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Comets stop stubborn Cadets, 67-56, advance to semis

Press photo by John Burbridge Comet junior Jack Molstead goes up for 2 of his team-high 27 points against Iowa Falls-Alden in the first round of the Class 3A Substate 2 tournament.
Press photo by John Burbridge
Comet junior Jack Molstead goes up for 2 of his team-high 27 points against Iowa Falls-Alden in the first round of the Class 3A Substate 2 tournament.
By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Junior Jack Molstead fills several roles for the Charles City boys basketball team.

In the Comets’ postseason opener against Iowa Fall-Alden on Monday, he took on another role — that of a shadowing defensive stopper.

Because the Cadets have an upstart freshman named Karson Sharar, and he needed to be stopped.

Sharar scored 21 points in the first half of the Class 3A Substate 2 semifinal between the two teams as the underdog Cadets went into in the locker-room trailing by just 1 (31-30) as a nervous energy rippled throughout the home-side bleachers at Comet Gym.

But in the second half, Molstead dogged the freshman relentlessly … fighting through numerous high screens, sticking with him deep in the backcourt, sometimes 70 feet from the basket. Never letting him out of his sight.

Sharar wasn’t completely stopped, but he was … as they say … “contained”. He ended up scoring a game-high 33 points, but when Sharar missed two free throws after drawing back contact from Molstead midway through the fourth quarter, Molstead’s efforts were apparently taking effect.

As for Molstead’s efforts on the other side of the court, he scored 27 points while helping the Comets (17-4) advance to the semis, where they will face Webster City, 7 p.m. Thursday at Comet Gym.

Mike Cranshaw added 17 points, and Cade Hemesath — who is back after missing the final five quarters of the regular season due to reaggravating a knee injury — scored 14 and had nine rebounds.

The Comets slowly began to pull away in the third quarter when Noah Schlader assisted Hemesath twice in the post on consecutive possessions to make the score 43-34.

Soon after, Cranshaw found Colton Slinger alone under the basket after numerous ball reversals along the perimeter to give Charles City a 12-point lead (53-41) going into the fourth quarter.

On the other side of the bracket, both the Waverly-Shell Rock-vs.-Humboldt and the Clear Lake-vs.-Crestwood quarterfinals were postponed and rescheduled to Tuesday at Waverly-Shell Rock.

Class 3A Substate 2

CHARLES CITY 67,
IOWA FALLS-ALDEN 56

Scoring By Quarters

IOWA FALLS-ALDEN 7 23 11 15 — 56

CHARLES CITY 16 15 12 15 — 67

IOWA FALLS-ALDEN (56)

Karson Sharar 33, Luke Haverkamp 9, Devin Sheridan 4, Tyjon Rose 5, Tristan Schnitker 2, Tim Long 2.

CHARLES CITY (67)

Jack Molstead 27, Marcus Cranshaw 2, Mike Cranshaw 17, Noah Schlader 2, Cade Hemesath 14.

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