Hot shooting Comets scorch Indians, 77-51

Charles City overwhelms Waukon from start to finish

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — It was “Senior Night” for the Charles City Comets’ home Northeast Iowa Conference boys basketball game against Waukon on Friday.

Before varsity tip-off, senior members of the cheerleading and pom squad as well as the basketball team were honored.

It probably didn’t make the visiting Indians’ feel any better when seeing that only two Comets — Dalton Cleveland and Jaden Foster — are going to be graduating.

That means they’ll be seeing more of the likes of Cade Hemesath and Jack Molstead for years to come … a dreary prognosis when considering the way the Comets thoroughly defeated them, 77-51, in a game that really wasn’t as close as the 26-point margin of victory indicated.

Junior Hemesath, returning to the floor after a bum ankle kept him in street clothes for the two previous games, led the Comets with 20 points — a portion of which came from put-back buckets.

Sophomore Molstead had 19 points while making six of his first seven shot attempts as the Comets improved to 12-4 overall and 7-3 in the NEIC.

Junior guard Mike Cranshaw also reached double-figures (14 points) for the Comets while helping generate offense for his teammates.

On consecutive possessions, Cranshaw assisted a wide-open 10-footer from Mike Andrews after drawing a triple-team with his drive along the baseline; and then, while pushing the ball aggressively up the floor, rewarded Hakeem Sharief for filling a lane during the break for a layup which gave the Comets a 23-point lead (39-16) with a little more than three minutes left in the first half.

Michael Sweeney led the Indians (5-12, 2-8) with 17 points as his second-half 3-point shooting helped make the score a little more respectable after the Comets seemed poised on initiating a 35-point-span running clock.

* That night, Charles City’s girls basketball team played the Indians in Waukon and lost, 38-28.

The Comets (1-16, 1-9) were tied at 9 with the Indians after the first quarter before being outscored 11-3 in the second quarter.

Boys Basketball

WAUKON 38, CHARLES CITY 28

Scoring By Quarters

Charles City 9 3 6 10 — 28

Waukon 9 11 8 10 — 38

CHARLES CITY 77, WAUKON 51

Scoring By Quarters

Waukon 11 13 16 11 — 51

Charles City 25 20 18 14 — 77

WAUKON — Michael Sweeney 17, Isaiah Welsch 9, Abraham Schwartz 7, Mitchell Snitker 4, Brandon Regan 4, Evan Armstead 3, Garrett Garin 2.

CHARLES CITY — Cade Hemesath 20, Jack Molstead 19, Mike Cranshaw 14, Hakeem Sharief 7, Noah Schlader 6, Dalton Cleveland 4, Mike Andrews 4, Tre Walker 2, Jaden Foster 1.

Girls Basketball