Creston offense comes alive against Clarke

OSCEOLA – Clarke fell 71-26 to a strong and athletic Creston team Monday night, moving to 1-12 on the season.

The Panthers opened up the game with a press defense that gave Clarke trouble. The Lady Indians struggled to get the ball past half court during their first four possessions before Clarke head coach Christa Subbert called a timeout to draw a play to break the press.

“We expect a press every game,” said Subbert. “We have some trouble taking care of the ball, so we expect press every game. We worked on it, but we still have our struggles.”

Creston rolled during the first quarter, starting the game on a 21-2 run, finishing the first quarter up 33-4. Kaitlyn Halsband scored the only buckets for the Lady Indians in the quarter.

Despite allowing 33 points in the first quarter, Subbert thought a portion of the defense played well, but the problems came from Creston’s fastbreak opportunities.

“I thought our half-court defense was actually pretty good,” said Subbert. “We just kind of got killed on the offensive rebounds, and Creston was pretty quick. They got a lot of fastbreak layups, so that’s, I feel like, what hurt us the most.”

The Lady Indians came into the game with a major size disadvantage. Creston has five players taller than 5-11 while Clarke’s tallest is 5-9.

“In our conference, we haven’t really seen too many 6-2, 6-3 girls, so it’s something that we have to get used to,” said Subbert. “Especially because we’ll probably see them again in tournament play. Our tallest is 5-9, maybe pushing that, so in practice, we don’t have that to practice against.”

After leading 49-12 at halftime, the Panthers brought in the reserves midway through the third quarter. Clarke was able to find some open shots with the Creston bench in the game, but the Lady Indians struggled to take those opportunities and convert them to points.

“I thought, for the most part, we got some good shots off,” said Subbert. “We just had a few missed layups and things.”

The Lady Indians made a small dent in the fourth quarter, scoring seven points, but Creston wrapped things up early and made a comeback too much for Clarke.

Shayla Hembry led Clarke in scoring with seven points. Kiaya Dunbar scored six with Kaitlyn Halsband and Tori White scored five points each.

UP NEXT – Creston travels to Bedford today (Tuesday) for a game against Bedford. The game is set for a 6 p.m. start.

Creston 71, Clarke 26

Cre (71) — 33 16 17 5

Cla (26) — 4 8 7 7

Creston (FG FT PTS) — Totals —26 10-12 71. Kelsey Fields 12 4-5 30, Brianna Fields 4 3-3 11, Ryle Driskell 3 0-0 9, Braelyn Baker 3 0-0 8, Sydney Hartsock 2 0-0 6, Sam Dunphy 1 2-2 4, Doryn Paup 1 0-0 2, Anna Mikkelsen 0 1-2 1. 3-point goals — 9 (Driskell 3, Hartsock 2, Baker 2, Kelsey Fields 2). Team fouls — 11. Fouled out — None.

Clarke (FG FT PTS) — Totals — 9 6-10 26. Shayla Hembry 2 3-3 7, Kiaya Dunbar 2 1-2 6, Kaitlyn Halsband 2 1-2 5, Tori White 2 0-0 5, Alivia Bakley 1 0-0 2, Kelli McAfee 0 1-2 1. 3-point goals — 2 (Dunbar 1, White 1). Team fouls — 7. Fouled out — None.