Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – Davenport Assumption staggered Clear Creek Amana early with an 18-0 first-half run and eventually knocked the Clippers out of the Class 3A, Substate 3 tournament with a 63-46 win on Monday.

The Clippers certainly didn’t go down without a fight.

Clear Creek Amana cut a 17-point second-half deficit to as little as four in the third quarter but could get no closer in a season-ending loss to the Knights at Cedar Rapids Xavier.

“We made a great run and that’s how we were trying to get them to play the whole game,” Clear Creek Amana coach Brandon Clubb said. “Unfortunately it didn’t happen and a team that is as good as them it might not have mattered anyways but we loved to see that fight, we made a run and that’s all we could ask for.”

Davenport Assumption (14-8) got 26 points from Sean Peeters and 16 points and 13 rebounds from Dylan Peeters while advancing to face Cedar Rapids Xavier in the Substate 3 semifinals on Thursday.

Clear Creek Amana closed the season 11-9, matching the win total from the previous two seasons combined.

“The way we are playing, the way we are defending and how we are scoring the ball it’s encouraging going into next season,” Clubb said. “We feel like we are on a level playing field with a lot of teams we play and we couldn’t say that a few years ago so we are moving in the right direction.”

An 18-0 run by Assumption in the first half proved too much for the Clippers to overcome on Monday.

The run spanned more than seven minutes over the end of the first and start of the second quarter and turned a two-point Knight lead into a 28-8 advantage.

Clear Creek Amana shot 16 percent in the first half, including 1-of-14 in the second quarter while falling into a 29-13 halftime hole.

“I think that was maybe in the back of our head our first half is that we were playing against some longer kids that had some blocked shots and we kind of second guessed ourselves,” Clubb said. “I think that probably contributed to the way we shot.”

Assumption pushed the lead to 17 on a Sean Peeters 3-pointer with 5:03 left in the third quarter before the Clippers mounted a rally.

Clear Creek Amana rattled off 12 unanswered points to trim the lead to 34-29 and cut the margin to 36-32 on a conventional 3-point play by Christian Withrow.

“You knew they weren’t going to just fold,” Assumption coach Matt Fitzpatrick said. “We talked about that and I thought our guys did a good job of we kind of bent a little bit but we didn’t break.”

The Knights responded by scoring the final seven points of the third quarter, a run that started with a 3-pointer by sophomore Logan Ehrecke and closed with a layup by Sean Peeters.

“We got a couple of stops and we kind of composed ourselves and we were able to get a couple of made buckets,” Fitzpatrick said. “Sean Peeters had a really, really nice night when we needed a bucket it seemed like he came up with one.”

Clear Creek Amana would get no closer than 11 the rest of the way.

Withrow led Clear Creek Amana with 13 points while sophomore TJ Bollers had 12 points and nine rebounds.

Clear Creek Amana               8    5   19  14  –  46

Davenport Assumption        17  12  14  20  –  63

Clear Creek Amana (46) – Kaden McAreavy 1-3 0-0 2, Brock Reade 0-1 1-2 1, Nolan Schwarting 2-11 0-0 8, Nick O’Connor 1-4 0-0 2, Tyler Schrepfer 3-9 0-0 8, Christian Withrow 5-17 3-4 13, T.J. Bollers 3-7 6-10 12, Totals 15-52 12-19 46.

Davenport Assumption (63) – Ray Kotula 1-4 2-2 4, Dylan Peeters 5-14 6-9 16, Grayson Heiser 0-2 1-2 1, Logan Ehrecke 2-2 0-0 5, Anthony Valainis 4-7 1-1 9, Sean Peeters 12-23 0-1 26, J.J. Stratman 1-1 0-0 2, Totals 25-53 10-15 63.

3-point field goals – CCA 4-15 (Schwarting 2-8, O’Connor 0-2, Schrepfer 2-5), DA 3-15 (Kotula 0-2, D. Peeters 0-4, Heiser 0-2, Ehrecke 1-1, S. Peeters 2-6). Rebounds – CCA 39 (Bollers 9), DA 35 (D. Peeters 13). Turnovers – CCA 16, DA 10. Total fouls – CCA 13, DA 16. Fouled out – DA (Valainis). Technical fouls – None.

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by becoming a member.