It was nice to have her back. That was the sentiment of Malcolm girls’ basketball head coach Andy Klepper after Emma Brown helped the No. 4 Clippers cruise to a 63-24 win over Mead on Jan. 23.
The 6-foot sophomore has been in the lineup all season, but her numbers have been less than awe-inspiring the past few weeks. That changed against the Raiders as Brown was a perfect 5-of-5 from the floor and 3-for-3 from the line to score 13 points. She also grabbed five rebounds and blocked a shot.
“I told her we need her to be a force inside,” Klepper said. “She showed the kind of dominating presence she can be when sets her mind to it.”
After struggling to get much going on offense the night before, Malcolm had its way with Mead all night long. The Clippers jumped out to a 19-6 lead in the first quarter and never looked back.
“We came out a little more determined,” Klepper said. “We got back to the kind of ball we like to play.”
Alyssa Fortik led the Clippers with 15 points. The sophomore floor general hit a pair of three-pointers and dished out five assists. Joslyn Small scored 14 while knocking down both of her attempts from three-point range.
“Alyssa has been doing a great job using the dribble-drive to get defenses to collapse on her,” Klepper said, “That creates nice opportunities for her teammates and Joslyn has been capitalizing on those chances.”
The previous evening, the Clippers turned in a less than impressive offensive performance in a 42-13 win at Wilber-Clatonia. Through the first three periods, Malcolm averaged just over nine points per frame.
“I don’t know what was going on,” Klepper said. “We didn’t establish much of an inside game and it took a while to get anything to fall from the outside.”
Diamond Sedlak was a bright spot offensively. The sophomore three-point specialist hit three from long range as she led the way with 17 points. Fortik added 14.
The Malcolm defense picked up the slack as it forced 42 turnovers.
“As rough as our offense looked at times, I’ll take that kind of defense any night,” Klepper said.
The Clippers opened the week with a 57-24 rout of Freeman on Jan. 19. Malcolm scored as many in the first quarter as the Falcons scored the entire game.
Sedlak led her team with 16 points, including nailing four from beyond the arc. Small displayed her ability to score off the dribble by dropping in 14 points.
“We can be a dangerous team when we’re balanced like that,” Klepper said. “With four girls showing the ability to score in double-figures consistently, we’re a pretty tough team to defend.”
The Clippers (16-0) were scheduled to play Johnson County Central (2-14) Jan. 26 in Malcolm. They are hoping to schedule a makeup game against No. 8 Auburn (14-1) later in the week before turning their attention to the East Central Nebraska Conference tournament.
“We were supposed to play Auburn week one but weren’t able to because of the restrictions in our county,” Klepper said. “They’re a solid team that we’ll probably see one way or another in the next couple of weeks.”
