DES MOINES, Iowa – Her numbers may seem a bit modest, but make no mistake.
Macy Comito controlled the game as she and her Carlisle teammates beat Clear Creek-Amana 58-44 to complete the quarterfinal round in Class 4A. The fifth-seeded Wildcats won for the 24th time in 25 games and will play top-seeded Sioux City Bishop Heelan at 6:45 p.m. Thursday to see which team punches its ticket to Saturday afternoon’s championship game.
Comito, a 5-foot-9 guard who has signed with Iowa State, is slick with her dribbling and sharp-eyed with passes that arrive with plenty of zip. She finished with 13 points and was credited with five assists while consistently getting the ball to the right spot.
She also grabbed five rebounds and made five steals and produced the game’s highlight play, a behind-the-back pass in transition that she snapped to Alyvia Freeman for a layup near the end of the first half, which ended with Carlisle leading 29-20.
Mallie Stoner led the Wildcats with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Kami Clark scored 12 and Ella Smith 10. Clark tacked on six rebounds, three assists and a steal. Smith had five rebounds, two assists and a steal.
Averie Lower led fourth-seeded Clear Creek-Amana (20-3) with 18 points and 11 rebounds. She has signed with Arizona State, meaning she and Comito will become rivals in the Big 12 Conference. Lena Evans added 13 points for the Clippers, who fell into an early 18-7 hole and were never able to get out.
They did cut it to 23-20 on Lydia Keller’s 3-pointer late in the second quarter, but the Wildcats finished the period with a 6-0 run that included Comito’s behind-the-back beauty and her putback at the buzzer after rebounding her own miss.
The Carlisle lead was just 37-30 when Comito struck again. First she found Taylor Thomas in the left corner for a 3-pointer with an inbounds pass, then bounced a pass to Clark in transition for a layup that made it 42-30.
The Tigers’ lead was never below 10 after that and Comito scored five points in the final 3:21 to keep them safely ahead, the slickest of those points coming when she gave up the ball, faked one way, cut to the basket and took a pass from Clark for an easy layup.
Lower finished a standout prep career with 1,787 points and wound up with 333 3-pointers, which ranks third on the state’s all-time list. Only Ellie Ruffridge of Pocahontas with 466 and Rock Valley’s Deb Remmerde with 353 made more and her final percentage from distance was an impressive .438.
