Panthers roll past Clarke, 80-42

The Creston boys wasted no time in establishing control of their senior night matchup with Clarke Community Monday night.

The Panthers raced to a 7-0 lead in the first 1:11 of the game on the way to an 80-42 victory over the Indians. Creston made a season-high 16 3-pointers in 33 attempts (48.5%) in the non-conference rout of a Clarke squad that fell to 4-14.

Going into Thursday’s home game against Earlham, Creston has won three of its last four games to improve to 4-12 for the season after a 1-11 start.

“We’re finally seeing a group of guys who never really had the confidence that they were able to win, that’s the freedom I think you’re seeing on the floor,” Creston coach Bryce Schafer said. “We probably should have had at least four other victories that we just let slip. Through everything, this group has stayed energized. Now they’re playing with the confidence level that they are supposed to be here and can compete.”

Prior to the game, seniors Cael Barton, CT Stalker, Hector Suazo, Jaxson Jondle, Nathan Carroll and Ayden Purdum were honored with their parents. Senior Waymond Foster was absent due to illness.

When Carroll banked in a 30-foot 3-pointer at the first quarter buzzer, Creston was comfortably in front, 21-7 and guard Rhett Driskell already had 10 of his game-high 28 points. It was a career high for the 6-3 junior.

“It’s senior night and we wanted to get everybody in with some meaningful minutes, or Rhett could have had more,” Schafer said. “He was much more efficient tonight. We watched Atlantic play Clarke and it just looked like transition was there. We wanted to take advantage of that, and I thought we did a good job of that.”

Tanner Ray, Stalker, Barton and Driskell combined for a barrage of five 3-pointers in the first four minutes of the second quarter, extending the Panther lead to 40-11. From there, Schafer liberally used his bench. A total of 10 Panthers scored in the game, with seven of those making at least one 3-pointer.

The state’s 35-point running clock mercy rule went into effect five minutes into the third quarter when one of five 3-pointers by Driskell in the game made it a 66-30 lead.

Schafer hopes the team can show continued improvement Thursday against a 10-8 Earlham team coached by former Iowa Hawkeye Austin Ash.

“They have one kid (senior Griffin Messer) who’s a really good shooter and pretty good all-around player, with some other nice players around him,” Schafer said. “They like tempo. Obviously, I’m happy in how well we played on the offensive end tonight, but I also think we gave up too many points to that team. We started taking some chances on defense and opened up some driving lanes for them. There are still things we can improve on.

“There will be somebody in the playoffs that doesn’t want to play us if we keep moving forward like this,” Schafer added.

CLARKE (42) — Totals (FG FT PTS) — 17 2-3 42. Ryan Diehl 5 2-2 15, Jordyn Deleon Elias 3 0-0 9, Ethan Danley 4 0-0 8, Peyton Lynn 3 0-0 6, Bryce Giza 1 0-1 2, Casey Wade 1 0-0 2. 3-point goals — 6-23 (Diehl 3, Deleon Elias 3). FG shooting — 17-55 (30.9 percent). Rebounds — 28 (Diehl 10, Deleon Elias 4, Danley 3). Assists — 11 (Diehl 4, Giza 3). Steals — 4 (Diehl 1, Deleon Elias 1, White 1, Cook 1). Turnovers — 10. Team fouls — 8. Fouled out — None.

CRESTON (80) — Totals — (FG FT PTS) 31 2-4 80. Rhett Driskell 11 1-2 28, Cael Barton 4 0-0 11, CT Stalker 4 0-0 9, Nathan Carroll 3 0-0 9, Jaxson Jondle 3 0-0 8, Ayden Purdum 2 0-0 4, Landyn Scherer 1 1-2 4, Tanner Ray 1 0-0 3, Brodie Pashek 1 0-0 2, Baret Lane 1 0-0 2. 3-point goals — 16-33 (Driskell 5, Barton 3, Carroll 3, Jondle 2, Stalker 1, Ray 1, Scherer 1). FG shooting — 31-58 (53.4 percent). Rebounds — 29 (Driskell 7, Barton 78, Purdum 3). Assists — 23 (Stalker 6, Carroll 5, Barton 3, Ray 3). Steals — 8 (Driskell 2, Barton 2). Turnovers — 7. Team fouls — 12. Fouled out — None.