AMBOY – In less than three minutes in the first quarter of the Amboy Girls Holiday Basketball Tournament Championship on Friday, Dec. 29, the Lady Clippers found themselves trailing Newman by seven as the Comets drained three 3-pointers.

Wanting to win their tournament, the girls rallied to take a first quarter lead, and only gave it up for two minutes in the second quarter before winning the game and the tourney, 43-35.

“We knew coming in that they were going to hit shots and they’re really good and tough. We also knew they ran the floor,” said senior Meave Larson, who hauled in 11 rebounds and scored eight points. “We came prepared, but we weren’t prepared for them to be that hot from the beginning. We never gave up. We kept running and got back into the game by knocking down our shots.

“We do a really good job of talking to each other by saying, ‘Lock in, good D,’ and telling people to keep shooting. We never make each other feel bad if someone misses a shot. We hype each other up.”

The Lady Clippers (13-4) led the Comets 15-11 after the first quarter and 19-17 at halftime as junior Tyrah Vaessen hit a 3-pointer with 20 seconds left in the first half.

Amboy made adjustments in the locker room and started the third quarter strong by scoring the first six points and nine of the first 11.

With a 32-22 third quarter advantage, the Lady Clippers held off the Comets fourth-quarter push.

“Last year we peaked at this time. We didn’t seem like we were peaking until we faced Newman,” said Amboy coach Mike McCracken. “We came through and pulled out a win against Hall on Wednesday when we were down five with a little over a minute left in the game. Against Newman, I think they were more mentally prepared.

“We got off to a bad start because we gave up three 3s early in the first quarter to Newman, but we came back and did a great job from then on. Our defense was probably the best it has been this year because Newman has four quality shooters and a great post inside (Jess Johns). Outside of the post players at Dixon, she’s the best post we’ve played all year.”

The Lady Clippers were led by Vaessen’s 13 points, nine from junior Addison Pertell, Larson’s eight, Elly Jones scored seven, and junior Emily Sachs added six.

Larson had the game-high 11 rebounds, while Sachs grabbed seven, sophomore Bella Yanos had four, and sophomore Ellie McLaughlin and Jones grabbed two each.

“We’ve been on Tyrah to shoot more, and she knocked down some big shots. We feel like we have five players who can score. Some nights we’re not as good in the post and we have a tendency to get into foul trouble every once in a while.

“We used Bella Yanos off of the bench as an extra post player and she came up big. She had four rebounds, and she was pushed out of bounds once otherwise she would have had five. She’s been driving to the basket in junior varsity games, and she’ll start doing that during varsity games before we know it.” 

On Friday, Hall won the third-place game 62-31 against Mendota, and Somonauk beat Hiawatha 50-7 in the fifth-place game.

Jones and Larson were named to the all-tournament team along with Mendota’s Grace Wasmer, Somonauk’s Haley McCoy, Hiawatha’s Delaney Wood, Hall’s McKenna Christiansen, and Newman’s Johns and Elaina Allen.

Amboy defeated Mendota 53-22 during the first day of tournament play on Tuesday, Dec. 26, came back to beat Hall 37-36 on Wednesday, Dec. 27, and outlasted Somonauk 51-35 on Thursday, Dec. 28.