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Comet girls reach season-high in points, Comet boys stay atop NEIC with wins over Huskies

Comet girls reach season-high in points, Comet boys stay atop NEIC with wins over Huskies
Press photo by John Burbridge
Charles City senior Marcus Cranshaw sustains a hard foul from Oelwein’s Camren Palmer, yet somehow still made the shot as well as the subsequent free throw to complete the 3-point play during the Comets’ 59-38 win over the Huskies.

By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com

OELWEIN — These are a few more examples why betting on point spreads is a deathtrap … or rather debttrap … for gamblers who think they’re smarter than the sports they’re wagering on.

Early in the boys basketball season, Charles City defeated Oelwein by 28 points, but the game wasn’t even “that close.”

On Friday, the Comets defeated the Huskies again, this time by 21 points. But this game was much closer … at least for a half.

When Spencer Logan hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer, it gave Oelwein a 27-26 lead at intermission.

Since the first meeting between the two teams, Oelwein had shored up its motion offense, was no longer prone to turnovers every other possession, and was patient in finding the open man who was hitting open shots.

On defense, the Huskies were able to identify and challenge Charles City’s shooters while daring the non-shooters to pull the trigger from outside of 16 feet.

But the Comets soon proved they can play some defense themselves as they limited the Huskies to just 11 points in the second half on way to a 59-38 victory.

Charles City got a big lift off the bench from freshman Chase Low, who had a breakout game with a team-leading 16 points and had four steals and two blocks on the other side of the floor.

Senior Bradley Andrews added 15 points, and the Comets got 8 points apiece from the backcourt of Marcus Cranshaw and JJ Ritter.

Jacob King led all scorers with 18 points for the Huskies (2-14, 0-9 Northeast Iowa Conference).

The NEIC win improved the Comets’ league-leading record at 8-1 with three conference games left on the schedule.

With a subsequent 61-47 loss to Xavier on Saturday in Cedar Rapids, Charles City’s overall record is 9-7.

* The Charles City girls basketball team picked up its fifth win of the season and the second against Oelwein with a 50-point (69-19) victory.

It was the most points the Comets scored all year as well as the largest margin of victory. Yet if it weren’t for a running clock being employed for most the second half, Charles City could have likely reached triple-digits.

Instead, they had to settle for double-digits while placing three in double-figure scoring. Comet senior Liz Fiser led all scorers with 13 points. Sophomore Lydia Staudt and senior Mackenzy Bilharz both scored 12 points with Bilharz’s total coming from four 3-point shots.

Lynn Hoeft added 9 and Lauren Connell scored 8 for Charles City (5-12, 2-6).

Malayna Kiel had 9 points for the winless Huskies.

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