Comets hound Huskies, record 1st varsity DH sweep since 2013

By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com
CHARLES CITY — It’s the season where it’s better to give than to receive.
But while hosting the Oelwein Huskies during Friday’s Northeast Iowa Conference varsity basketball doubleheader, the Charles City Comets were in the “taking” mood.

With baseline-to-baseline defensive pressure, keen anticipation while playing the passing lanes, and relentless on-ball harassment, both the Comet boys and girls teams repeatedly turned steals and turnovers into transition baskets while running the Huskies out of the gym in back-to-back blowouts.

With the Comet girls winning 60-19 ahead of the Comet boys cruising in a 67-39 final, it marked the first time since 2013 that Charles City swept a varsity basketball doubleheader.

The girls game, believe it or not, wasn’t even as “close” as the score indicated.

The Comet girls had its most dominant first half (43-8) of the season before a running clock in the second half kept things from getting too lopsided.

Junior Dani Stock led the Comets with 13 points. Liz Fiser and Lydia Staudt each scored 11 with much of that coming off steals and layups. Sadie Gebel scored 8 points. Mackenzy Bilharz scored 6 on a pair of 3-point shots. Rachel Chambers also had 6 with Lynn Hoeft (3 points) and Lauren Connell (2 points) rounding out the Comet scoring.

There was also a running clock in the subsequent boys game, which you can argue also wasn’t as “close” as the score indicated.
Like the girls before them, the Charles City boys busted out of the gate with the most dominating first half of their season (38-13) before ensuring that most everyone got playing time in the second half.

Comet senior Bradley Andrews led all scorers with 20 points, followed by Tait Arndt (16 points), JJ Ritter (12), Marcus Cranshaw (8), Ian Collins (4), Dawson Hinders (3), Kaden Barry (2) and Chase Low (2).

The third-straight win evened the Comet boys’ overall record (3-3) while keeping them perfect (3-0) in the NEIC going into the holiday break.

The following afternoon, the Charles City girls had a chance to finish the 2019 portion of their schedule with a three-game winning streak. But it wasn’t going to be easy against the visiting Saint Ansgar Saints, who were leading the Top of Iowa-East with an undefeated conference record and were ranked in the Top 10 in Class 1A according to the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union’s latest ranking.

The Comets managed to take a 12-10 lead early in the second quarter while effectively breaking the Saints’ full-court press.

While utilizing their superior size, the Saints stymied much of Charles City’s forays into the paint. And on the offensive side, SA found repeated “back-door” passages while eventually taking the lead.

But even with the Saints seemingly on the verge of pulling away, the Comets were able to shoot themselves back within a possession or two — Charles City drained a season-high eight 3-point shots — before Saint Ansgar got a little cushion at the end on way to a 60-49 final.

Junior Gracie Urbatsch led the Saints (5-1) with a game-high 24 points.
Staudt led the Comets (3-6) with 20 points, followed by Hoeft (10), Fiser (8), Bilharz (6), Chambers (2), Stock (2) and Connell (1).

* Charles City’s girls junior varsity team won both of its games over the weekend. In the 50-14 win over Oelwein, Gebel had a game-high 29 points. Gebel also was the leading scorer — 20 points — in the subsequent 36-30 win over the Saints.

The Comet JV boys improved to 3-2 for the season with a 51-33 win over Oelwein. Mario Hoefer, Jose Hernandez and Jeremiah Chapman each had 10 points for the Comets.