Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – With five games in seven days there is bound to be some sore muscles and weary legs among the members of Clear Creek Amana girls basketball team by Thursday evening.

There will be a bunch of smiles among the Clippers as well.

After weather-related postponements limited the Clippers to one game over the final two plus weeks of January a week filled almost exclusively with game action was a welcome sight.

“We were getting tired of so much practice so we were super excited when we saw that we had five games in a week,” Clear Creek Amana senior Karsyn Stratton said. “We love it. Coach doesn’t but we do.”

The busy stretch for Clear Creek Amana got even more enjoyable on Monday.

Following back-to-back losses on Friday and Saturday the Clippers got back on track with a 72-22 win over Independence in a WAMAC West Division makeup game on Monday in Tiffin.

Clear Creek Amana improved to 10-7 with the win and wraps up its busy week with home games against Benton Community on Tuesday and West Delaware on Thursday.

“I told them it’s kind of like the NBA type of schedule where you are playing four or five days a week with maybe one practice in there,” Clear Creek Amana coach PJ Sweeney said. “As a player they are enjoying this kind of rolling out the balls and playing but as a coach you want them in the gym a little bit to work on some things. We had a tough stretch the last few days so these next three games are very important going into the postseason.”

Stratton poured in a game-high 29 points and freshman Calia Clubb had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds on Monday as the Clippers began what they hope is a late-season push.

“It felt really good because we had a couple of tough losses these last two nights,” Clubb said. “It felt really good to have some success tonight.”

Clear Creek Amana had lost three of four before its win on Monday.

The Clippers already own a 61-35 win over Benton Community this season and West Delaware has just three wins on the year.

Following Thursday’s regular season finale Clear Creek Amana has nearly a week to prep for its 4A regional opener against Mount Pleasant.

“We are trying to start getting on a roll going into the postseason,” Stratton said. “We feel like we have a pretty good chance to win all three games this week. Then take some time to get ready for Regionals.”

It took a little time for the Clippers to get in gear on Monday.

Clear Creek Amana trailed 8-2 five minutes into the game and needed a Stratton bucket with two seconds left in the opening quarter to take a 13-12 lead after eight minutes.

It was all Clippers the rest of the way.

Stratton scored the first five points of the second quarter as Clear Creek Amana used an 7-0 run to take a 20-12 lead.

The Clippers built the lead to 29-15 by halftime.

“We were really slow offensively to start,” Stratton said. “We didn’t have practice yesterday so we just had to slow down and get in our groove a little bit.”

Clear Creek Amana put the game away quickly in the second half opening the third quarter with a 16-0 run.

Stratton scored 17 points in the quarter as the Clippers ballooned the lead to 57-20.

“To just feel good and be able to score points and play good defense was important,” Stratton said. “Hopefully we can keep it going starting tomorrow.”

Clear Creek Amana            13  16  28  15  –  72

Independence                     12   3    5    2   –  22

Clear Creek Amana (72) – Whitney Traetow 3-6 0-0 7, Calia Clubb 5-9 3-4 13, Jordan Neely 1-3 0-0 2, Lydia Banwart 0-0 0-1 0, Allie Rummelhart 2-4 0-0 4, Gracie Downes 1-3 0-2 2, Karsyn Stratton 12-19 5-8 29, Meagan Harvey 2-7 0-0 4, Emily Sly 2-3 5-6 9, Gabrielle Bedford 1-1 0-0 2, Grace Stewart 0-1 0-0 0, Morgan Etscheidt 0-2 0-0 0, Totals 29-58 13-21 72.

Independence (22) – Alaina Butters 0-4 0-0 0, Nicole Higgins 0-5 3-4 3, Anna Ruffcorn 1-11 2-2 5, Taylor Wendt 4-8 0-0 8, Sophie Wolf 1-4 0-0 2, Reese Martin 1-5 1-2 4, Madelyn Hunter 0-1 0-0 0, Courtney Rouse 0-0 0-1 0, Totals 7-38 6-9 22.

3-point field goals – CCA 1-6 (Traetow 1-2, Neely 0-1, Stratton 0-1, Harvey 0-2), IND 2-13 (Higgins 0-3, Ruffcorn 1-4, Wolf 0-1, Martin 1-4, Hunter 0-1). Rebounds – CCA 40 (Clubb 12), IND 29 (Wendt 7). Turnovers – CCA 9, IND 28. Total fouls – CCA 15, IND 13. Fouled out – CCA (Etscheidt), IND (Wendt). Technical fouls – None.

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