Photo by Claire Hewitt: St. Edmond's Grant Galles goes to the basket against South Hamilton on Thursday night in Jewell.

JEWELL — The top-ranked (Class 1A) St. Edmond boys had no letdown before a showdown with Clear Lake, blasting South Hamilton by a final of 70-26 here on Thursday.

The Gaels (7-0 overall) take on the No. 2 (3A) Lions Friday night to cap a three-game road swing.

Hunter Horn and Jakob Koopman each scored 19 points, and Carson Bargfrede joined them in double figures with 15. Ty Mericle added six points off the bench.

St. Edmond raced out to a 26-10 lead after the first and held the Hawks scoreless in the third.

“We came out and took care of business,” SEHS head coach Adolph Kochendorfer said. “There was no looking ahead or anything, which was what we wanted to see out of them. It was expected because this is an experienced team that understands the situations each night out there.

“We were able to give them some rest and get some of the other kids some key varsity minutes.”

King Brown led South Hamilton with nine points.

Horn moved into third on the school’s career scoring list earlier this week, passing John Engler. The senior — a three-year starter — now sits behind only Andrew Gibb (1,539) and Nick Clark (1,437) with 1,290 career points.

The Gaels and Lions will meet a second time on Feb. 6 at the SEHS gym.

“It will be a good test for us,” Kochendorfer said. “That’s what we love about playing in the North Central Conference. We’ll go up there and give it our all.”

ST. EDMOND 70, SOUTH HAMILTON 26

St. Edmond — Jakob Koopman 19, Hunter Horn 19, Carson Bargfrede 15, Ty Mericle 6, Grant Galles 4, Jack McElroy 2, Logan Hanson 2, Jacob Nieland 2, Jamison Baker 1.

South Hamilton — King Brown 9, Manny Babcock 3, Jesus Garcia 2, Sam Koehnk 5, Benjamin Swenson 2, Luke Martensen 5.

Quarter scores: St. Edmond led 26-10, 50-18, 64-18.