Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – The turnaround from a Friday night game to a Saturday afternoon contest can be quick.

After a 10-point loss to rival Solon on Friday night the chance to get back on the court couldn’t come fast enough for Clear Creek Amana.

The Clippers wasted no time making amends for Friday’s loss in an impressive 65-42 win at Liberty High in a non-conference matinee in North Liberty.

“We wanted to get back on the court and lace them up for sure,” Clear Creek Amana senior Brody Clubb said. “That was kind of the pre-game speech is we had another chance to lace them up 13 hours later and we had to make sure we learned something from last night and it turned out well for us.”

Clear Creek Amana (1-2) never trailed on Saturday, racing to a 21-4 first-quarter lead and cruising to its first win of the season after opening with consecutive losses to West High and Solon.

Solon outrebounded Clear Creek Amana by nine in a 57-47 win over the Clippers on Friday.

The emphasis for the Clippers on Saturday was energy and it was evident early.

“(Solon) has a lot of great athletes and they were more physical than us and we talked post-game that we can let that happen,” Clubb said. “This is a tough stretch, we have some MVC schools so every game win or lose we have to learn from and we had to bounce back today for sure.”

Robert Meade had a game-high 21 points and 11 rebounds and Clubb added 12 points and four boards as Clear Creek Amana put an emphasis on pounding the ball into the paint.

Meade had 11 of his game-high 21 in the first quarter and Clubb had four points in the opening quarter as the Clippers took control of the game.

“I thought we could score inside on them with some of the matchups that we had,” Clear Creek Amana coach Brandon Clubb said. “We’ve struggled to shoot from 3 and we made it an area of emphasis today that we were scoring inside. If we aren’t making jump shots that’s fine but let’s embrace what we’ve got and we’ve got two big guys that can put it in.”

Clear Creek Amana scored the first six points of the game and led 8-4 with under three minutes to play in the opening quarter.

The Clippers scored 13 points in the final 2:58 of the first quarter with nine points coming from Meade, all on baskets in the paint or free throws.

“We just wanted it, I think it was obvious,” Meade said. “We wanted to play and we played today.”

Clear Creek Amana pushed the lead to 26-4 on a bucket by Clubb with 6:16 left in the first half and scored the final six points of the half to take a 36-14 halftime lead.

The Clippers shot 51 percent from the field and outscored Liberty High 10-4 at the free throw line.

“We didn’t want to lose those two games but something had to change after that,” Meade said. “Today we showed up and made it happen.”

Clear Creek Amana limited Liberty High to 31 percent shooting from the floor, including 2-of-30 from 3-point range and forced the Lightning in 25 turnovers.

Jerimiah Washpun had 14 points to lead the Lightning and Rylen Schweitzer had 11 points.

“I was really happy with how they came out, effort was a lot better, we stayed connected, we used defense to create offense and we attacked more,” Brandon Clubb said. “Last night we were back on our heels and letting them dictate the game and that’s not how we should play.”

Clear Creek Amana              21  15   9   20  –  65

Liberty High                           4   10  16  12  –  42

Clear Creek Amana (65) – Hayden Umoren 3-5 0-0 6, Reece Cochran 2-3 0-1 5, Cale Berry 3-5 3-6 9, Brock Hilsman 2-10 1-2 6, Beckett Boeset 1-2 1-2 4, Robert Meade 9-15 3-5 21, Owen Rosenberg 1-2 0-0 2, Brody Clubb 5-9 2-3 12, Totals 26-51 10-19 65.

Liberty High (42) – Jerimiah Washpun 7-19 0-1 14, Maddoc Coapstick 0-5 0-0 0, Collin Decker 3-11 2-2 8, Brady Randall 3-10 0-0 7, Cale Baldwin 1-4 0-0 2, Rylen Schweitzer 4-6 2-2 11, Reece Rettig 0-1 0-0 0, Keshawn Wyldon 0-0 0-0 0, Peyton Brooks 0-3 0-0 0, Totals 18-59 4-5 42.

3-point field goals – Clear Creek Amana 3-10 (Cochran 1-2, Hilsman 1-4, Boeset 1-1, Clubb 0-3), Liberty High (Washpun 0-7, Coapstick 0-2, Decker 0-6, Randall 1-6, Baldwin 0-3, Schweitzer 1-3, Rettig 0-1, Brooks 0-2). Rebounds – Clear Creek Amana 34 (Meade 11), Liberty High 34 (Washpun 7). Total fouls – Clear Creek Amana 11, Liberty High 21. Turnovers – Clear Creek Amana 22, Liberty High 25. Fouled out – Liberty High (Wyldon, Washpun, Coapstick). Technical fouls – Liberty High (Wyldon).

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