When Claire Withrow’s freshman season at Hillcrest Academy began more than a year ago, she was in the Ravens starting lineup.

That’s a big deal for a 15-year-old.

She hit a game-high four 3-pointers.

University of Iowa star Caitlin Clark, who is arguably the best 3-point shooter on the planet, hit one 3-pointer in her 2016 high school freshman debut at Dowling Catholic in West Des Moines.

These days, Withrow watches Clark on TV all the time, just like about every other player on an Iowa high school, middle school or elementary school team. Clark, who is Iowa’s all-time leading scorer and who had the first-ever 40-point triple-double in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament a year ago, is the inspiration for everybody. Clearly.

“She’s definitely a player that I look up to and watch every game that she plays,” Withrow says. “It’s just crazy what she can do.”

And it goes beyond the scoring.

“She’s always there for her teammates, like giving credit to them and the coaches,” Withrow said. “It’s never like me, me, me. I really like that about her.”

And that brings us to Claire, a Tiffin resident who would probably be playing this year for unbeaten and second-ranked Clear Creek Amana if she hadn’t chose to instead head into southwest Johnson County and attend Hillcrest.

Withrow ranks second in the state in Class 1A with 46 3-pointers.

Her talent was noticed quickly by Ravens head coach Mitchell Drey.

“Claire, as a freshman, came in as a junior or senior shooting-wise,” Drey said. “She came in ready to shoot the basketball. Really good form. I could tell that she put a lot of time in.”

So, back in November 2022, she started for the Ravens in their season-opening game against Tri-County and started every game the rest of last year, plus all of this season.

“Mitchell just kind of threw me in freshman year, first game, started varsity,” Withrow said.

She scored 12 points in that debut, hitting 4-of-6 3-pointers. This season, her 46 3-pointers in 14 games tops an impressive 3-point shooting sophomore class in the Southeast Iowa Super Conference that includes Finley Jacque of Lone Tree (35 3-pointers). Withrow is the top 3-pointing sophomore in the state, all classes.

“She’s a really, really good player,” Drey said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what she looks like in the next couple of years.”

This season has been different at Hillcrest. The Ravens didn’t win a game last season and just won once the year before that. This time around, they’ve already won four games and a 56-48 victory over Winfield-Mt. Union on Jan. 2 was Hillcrest’s first conference win in almost four years.

Withrow and junior teammate Malia Yoder are a big part of that. They have both started all 34 Hillcrest games the last two seasons, and Withrow and Yoder have been the team’s one-two scorers both years.

“My team’s been there for me through it all,” Withrow said. “It’s been really nice to have all of them with me, being supportive and really helping me out through all of that.”

Sounds like the words you’d hear from Caitlin Clark.

It comes down to the work.

“The amount of work that she (Withrow) puts in during the offseason and practice,” Drey said. “She cares so much about this game. It makes it easy for me as coach.

Withrow said she spends time lifting in the weight room, practice and participating in open shoot-arounds. Yes, shooting.

“I shoot pretty regularly,” she said with a laugh.

But why Hillcrest?

“I was just looking for a smaller environment,” said Withrow, who once interviewed Santa Claus for her elementary school newspaper, The Monthly Clipper, at Clear Creek Amana.

The clear winner in all of this was Hillcrest, which hosts Pekin next Tuesday in a season-ending stretch that will see the Ravens playing four games in a week.

“As a freshman, I asked her to do a lot,” Drey said. “She has gotten so much better. I knew she could be good. The steps she took from freshman to sophomore year has been crazy. But she came in pretty developed in the shooting category, then the rest of her game from the start of the season to the end of the season, she developed quickly. She keeps getting better every time she touches the court.”

Withrow scored a career-high 24 points in a 53-21 victory over Cedar Valley Christian, and has topped 20 points six times this season.

Caitlin Clark?

She hit 71 3-pointers in her high school sophomore season for a team that won 21 games, finishing 11th in the state, and went up to 84 3-pointers her senior season.

Claire would take that, for sure.

News columnist Paul Bowker can be reached at bowkerpaul1@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @bowkerpaul