The Clarksville girls and boys basketball teams battled till the final buzzer but came up short in Iowa Star Conference North doubleheader against Dunkerton on Tuesday. The girls lost 50-38 and the boys lost 53-44 as aired on 104.9 KLMJ.
In the girls game, Dunkerton fueled their offense with defense in the first half, as they frustrated the Clarksville offense with a 3-1-1 full court press. The Raiders with transition scoring off the press took a 35-12 lead into the half. The Indians with some halftime adjustments and a 15 point second half by Paige Kampman got back to within 10 at 45-35 midway through the fourth. The Raiders held off any further rally. Clarksville Senior Hannah Wangsness highlights how a matchup like this can help make them better.
“Tonight I think that the first half was a little rough. We decided to talk about it. We’re not doing this again, we’ve learned, we’ve got to change it. We came out in the second half and we did much better,” says Wangsness. “Playing them is only going to make us better, especially since it’s early in the season. We’re just going to keep learning from it. We’re just going to come back stronger, especially the second time we play them. We learned a lot of things. It’s great to play a good team, it helps us a lot.”
Paige Kampman delivered 21 points, Josie Anderson added nine points and Wangsness had six points to lead the Indians.
In the boys game, Dunkerton established a post presence to take an 11-2 lead after one quarter. Clarksville took the lid off their hoop and played shot for shot with the Raiders in the second quarter. The Raiders led 28-19 at the break. The Indians got to within five twice in the third including a 35-28 deficit, and trailed 44-37 heading to the fourth. The Raiders built their lead back up to as high as 10 in the fourth to put the game away. Head Coach Jonah Woodward.
“We’re not coming out with a scoreboard win, but I just felt like our kids won overall. We didn’t win the battle, but we’re definitely winning the war. I think our kids are starting to realize our practice habits become game day reality. I think everybody that looked at this matchup probably thought we’d lose by 35, 45 points. I think that was everybody’s mindset,” says Woodward. “Their is belief we have in this locker room with our guys. We can play great half court man to man defense like that on any given night. We had some guys knock down shots and we’re more aggressive that we haven’t had all year. If we consistently build on our man-to-man defense without fouling, we get some guys going offensively knocking down shots, we’re capable of beating any team in our conference. Just trying to get our guys to believe in that here.”
Camden Behrends had 16 points including four triples and Harley Barnett added 12 points to lead the Indians.
The Clarksville girls (4-2, 3-1 Iowa Star North) and the boys (0-5, 0-4 Iowa Star North) will host Cedar Ridge Christian in conference on Friday.
