Cyclones cruise to road win over Cardinals
After a close Thursday night road battle with the Denison Monarchs, the HCHS Cyclones boys basketball team beat the Clarinda Cardinals 65-49 handing them their second loss, and giving the Cyclones their fourth win of the season.
“We really came out focused and really played terrific at the defensive end of the floor,” said Cyclone Head Coach Mitch Osborn. “It was a complete all around game. We shot 36 free throws to their six on the road, so we pounded it inside and we had balanced scoring.”
The Cyclone offense came out aggressively in the first quarter with 14 points, and held the Cardinals offense to just two.
“They were struggling shooting from the perimeter and we took advantage of it,” Osborn said. “We probably should have been up a little further at halftime.”
The second quarter the Cardinals managed to score 11 points, while the Cyclones had 15, giving them a 29-13 lead at halftime.
“You always want to win those first three minutes of the quarter,” Osborn added. “They went on an 11-5 run, but we sort of held steady. We just had to fight them off.”
Offensively, Junior Cyclone Dallas McDowell scored 23 points leading the way, while Jozef Reisz had 16 points and Kobe Klaassen came away with 15. Osborn credited McDowell for his bounce back performance after scoring 14 in their previous game against Denison.
“He played much better,” Osborn said of McDowell. “He took good shots and he probably missed a couple of shots he normally makes, but overall Dallas played terrific. He never came out of the game.”
The Cyclones will be back on the court Tuesday against the 5-2 Lewis Central Titans. The Titans are led by Carter Thielen averaging 13 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, along with Evan Lillie averaging 3.2 assists per game.
“We’re looking forward to it, no doubt,” Osborn said. “We know it’s going to be an extremely tough challenge. They [Lewis Central] will be up for it. We’re going to have to be very physical and very tough. We’ve got to be patient offensively and take good shots and keep getting to the free throw line.”
