Comets hold off Huskies, 56-47

Press Staff Report

CHARLES CITY —Heavy-handed boxers always have a puncher’s chance.

Though they were outplayed by the Charles City Comets in most facets of the game, the Oelwein Huskies still had a shooting chance Friday night in Northeast Iowa Conference boys basketball action at Comet Gym.

During various stretches of the contest, the Comets appeared poised to take complete control and run the Huskies off their home court. But with repeated use of the 3-point shot and finishing — sometimes resoundingly — in the open court off turnovers, Oelwein managed to take a momentary lead midway through the first half and stuck around a little longer than it should have before the Comets ultimately won, 56-47.

Senior Mike Cranshaw led the Comets with 15 points as he managed to finish in the open court as well.

While filling a lane during a break initiated by a Jackson Molstead steal, Cranshaw was able to field Molstead’s pass left of the free-throw line and absorb contact while making the layup which eventually resulted in a 3-point play and a 34-22 lead as the Comets scored the first 8 points of the second half.

Molstead had 13 points, as did Comet senior Cade Hemesath, who had a double-double while leading all rebounders.

Husky junior Dillon Arndt, whose sideways right-foot forward jumper may not be textbook but was effective on Friday, scored a game-high 20 points. Dominique Robertson added 15, which included a pair of one-handed jams sprung from half-court steals, for the Huskies (1-5, 0-4 NEIC) who have lost five straight after defeating Starmont in their season-opener.

The Comets, on the other hand, have enjoyed a much different early season as they now have won four straight after losing to Dike-New Hartford in their opener and have improved to 2-0 in the NEIC.

Charles City will be back in action on Tuesday (Dec. 19) when it travels to face conference foe New Hampton, and will return to Comet Gym the following Friday (Dec. 22) to take on Iowa City, Liberty with the varsity game rescheduled to start at 6:30 p.m.

It will be the Comets’ final game of the year ahead of the holiday/winter break.

Boys Basketball

CHARLES CITY 56, OELWEIN 47

Scoring By Quarters

OELWEIN 16 6 10 15 — 47

CHARLES CITY 13 13 16 14 — 56

OELWEIN (47)

Dillon Arndt 20, Dominique Robertson 15, Mason Meyer 4, Zachary Wegner 2, Cole Dahl 2, Zachary Sailor 2, Steven Nicolay 2.

CHARLES CITY (56)

Mike Cranshaw 15, Jackson Molstead 13, Cade Hemesath 13, Bradley Andrews 9, Noah Schlader 6.