Lady Indians’ press is a bright spot

Clarke fell to Des Moines North 52-34 Thursday night as the Lady Indians struggled to keep up with the Polar Bears’ 3-point shooting.

Not having any seniors on the team, the Lady Indians carried the energy from the senior night festivities between the girls and boys games into the first quarter.

Clarke created baskets off of stingy defense. With the solid start and the ability to create turnovers on defense, the Lady Indians took an 11-10 lead after the first, with the momentum on their side.

“The first quarter I thought we came out pretty strong defensively and got some easy hoops offensively,” said Clarke head coach Christa Subbert.

In the second, Clarke lost the lead from a 3-point play and never regained the lead.

Des Moines North started to shoot lights out from the field while forcing Clarke to make mistakes on both sides of the floor. The Polar Bears hit seven 3-pointer in the quarter, going into halftime with five consecutive threes on its way to a 15-5 run.

“We went kind of flat, and they got on fire there,” said Subbert. “The second quarter really kind of hurt us.”

Trailing 35-18 going into the third quarter, the Lady Indians started to press and create turnovers. Subbert rotated five girls off the bench with the starters every few minutes to keep the girls fresh while the intensity picked up.

With 10 different players seeing floor time due to the Lady Indians’ press, Subbert was pleased with the efficiency of her bench.

“We were just kind of trying to go all-out crazy for a few minutes, and get a new five in there,” said Subbert. “We really didn’t see too much of a difference with the second five and the first five, so it worked out well for us I thought.”

Clarke slowed down the Polar Bears’ offense in the third, allowing five points in the third quarter, but the offense didn’t muster up enough firepower to take the lead.

“We had our chances, we just missed a lot of layups tonight,” Subber said.

The fourth quarter was similar to the third with Des Moines North trying to break the Lady Indians’ press, and Clarke struggling to find ways to score.

Katilyn Halsband and Tori White were the top-2 scorers for Clarke, putting up 12 and 11 points, respectively.