’s how you know we were all on board tonight.”

Clear Creek Amana  won the Class 4A title in 2024. Lower was asked what this team had to do to be a contender this year.

“Work our butts off in practice; know what we need to do; never underestimate a team,” she said.

And all be on board.

Clinton                       10   18   10   18  –  56

Clear Creek Amana  27   18   15   12  –  72

Clinton (56) – Olivia Schneeberger 0-1 0-0 0, Alli Haskell 5-8 0-1 12, Lilly Hankins 3-72-4 9, Carryn Sattler 4-8 0-0 8, Aubrey Fergurson 4-10 9-14 17, Mady MacAvoy 4-8 0-2 10, Samantha Powell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-42 11-21.

Clear Creek Amana (72) – Alex Schrage 0-1 0-2 0, Averie Lower 15-22 1-1 37, Lena Evans 7-101-2 16, Kennedy Stratton 3-9 1-2 8, Lydia Keller 3-6 0-08, Nakia Tangang 0-0 0-0 0, Brooklyn Lee 0-2 0-0 0, Bailey Simpson 0-1 0-0 0, Zella Evans 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 28-55 3-7.

Three-point goals – Clinton (5-11) Schneeberger 0-1, Haskell 2-3, Hankins 1-2, Sattler 0-1, MacAvoy 2-4; CCA (11-28) Schrage 0-1, Lower 7-12, L. Evans 1-2, Stratton 1-4, Keller 2-4, Lee 0-2, Z. Evans 0-3. Total Fouls – Clinton 9, CCA 18. Fouled out – Clinton (MacAvoy). Technical fouls – None.

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