Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DEWITT – The Region 4 championship between Central DeWitt and Clear Creek Amana matched the two most prolific 3-point shooting teams in Class 4A.

The difference on Tuesday was the Sabers ability to dial it in from deep.

Class 4A fifth-ranked Central DeWitt drilled 11 3-pointers on its way to a 76-63 win over No. 12 Clear Creek Amana in the regional title game in DeWitt.

The win sends Central DeWitt to the state tournament for the first time since 2022 where it will face Norwalk (22-1) in a 4A quarterfinal on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

Last year 4A state champion Clear Creek Amana closed the season 15-8.

“What it comes down to is they shot the ball extremely well,” Clear Creek Amana coach PJ Sweeney said. “You talk about answering the bell, every single time we’d make a run and we’d get it down to single digits, they’d hit a big three. Every time. I lost track of how many they hit.”

Central DeWitt senior guard Lauren Walker made four 3-pointers on her way to a game-high 37 points.

Three other Sabers hit at least two 3-pointers as Central DeWitt shot 45 percent from the floor on Tuesday including 11-of-23 from beyond the 3-point line.

“They had a great crowd, it was a great atmosphere, it was loud and our girls responded but at the end of the day they just shot the ball extremely well,” Sweeney said. “Walker hit some pretty tough shots where we defended her well but she made tough shots and some other girls stepped up with her.”

Clear Creek Amana hung tough early.

The Clippers led 11-8 midway through the opening quarter after a 3-pointer by junior guard Brooklyn Lee.

“I told the girls the first four minutes was going to be the most critical of the game,” Sweeney said. “We had to handle that first haymaker and stay in it and I think we did that.”

Clear Creek Amana, which entered the game leading 4A with 8.3 made 3-pointers per game, had a pair of triples in the opening period and trailed just 20-14 after eight minutes.

However, the Clippers missed all four 3-point attempts and were just 3-of-11 from the field in the second quarter as Central DeWitt built a 37-23 halftime lead it would never give up.

Clear Creek Amana was just 3-of-17 from deep over the final three quarters.

“There are a lot of similarities between their team and our team, they play four guards, we play four guards, they rely on the three, we rely on the three,” Sweeney said. “At the end of the day they just made a few more shots than us and we couldn’t get the stops when we needed to.”

Clear Creek Amana cut the lead to eight on a Lee 3-pointer with 2:13 remaining in the third quarter but Ava Putman hit a 3-pointer 30 seconds later and the Clippers never got closer than nine points the rest of the game.

Junior Lena Evans had 21 points and 10 rebounds for Clear Creek Amana while Lee finished with 13 points.

Junior Averie Lower had 11 points and 12 rebounds for the Clippers which shot 40 percent from the floor.

“It’s all about the experiences and sometimes you have to learn to crawl before you can walk,” Sweeney said. “When we are in that situation hopefully next year we are more prepared for it because all these players have seen it. We return everybody expect Kelsey (Leathers) and Kelsey was a big part of us but we return 14 of 15 kids. This stinks right now but let it fuel the fire a little bit.”

Clear Creek Amana              16   7   21  19  –  63

Central DeWitt                     20  17  18  21  –  76

Clear Creek Amana (63) – Alex Schrage 1-1 0-0 2, Carley Nash 0-1 0-0 0, Kendyl Malli 1-1 0-0 2, Averie Lower 5-19 0-0 11, Lena Evans 10-20 1-3 21, Kennedy Stratton 2-6 0-2 5, Nakia Tangang 3-4 2-4 8, Brooklyn Lee 5-15 0-0 13, Kelsey Leathers 0-1 1-2 1, Totals 27-68 4-11 63.

Central DeWitt (76) – Kinley Birt 1-4 0-2 2, Landre Ruggeberg 5-6 3-4 15, Ava Putman 2-8 3-4 9, Hailee Peters 0-1 0-0 0, Clara LeConte 3-8 0-0 9, Lauren Walker 11-23 11-12 37, Audey Fuglsang 2-3 0-0 4, Totals 24-53 17-22 76.

3-point field goals – Central DeWitt 11-23 (Birt 0-1, Ruggeberg 2-3, Putman 2-4, Walker 4-8, LeConte 3-6, Peters 0-1), Clear Creek Amana 5-26 (Lower 1-11, Evans 0-1, Stratton 1-2, Lee 3-12). Rebounds – Central DeWitt 34 (Walker 6, Fuglsang 6), Clear Creek Amana 44 (Lower 12). Total fouls – Central DeWitt 10, Clear Creek Amana 20. Turnovers – Central DeWitt 12, Clear Creek Amana 11. Fouled out – Clear Creek Amana (Stratton, Schrage). Technical fouls – None.

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