A one-man wrecking crew, senior standout Ja’Sean Glover (above) scored 60 points against the visiting varsity Clipper boys on Monday, 10 more than the entire Clipper team.
While Glover is en route to 3000 career points and hopes to go D-1, more success and recognition might have come to the 6-5 forward if he had opted for a larger school down the road.
In Glover's tenure in a Blackhawk uniform, Madelia has never been a real conference contender and has never made it past the first round of playoffs.
But he has no regrets about playing Class A and staying in Madelia.
“Just the love of the city,” Glover explained. “It’s people who not only care about me as an athlete but me as a person, a student athlete. This community brings a lot of that.”
“He is a great person and a great player,” said Cleveland coach Mike Meyer. “We let this one get away from us. We didn’t have an answer for him tonight.”
Glover sashayed inside for the first four points of the game. A Braeden Hastings free throw was the first basket for the Clippers, but Glover responded with a steal and end-to-end drive for a layup.
Later, Lucas Walechka scored, Hastings drove inside for two, and Gabe Sullivan stole and put in a layup, but Glover responded with a two and a three.
The Clippers loitered around for a while though. Gens sunk a three from the corner, Blake Lyons drove for a couple of baskets, and Carter Dylla fought his way inside to pull the Clippers within seven, 27-20, but the Blackhawks, who beat the Clippers 78-45 earlier in the season, went on a 16-point romp before Walechka put in a layup.
Walechka, who led the Clippers with 11 points, scored twice more in the half, and the Clippers went into the locker room down 47-26.
Glover scored the first basket of the second half and went on to add 32 more points. Later, Wyatte Devens, back on the floor after missing a couple of games due to an injury, had a run of six Clipper points.
Freshman Kale Kelley scored as well.
“It was nice to get some of the younger guys some playing time,” Meyer said.
Dylla added nine points for the Clippers and had one of their two three-point baskets. Devens and Gens both ended the night with eight points. Sullivan and Lyons posted four points. Hastings had three points. Kelley had two points. Ethan Fuller chipped in a free shot. The Clippers were eight of 17 in free-throw shooting.
Walechka pulled down seven rebounds. Hastings had four rebounds and nine assists. The Clippers had seven turnovers and nine steals.
Glover had 18 2-point baskets, a quartet of 3-point baskets and was 12 of 13 in foul shooting. As a team, the Blackhawks, who won the game 88-50, had five threes and were 17 of 23 from the foul line.
The Clippers travel to Mankato Loyola on Thursday.
Kale Kelley on the underhand layup.
Ethan Fuller goes up for a shot contested by Ja’Sean Glover.
The Clipper student section went RWB.