Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Top-ranked Clear Creek Amana hadn’t been tested often in a stretch of 13 consecutive wins to open the season.

Class 3A fifth-ranked Williamsburg handed Clear Creek Amana a rare 32-minute test on Tuesday and the Clippers aced it late.

Clear Creek Amana overcame early hot shooting from Williamsburg and surged past the Raiders late for a 70-67 win in a top-five WAMAC West Division showdown in Tiffin.

“We haven’t been in these situations a lot but we kept calm,” Clear Creek Amana senior guard Kennedy Stratton said. “We remind everyone we are a team and we win or lose together. We kept calm, we knew what we had to do and we put our skills to work because we know we are the better team.”

Seniors Lena Evans, Stratton and Averie Lower combined for 63 of the Clippers’ 70 points, including 19 in the fourth quarter, as Clear Creek Amana improved to 15-0.

In a season filled with double-digit wins it wasn’t easy for the Clippers on Tuesday.

Williamsburg (11-5) made nine first-half 3-pointers while taking a 34-26 halftime lead and led by as many as 10 in the third quarter.

Clear Creek Amana stormed back.

“If you are close enough to our bench during games like this you will hear me say ‘finish’ and we talk about that every day,” Clear Creek Amana head coach Matt Hoeppner said. “Some of it may be cliché but when all of a sudden your defense isn’t there and the other team is unloading from 3 when they haven’t done for that for a while what are you going to do and how are you going to respond and they responded tonight and it’s a testament to our kids.”

Clear Creek Amana trailed 50-46 after three quarters but took its first lead since the opening two minutes with a 10-2 run to open the fourth quarter.

Stratton started the run that was capped a Lower 3-pointer that put the Clippers up 56-52 with 6:33 remaining.

“I feel like all the good teams always come out and make a lot of shots against us,” Evan said. “We know we are going to get everyone’s best shot.”

Williamsburg rallied twice to take the lead in the final six minutes.

The Raiders used a 6-0 run to take a 58-56 lead and after Clear Creek Amana scored 10 of the next 12 points to go up 66-60 Williamsburg scored seven straight points to take a 67-66 lead with 1:05 remaining.

Clear Creek Amana had the final run, a 4-0 spurt to close the game.

Evans hit a go-ahead baseline jumper with 42 seconds left and Clear Creek Amana forced a pair of turnovers in the final minute to secure the win.

“We got into a little bit of foul trouble so we had to try to pick our spots on when to go after them on defense but that was huge,” Hoeppner said. “We were able to switch up the defense a little at the end that led to some turnovers and was huge for us.”

Evans had nine of her game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter.

“It’s a great win for us, it’s a rival and we were down for a lot of the game,” Evans said. “Coming out the second half and pulling out the win in a tough game like this means a lot.”

Stratton provided a boost offensively for Clear Creek Amana, scoring 14 of her 21 points in the second half.

The senior point guard hit a pair of fourth-quarter 3-pointers that keyed Clipper runs.

“I have been a lot more confident this year for sure,” Stratton said. “We have Lena and Averie, two outstanding players but if they were going to give me some space I was going to make them regret it because I knew I had the ability to shoot it.”

Lower added 18 points and six rebounds for Clear Creek Amana which completed the season sweep of Williamsburg after winning 60-48 at Williamsburg in December.

Tuesday’s win was just the second game of the season decided by single digits for the Clippers, the other a 62-57 win at Cedar Rapids Prairie on January 10.

“This is amazing,” Stratton said. “Coming back to beat them a second time and setting ourselves up to possibly get a conference championship that’s awesome.”

Kennedy Skaggs had 18 points to lead Williamsburg as the Raiders finished 12-of-23 from 3-point range.

Zoe Allen had 16 points, Taylor Sanchez 15 and Channing Becker 11 for Williamsburg.

Williamsburg                         20  14  16  17  –  67

Clear Creek Amana             15  11  20  24  –  70

Williamsburg (67) – Kylee Suhr 1-4 1-2 3, Channing Becker 3-5 2-3 11, Zoe Allen 7-13 2-2 16, Ava Hocker 2-6 0-2 4, Taylor Sanchez 5-10 1-2 15, Kennedy Skaggs 6-7 1-2 18, Totals 24-45 7-13 67.

Clear Creek Amana (70) – Averie Lower 5-11 5-7 19, Lena Evans 10-20 3-3 23, Kennedy Stratton 8-10 1-2 21, Brooklyn Lee 1-2 0-0 2, Lydia Keller 1-6 0-0 2, Bailey Simpson 0-1 3-4 3, Totals 25-50 12-16 70.

3-point field goal – WIL 12-23 (Allen 0-1, Becker 3-5, Hocker 0-2, Sanchez 4-9, Skaggs 5-6), CCA 8-23 (Lower 4-10, Evans 0-2, Stratton 4-6, Lee 0-1, Keller 0-4).  Rebounds – WIL 28 (Allen 10), CCA 25 (Lower 6, Evans 6). Turnovers – WIL 19, CCA 12. Total fouls – WIL 16, CCA 16. Fouled out – CCA (Evans, Stratton). Technical fouls – None.

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