By Michael Buhler
TSnews
The second quarter was not kind to the Clearwater Indians girls basketball team last Friday night at Wellington.
The host Crusaders shut out Clearwater in that period to build up a 22-point halftime lead on the way to a 56-34 victory over the Indians.
“Wellington is good, really good,” Clearwater coach Casey Carlson said. “We did a really bad job of handling their pressure last Friday. I was really impressed with how they guarded us and kept up the pressure all night. Offensively, we continue to struggle to get into our offense, and we end up getting impatient and settling for shots outside of our offense.”
The Indians trailed 20-17 after the opening period, but Wellington pitched a 19-0 shutout in the second quarter to lead 39-17 at the intermission and extended that margin to 51-26 by the beginning of the fourth quarter.
“Our second quarter was the worst second quarter since I’ve been at Clearwater,” Coach Carlson said. “Teams continue to hound Carli (Carlson) and Elizabeth (Tjaden), and I have to figure out a way to help them and take some of the pressure off of them.”
The Crusaders scored 28 of their 56 points off of 26 Clearwater turnovers and also outscored the visiting Indians 28-10 in the paint.
Tjaden and Kaylee Hampton each scored 11 points to lead the Indians, while Carli Carlson added nine.
The Indians were at Rose Hill earlier this week and make the trip to Wichita Collegiate Friday before hosting Mulvane on Tuesday.
Clearwater: Elizabeth Tjaden 11, Kaylee Hampton 11, Carli Carlson 9, Justine Berlin 2, Allison Clevenger 1.
It was a different story last Tuesday at Halstead, as the Indians used a strong second half to pull away for a 47-30 win.
Clearwater led 17-12 at halftime, but outscored the host Trojans 30-18 in the second half for the convincing win.
Clearwater: Camryn Clevenger 13, Elizabeth Tjaden 11, Carli Carlson 10, Kaylee Hampton 8, Allison Clevenger 5.
