I-35 slips past Indians twice
The Clarke and Interstate 35 girls' basketball teams played two games in three days last week and the end result was the same both times - hard-fought wins for the Roadrunners on their home court.
The second of the two games meant a little more, as the teams met Saturday afternoon in a Class 2A Regional first-round contest.
The game was slated to begin at 7 p.m., but was moved up to 4 p.m. because of weather concerns.
The Indians led for much of the first half and took a 24-22 lead into halftime. The Roadrunners rallied to take a 33-30 lead into the final quarter. I-35 never gave up the lead in the final period, but the Indians never let them pull away.
The Roadrunners closed out their first postseason victory since 2005 with 6-for-6 shooting from the free throw line in the final minute.
"This was another big win for the program," I-35 Coach Jamie Smith said. "It has been a while since we won a first-round tournament game."
Tess Brownlee and Allison Seibert had 15 points each to lead I-35. Olivia Sulentic added seven, Kelsey Bregar had six and Savanna Oakes added four.
Kacey Klemesrud and Kylar McCann led Clarke with eight points each, Josey Ellis added seven, Breanna O'Tool and Ariel Perry each scored six and Haley Lewin added five.
"I thought we did a better job covering up Ellis and Klemesrud this game, as they only combined for 15 compared to 27 the first game," Smith said.
Clarke finished the season at 3-18, while the Roadrunners improved to 12-8 and met Central Decatur Tuesday night in Leon in a Regional Quarterfinal. Results of that game will be in next week's paper.
The Indians will need to replace five seniors who saw a lot of varsity action the past few seasons — Ellis, Lewis, Chelsey Green, Jenifer Shields and Tesia Posekany.
In the game between the same two teams Thursday at Truro, the Indians led the entire game until Sulentic hit a 3-pointer with 1:05 left in the game for a 38-37 I-35 lead. After a pair of Brownlee free throws made it 40-37, Sulentic came up big again with a steal and one free throw with 19 seconds left, for a 41-37 lead.
Clarke's McCann quickly scored on a lay-up to cut the lead in half, but Sulentic hit another free throw with eight seconds left to make it a three-point game again. O'Tool scored for Clarke with just one second remaining to make it a 42-41 game. But after a quick Clarke foul, I-35's Oakes made one of two free throws for the thrilling 43-41 victory.
Seibert led I-35 with 16 points and five steals, while Sulentic finished with nine points, five rebounds and three steals. Oakes added seven points and seven rebounds, while Brownlee had six points and four steals.
The Indians were paced by Ellis with 15 points, six rebounds and three assists. Klemesrud added 12 points and McCann finished with six points and eight rebounds.
I-35 finished 8-7 in the Pride of Iowa Conference with a 51-29 loss at Class 1A top-ranked Martensdale-St. Marys on Feb. 9.
