—Photo by Tom Vogt Webster City’s Henry Hoversten drives to the basket as St. Edmond’s Sean Newell (32) and Andrew Gibb (30) defend.

Henry Hoversten scored a career-high 31 points, Dylan Steen had a pair of big buckets in the fourth, and the Webster City boys held on for a 59-56 victory over St. Edmond here Friday night.

Hoversten, who came into the night with 22 points over two games, hit on 15 of 17 from the field and added 11 rebounds in the victory for the Lynx (1-2 overall, 1-0 in North Central Conference).

Andrew Gibb had his third consecutive game of 30-plus points, nearly matching Hoversten with 30 for the Gaels (2-2, 1-1), who were making their home debut.

“Henry played like a man,” WCHS head coach Marty McKinney said. “I challenged him pretty good on Wednesday and told him to focus on his power. He got after it right away and the guys found him.”

Hoversten, a 6-foot-7 senior, scored 22 in a game last year. He almost matched that in the first half with 18, going 6-for-7 from the floor over the final 16 minutes.

Steen, an all-state football player, added eight points and six rebounds for Webster City, with Tyler Olson chipping in eight.

“Give our guys credit because it’s obviously been a struggle with a lot of new faces, but they went there expecting to compete,” McKinney said. “It wasn’t pretty the whole game, but we never got rattled and that was the big thing.”

The Gaels, who played their first three games of the year on the road, claimed an early 16-12 lead as Drew Schaeffer and Jed Tracy knocked down three-pointers, with Jerris Duncan adding four points in the first quarter.

But over the course of time, the Lynx were able to stay within range before eventually taking the lead for good to start the third.

“We’ve got to get out to better starts and that falls on our seniors,” SEHS head coach Adolph Kochendorfer said. “We came in the more experienced team, but by letting Webster City hang around, they were able to gain confidence. We didn’t do a good job fronting on Hoversten and we let others get open too many times.”

Duncan finished with six points, three rebounds and a blocked shot, with Tracy adding three points, three boards and two steals.

Down by nine late in the fourth, Jackson Kochendorfer buried back-to-back deep 3-pointers, with Gibb sinking a pair of free throws to make it a 55-54 game with 90 seconds to go.

Steen and Hoversten, though, both had buckets and St. Edmond was unable to get a shot off down by three.

The Gaels return to the road on Tuesday when they take on Algona, while the Lynx host Clear Lake.

WEBSTER CITY 59, ST. EDMOND 56

Webster City — Dylan Steen 3-6 2-3 8, Drake Doering 2-7 0-0 4, Tavis Eklund 0-2 2-2 2, Tyler Olson 3-5 0-1 8, Henry Hoversten 15-17 1-3 31, Carter Neuroth 2-3 1-3 6, Nathan Ferrell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 25-40 6-12 59.

St. Edmond — Mitchell Rasmussen 0-2 0-0 0, Drew Schaeffer 2-6 0-0 5, Andrew Gibb 9-17 12-13 30, Sean Newell 0-0 0-0 0, Jackson Kochendorfer 2-7 0-0 6, Jed Tracy 1-4 0-0 3, Jerris Duncan 3-4 0-0 6, Connor Bocken 2-4 0-0 6. Totals: 19-44 12-13 56.

Quarter scores: St. Edmond led 16-12, Tied 27-27, Webster City led 45-39. Three-point goals: Webster City 3-11, St. Edmond 6-25. Total rebounds: Webster City 28, St. Edmond 14. Steals: Webster City 3, St. Edmond 7. Blocked shots: Webster City 1, St. Edmond 1. Team fouls: Webster City 11, St. Edmond 15. Technical foul: St. Edmond bench.