Conference seedings already came before the varsity boys fell 72-58 at Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s on Tuesday.
The 11th seeded Clippers take on sixth-ranked Lester Prairie tonight (Tuesday) in Lester Prairie at 6:00 p.m.
So for the Clippers, the game at St. Mary’s didn’t mean a ton, and they spent the 36 minutes working to improve their offense.
“While I would have loved to have won, the big emphasis of this game was playing on offense without having a play every time,” said head coach Mike Meyer. “Carter (Kopet) calls a lot of our plays, but sometimes if they don’t have a play, they don’t know what to do. So tonight the emphasis was to learn how to play without a play, and they do that pretty well in practice.”
SESM wanted to ensure a senior had a score this year, so the game started with the teams exchanging baskets.
After Alex Johnson took a long Brennan Kortuem pass in for a bucket and Carson Lyons sank a three and a two-point basket, the Knights, taking advantage of Clipper misses, went on a 10-point spurt to lead 24-10.
With a trio of Bode Bartell threes and baskets by Lyons and Kyle Connor, the Clippers mounted a comeback but were behind 36-31 at halftime.
Kortuem, who was limited to just two free baskets in the first half, went to work after halftime for 11 points while Lyons added nine points, and Bartell put in a two and another three, but the Knights didn’t let up on the throttle and cruised to the triumph.
“I complimented our defense in the first half, but in the second half, I didn’t have much to compliment on,” Meyer said. “We didn’t guard the ball at all. They scored most of their points attacking the hoop. We didn’t have good on-ball defense. We didn’t have good help defense, but I know capable of playing better defense.”
With 18 points Lyons was the top Clipper scorer. He put in one three. Bartell had 14 points, a dozen of them from triples. Kortuem had 13 points, including one three. Johnson put in two baskets and a free shot, all in the first half for five points. Connor had two first-half baskets for four points. Alex Kortuem and Kale Kelley each chipped in two points.
The Clippers made six threes and 10 of 12 foul shots while the Knights had five threes and made seven of 10 free throws. The Clippers shot 38 percent from the floor, had 16 turnovers and grabbed 25 rebounds. The Knights shot 52 percent from the floor, had 39 rebounds and 18 turnovers.
Lyons had four rebounds, six assists and two steals. Kelley had three rebounds, one assist and one steal. Brennan Kortuem had two rebounds, two assists and three steals. Johnson had two rebounds. Connor had one rebound and one assist. Bartell had five rebounds, five assists and six steals. Braeden Smith had six rebounds and two steals. Alex Kortuem had one rebound.
“Tonight we played pretty well,” Meyer said. I think some of that score was because we were trying to implement new things.”
Sleepy Eye 75, Cleveland 72
The Clippers trailed 34-32 at halftime but got up by a point down the stretch. From there, the Indians ran in a layup and then scored after a quick steal that probably should have been a foul instead, Meyer said.
The Clippers had two looks at a three to tie the game at the end but couldn’t convert.
“I was really proud of the way we played, especially since we only spent one night of practice scouting them,” Meyer said.
The Clippers had 14 threes and made eight of 11 foul shots. Sleepy Eye put in a pair of threes and 13 of 15 free throws.
With 35 points, 27 of them off triples, Brennan Kortuem led all scorers. Bartell had 17 points with a dozen of them coming from behind the arc. Lyons had nine points. Johnson made two second-half baskets for four total points. Alex Kortuem put in a second-half three. Smith and Kelley each added a basket.
“Brennan had a great game on defense and offense,” Meyer said. “Bode has come along for us in the last three or four games. Carson just distributes, by everybody had a great game: Kyle, Kale AJ.
Sleepy Eye’s big, one of the best the Clippers will face all year, scored 31 points, but the Clippers did well on him defensively, Meyer said.
“We did struggle a bit trying to rebound around him because he was such a big body. But we played really good defense in that game, and the offense looked good.”
The Clippers shot 34 percent from the floor and had 42 rebounds and 16 turnovers. The Indians shot 42 percent, had 48 rebounds and turned the ball over 15 times.
Lyons had 13 rebounds, nine assists and two steals. Bartell had four rebounds, one assist and one steal. Brennan Kortuem had four rebounds, one assist and one steal. Connor had three rebounds and one steal. Johnson had two rebounds. Smith had five rebounds, one assist, one steal and six blocks. Kelley had four rebounds and four assists. Mason Kluntz made one block.
Kasson-Mantorville 84, Cleveland 70.
The first two Clipper baskets were Brennan Kortuem threes. Including another three, he had 15 points in the first half. Bartell also put in three triples and had 13 points in the first half, and the Clippers were up 42-36 at the break.
“I don’t think the 3A school was expecting a 1A school to be able to compete,” Meyer said.
But starting with a three, the Komets took the lead four minutes into the second half.
“There was a six-minute stretch where it got away, otherwise we were really tough against them,” Meyer said.”
Brennan Kortuem led the Clippers with 25 points, 15 of them from behind the arc. All of Bartell’s scoring was in the first half. Lyons had ten points, including one three. Smith had nine points, including one three. Kelley also scored nine points, six of them on triples. Johnson put in a pair of first-half baskets for four total points.
The Clipper made a dozen threes and 10 of 12 free shots. The Komets put in six threes and made eight of 12 free throws.
Cleveland shot 32 percent from the floor, had 30 rebounds and 15 turnovers. The Komets shot 44 percent from the floor, pulled down 54 rebounds and turned the ball over 20 times.
Lyons had nine rebounds, one assist and one steal. Bartell had one rebound, three assists and three steals. Brennan Kortuem had seven rebounds and three steals. Connor had one rebound. Johnson had three rebounds. Alex Kortuem had one assist. Smith had three rebounds and two steals. Kelley had two rebounds and one steal.
Tonight’s matchup
Lester Prairie is like Sleepy Eye Public, Meyer said, with a strong big and a guard up top.
Had the Clippers won one of the close games down the stretch, they might have had a home game to start section play.
“That’s been the story all season,” Meyer said. “You have to win those games. We started out playing one half. We would come out sluggish. The good thing is we have started to put full games together.”
Above: Kale Kelley, Carson Lyons and Kyle Connor on defense at SESM.
