Comets lose finale to Vikings, 79-66

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — It was a night of highs and lows for the Charles City Comets during their regular-season finale against the visiting Decorah Vikings on Friday.

We’ll start with the highs.

Comet junior Jack Molstead scored a season-high as well as a career-high 37 points.

Charles City scored a season high 48 points in the second half with a pair of back-to-back 24-point quarters.

Now for the lows.

The Comets scored a season-low 18 points in the first half and trailed by as many as 20 early in the third quarter, a deficit they couldn’t recover from on way to losing their second-straight game, 79-66.

The setback capped the Comets’ regular season at 16-4 overall. It also prevented Charles City from claiming a share of the Northeast Iowa Conference title. The Comets were atop the NEIC all season before losing Tuesday to Waverly-Shell Rock to split the two-game series.

Finishing with an 11-1 conference record, the Go-Hawks are the outright NEIC champions. The Comets (10-2 in NEIC play) have to settle for runner-up.

Charles City was forced to play without its leading rebounder, shot blocker, most efficient scorer based on a shooting percentage greater than 60 percent from the floor, and most effective interior defender — Cade Hemesath.

Hemesath went down with a re-aggravated knee injury with seven minutes remaining in regulation of Tuesday’s game with the Go-Hawks. He came out on the court during warm-ups with a knee-brace on before Friday’s game against the Vikings, but later returned without the brace and sat out the entire game.

His lack of presence was felt.

With its 6-foot-6 times 2 frontline of seniors Jerod Redenius and Andrew Kephart, the Vikings were able to get an inside-and-out attack rolling against the Comets, especially after a couple of multi-shot possessions.

Redenius had 15 points to lead the Vikings (10-10, 6-5), who also got double-figure scoring from Patrick Bockman (13) and Jonah Johnson and Tyrna Nelson, who each scored 10.

Decorah seemed on the verge of running away with it late in the third quarter before Molstead scored 6 points in less than 4 seconds.

After scoring a layup, Molstead stole the ensuing inbounds pass for another scored layup while drawing a foul. Molstead missed the free throw for a chance at a 3-point play, but managed to follow his miss for another layup.

Soon after, Molstead hit a 3-point shot and suddenly the Comets were within single digits (56-47) with a little more than six minutes left in the quarter.

But the Comets just couldn’t get that one extra trey to fall or that one court opening steal while jumping the passing lanes to raise the roof enough to rattle the visitors, who managed to repeatedly break Charles City’s desperate full-court press in the final minutes to seal the victory.

Noah Schlader scored 11 points and Mike Cranshaw added 8 for the Comets. Both players were among the soon-to-be-graduates honored before the game as part of “Senior Night”, which was originally scheduled for Thursday before Charles City’s non-conference game against Iowa Falls-Alden.

That game was postponed due to impending bad travel conditions and won’t be made up. But the Comets and Cadets will eventually face each other in the first round of the Class 3A Substate 2 bracket, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 19 at Comet Gym.

Decorah will also play its first round game that day at Comet Gym when it takes on Webster City in the 6 p.m. game.

DECORAH 79, CHARLES CITY 66

Scoring By Quarters

DECORAH 13 21 20 15 — 79

CHARLES CITY 10 8 24 24 — 66

DECORAH (79)

Patrick Bockman 13, Andrew Kephart 8, Jonah Johnson 10, Austin Myli 2, Tynan Nelson 10, Clay Johansen 6, Samuel Robinson 2, Jerod Redenius 15.

CHARLES CITY (66)

Jack Molstead 37, Marcus Cranshaw 2, Hakeem Sharief 2, Mike Cranshaw 8, Bradley Andrews 4, Noah Scholader 11, Tait Arndt 2.