WILLARD — It’s a good thing Clear Fork coach Scott Sellers gave his team a crash-course in net cutting after a recent practice.
The third-seeded Colts were snipping twine for the first time in a long time Monday at Robert L. Haas Gymnasium.
Senior Bekah Conrad scored 16 points as Clear Fork won its first sectional title since 2015 with a 52-43 win over No. 9 Kenton in the early game of the a Division II sectional final doubleheader Monday.
“That’s the first time these kids have ever cut down a net in their lives,” said Sellers, who did more than his fair share of net cutting as a 1,000-point scorer at Clear Fork in the 1990s.
“I actually asked them in practice the other day and none of them knew how to cut down a net. We didn’t practice it, but I told them if we got to it, this is how you do it.”
Clear Fork (20-4) didn’t look like a team short on tournament experience in the early-going Monday. The Colts raced out to a 10-0 lead and led 14-7 after the first quarter thanks in no small part to Conrad. The 6-foot-4 center had eight points in the period.
“We obviously haven’t been to a sectional championship in a while,” Conrad said. “We needed to play at our speed and control what was happening in the game.”
Clear Fork extended its lead to 24-10 on Annika Labaki’s layup with 2:31 left in the first half, but the Wildcats closed the quarter on a 12-1 spurt sparked by a pair of Ali Harpel 3-pointers, trimming the deficit to 25-22 at the half.
“In the first half … we were making a few bad decisions,” Labaki said. “We just needed to focus on kicking it in and using Bekah to kick it back out for shots. We’ve got pretty consistent shooters and we have Bekah in there to clean it up for us.”
Labaki hit a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter to give the Colts a little breathing room. Her triple with 1:08 remaining extended Clear Fork’s advantage to 39-32 before freshman Mel Blubaugh knocked in a trey of her own with 12 seconds left in the period to give the Colts a 42-32 lead going to the fourth.
A Conrad layup early in the fourth gave Clear Fork a 44-32 advantage before Kenton made its final stand. The Wildcats went on a 9-1 burst and cut Clear Fork’s advantage to 45-41 on a Sadie Larrabee layup with 2:25 remaining.
The Colts salted it away at the free throw line, connecting on 7 of 8 freebies in the final 1:20 to secure the win.
Lilly Wortman backed Conrad with 14 points. Labaki added 12.
Larrabee and Harpel each had 10 for the Wildcats.
“I’m super-proud,” Sellers said. “For our kids to handle pressure, that’s why we schedule the way we do. We’ve been in a lot of close games like that.
“I tell them all the time, those experiences help us out. I couldn’t be happier for them. They deserved it.”
