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Clear Creek Amana beats Iowa City West in a battle of inexperienced boys’ basketball teams
Clippers rally in second half to take a 58-53 win
Dec. 3, 2025 1:21 am
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IOWA CITY - Beckett Boeset in the first half. Mason Meskimen in the second half.
Thus Clear Creek Amana at the end of the game.
Junior guard Boeset scored a game-high 26 points, 18 in the first half. Sophomore guard Meskimen had 21 points, 19 in the second half, as CCA won its boys’ basketball opener Tuesday night at Iowa City West, 58-53.
Clear Creek Amana captured the Wamac Conference West Division last season but lost a ton of points, rebounds and assists from that team to graduation. Looks like that might not make much of a difference with this inexperienced but talented group.
“I think we’ve had a lot of success, we’ve got a lot of talent,” Boeset said. “I think the experience is where we lack a little bit. I think we came in here and played up more than a lot of people thought we would do. I just think our talent took us higher than what our experience was.”
Boeset was CCA’s leading returning scorer at just 5.4 points per game. But he’s playing an expanded and important role this season and did it expertly Tuesday.
Bound and determined to get to the basket, Boeset kept his team in the game in a first half that saw West take a 29-22 lead into the break. He seemed to be the only Clippers player determined to score points.
“Beckett maybe did too much in the first half,” said Clear Creek Amana Coach Brandon Clubb. “We just talked to him about getting everybody involved ... so we got into a little better flow working the ball. That was basically the difference.”
The second half was Meskimen’s half. A state cross-country runner-up this fall, he hit an early 3-point shot, and that completely got him going.
He ended up making three 3s in the half, including a dagger with 2:35 left that gave CCA a 49-44 lead that never would be relinquished.
“Honestly, it was just first-half nerves for me,” Meskimen said. “Just coming out the first game. Yeah, just kind of getting a feel for it at first. Then it was like ‘All right, time to turn it on.’ Close game. It was good for sure.”
“We do play off each other, for sure,” Boeset said. “I think I’m more get downhill, I think he’s more of a shooter. We complement each other. They guard one, the other one is going to be open. I think that’s good.”
West has a new head coach in Jason Kern and pretty much a new varsity roster to go with it. Legendary coach Steve Bergman stepped down after last season.
The newbies built a 12-10 lead after a quarter and extended it to 29-22 at halftime. Guard Jack Jensen-Fitzpatrick, son of University of Iowa head women’s basketball coach Jan Jensen, hit four first-half 3-points for 12 points.
But he would end up not hitting another shot until a superfluous trey at the end of the game. Ethan Headings added 12 points for the Trojans, who took a one-point lead into the fourth quarter.
Forward Juju Manson, a double-digit scorer last season, isn’t playing this season because of an injury incurred during football season. So like CCA, this is pretty much a brand new team.
“We were going into this game blind,” Clubb said. “We really didn’t know what we were going to get out of them, especially with a new coach. So I think just figuring out what they were running, we guarded better in the second half. The Fitzpatrick kid kind of went off there, and we fixed some of that. Offensively, we just got a lot more people with the ball.”
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AT IOWA CITY WEST
CLEAR CREEK AMANA (58): Silas Cobb 0-2 0-0 0, Avery Sorensen 1-2 3-3 5, Carson Meskimen 7-16 4-4 21, Beckett Boeset 10-14 5-9 26, Kayden Howe 0-2 1-2 1, Alex DuBay 0-0 0-0 0, Noah Evans 0-2 0-0 0, Myles Howell 2-5 0-3 5, Texton Bollers 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-43 13-21 58.
IOWA CITY WEST (53): Owen Harms 2-6 0-0 5, Jack Jensen-Fitzgerald 5-8 0-0 15, Ethan Headings 6-11 0-0 12, Henry Elser 4-9 0-1 9, Neil James 0-4 2-4 2, Lowden Van Daele 2-4 0-0 4, Ahmet Toz 3-7 0-0 6, Kyle Henkenius 0-0 0-0 0, Corey Davis 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-49 2-5 53.
Halftime - Iowa City West 29, Clear Creek Amana 22. 3-point goals - Clear Creek Amana 5-12 (Meskimen 3-8, Boeset 1-2, Howell 1-2), Iowa City West 7-20 (Harms 1-2, Jensen-Fitzgerald 5-8, Headings 0-3, Elser 1-5, Toz 0-2). Rebounds - Clear Creek Amana 28 (Cobb, Sorensen, Boeset 4), Iowa City West 29 (James 8). Total fouls - Clear Creek Amana 14, Iowa City West 17. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Clear Creek Amana 15, Iowa City West 12.
Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com
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