Clarke girls drop heartbreaker

OSCEOLA — To the game's final play, Mount Ayr produced a hectic effort of which every bit was needed to knock off Clarke on the road 52-51 on Monday.

"They didn’t give up at the end," Clarke coach Christa Subbert said after the completion of her first home game. "They executed until the end of the game. We threw in some stuff during timeouts and they adjusted to that too."

Mount Ayr improved to 2-0 due to late-game heroics and thanks largely to Keirston Klommhaus' ability to get to the rim. She slashed to the bucket repeatedly for her team-high 23 points to overcome a 23-point effort from Clarke's Deseree Stubbe.

Stubbe's hereculean effort slowed down in the fourth quarter.

“They (Mount Ayr) zoned on her a little bit more … She’s a good player. She’ll make shots," Subbert said.

Klommhaus notched the last bucket of the third quarter to pull Mount Ayr back within five, 42-37 after Clarke had mounted a run.

Klommhaus then scored Mount Ayr's next four buckets to start the fourth quarter, compared to just one bucket for Clarke in that span (a Megan Linskens 3-pointer as she scored 13 points), to give the Raiderettes a 48-44 lead.

The two tussled for advantage at the end, and Klommhaus' two free throws with under thirty seconds remaining pushed Mount Ayr's advantage to 52-48.

A Sarah Davis 3-pointer pulled it to one at 52-51, but the Raiderettes defended Stubbe well on the final Clarke possession to prevent a clean shot and preserve the win.

Things got off to a much more rocky start for the visitors to start the evening.

Clarke jumped out to a 6-0 lead to start the game and Mount Ayr did not score until more than four minutes of gameplay had elapsed.

“We put a lot of pressure on them to start with," Subbert said. "We missed a lot of layups that first quarter. We should have been up 12-0, but we  were up 6-0.”

Despite scoring just six points, Ashlynn Oehlert put up a gaudy statline of 13 rebounds, seven steals and seven assists.

UP NEXT — Clarke plays host to Chariton on Friday.

MA (54) — 12 18 10 12

Cl (53) — 13 14 15 9

MA (FG FT PTS) — Totals — 21 7-11 52. Keirston Klommhaus 9 4-6 23, Caylie Hickman 4 0-2 10, Jaycee Knight 4 2-2 10, Abbey Schafer 2 1-1 5, Sara Winemiller 2 0-0 4. 3-point goals — 3 (Hickman 2, Kloimmhaus 1). Assists — 10 (Paige Lynch 4, Knight 3, Hickman 3),. Rebounds — 33 (Hickman 7, Knight 7, Lynch 5, Klommhaus 5, Schafer 4, Winemiller 3). Steals — 10 (Hickman 3, Klommhaus 2, Knight 2, Winemiller 2). Team fouls — 12. Fouled out — None.

Cl (FG FT PTS) — Totals — 19 5-8 51. Deseree Stubbe 9 2-3 23, Megan Linskens 5 2-2 13, Sarah Davis 2 0-0 6, Ashlynn Oehlert 2 0-1 6, CeJay Blakely 1 0-0 2, Kaitlyn Halsband 0 1-2 1. 3-point goals — 8 (Stubbe 3, Davis 2, Oehlert 2). Assists — 16 (Oehlert 7, Linskens 5). Rebounds — 30 (Oehlert 13, Stubbe 6, Blakely 5). Steals 13 — (Oehlert 7). Team fouls — 13. Fouled out — Hickman.