Prep basketball: Wyaskett sparks Clearfield girls in dominant decision over Sky View
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- Clearfield’s Izzy Wyaskett handles the basketball against Sky View on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Clearfield.
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- Clearfield’s Ashlee King (12) drives against Sky View’s Lacy Smith (25) on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Clearfield
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- Clearfield’s Xiyah Yarbrough, center, reaches for the ball against Sky View’s Claire Fischer, right, on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Clearfield.
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- Clearfield’s Xiyah Yarbrough (2) drives against Sky View’s Alivia McKay on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Clearfield.
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- Clearfield High students cheer during a girls basketball game on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Clearfield
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- Clearfield’s Bailey Hoover, center, advances the ball against Sky View on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Clearfield
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- Clearfield’s Ashlee King, right, tries to secure a loose ball against Sky View on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Clearfield
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- Players on the Clearfield High girls basketball bench cheer a play in a game against Sky View on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Clearfield
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- Clearfield’s Bailey Hoover (25) tries to handle a Sky View double team on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Clearfield
CLEARFIELD — Izzy Wyaskett from the left angle on a jumper.
Wyaskett from the right side for two.
Wyaskett from beyond the 3-point arc (five times) in a high school girls basketball game against Sky View on Friday night.
Clearfield’s 5-foot-4 junior point guard added six free throws in the fourth quarter and finished with 25 points, and the Falcons put together big runs in both the second and fourth periods to race past the Bobcats 55-36 in a non-region flyover.
“I try to prepare myself for games by locking in before and taking a little pre-game nap,” Wyaskett said. “It’s a mental thing. I focus in and that helped my performance today.”
Wyaskett scored 16 points in the first 11 minutes and made four 3s in the first half.
“My team helped me a lot; they knew where I was,” Wyaskett said. “They helped me get open … I tried to find my space and find the right spot at the right time.”
To put more spin on how electric Wyaskett’s performance was, the Falcons didn’t score their first field goal until 4:23 remaining in the first quarter and she had racked up the 16 points by the time Sky View begged for a timeout at the 5:01 mark of the second stanza.
“I like my little side step, that’s one of my favorite moves,” Wyaskett said. “I like taking good open shots and don’t try to force anything. I use the best of my ability and try to attack.”
Sky View (1-1) scored the first basket of the second quarter, then Clearfield went on a 15-2 run before the Bobcats called the timeout with the Falcons leading 23-11.
Xiyah Yarbrough, Ashlee King and Gretchen Higley had complementary baskets to Wyaskett’s trio of 3s during the blitz.
“We really work well together; know what to do. We put trust in each other … pulling for each other,” Wyaskett said.
Clearfield worked its game plan to perfection, according to coach JT Soter.
“We came out a little cold and I told them to go inside out,” Soter said. “We went to the post then kicked it out to Izzy. Once she saw one go in, she caught on fire.”
Soter then did what Sky View couldn’t do: stopped Wyaskett, by pulling her from the game after the timeout while inserting five bench players.
“Izzy’s aggressive and only had one foul. We didn’t want her to pick up a second. We tried to get Xiyah some rest. She had two fouls and I didn’t want her to pick up a third,” Soter said. “I thought the group I put in could handle it and they did a good job.”
That combination led to a 31-16 lead at the break for the Falcons.
Sky View outscored Clearfield 14-10 in the third quarter and narrowed the gap to 41-35 midway through the fourth quarter before the Falcons rallied with their second big run, 14-1, to close it out.
Wyaskett made 6 of 8 free throws during that stretch and Yarbrough and Bailey Hoover had two baskets each.
“I wanted to show another part of my game that I can do well, so I tried to attack and get the fouls,” Wyaskett said. “They couldn’t guard me so I got to the line and hit my free throws.”
Yarbrough finished with 10 points for the Falcons.
Clearfield (2-0) is small as a team but relies on an aggressive approach that served it well last season.
“Last year we averaged 17 steals a game and we had 28 our first game this year,” Soter said. “We’re small but we’re physical. We like to front the post and hopefully get some backside defense and ball pressure so they don’t get easy shots.”
Further challenging the Falcons is that 6-foot-1 center Amoree Scholer is out, recovering from a second ACL tear and may not play this year. That gave Bobcat power forward Claire Fischer room to maneuver underneath, where she scored 15 points before fouling out.
“Before our last run, we went man (defense) a little too long and it was only a matter of time before (Fischer) started getting some buckets,” Soter said. “Then one of our players suggested we go to a zone. Fischer fouled out and we took off.”
