Clear Lake Falconhoops

Can you spell free throw? Scott Oswald and the Clear Lake Falcons sure did when they met a determined Memphis East squad in the Consolation Championship game Thursday, December 30, 2004, in the Poplar Bluff Showdown. Lake played their brand of team ball against a tough, quick bunch of Memphis boys who also wanted the trophy. Finally in the tournament, Clear Lake displayed the kind of talent that Clear Lake is known for. It was not the Falcons best game of the season but it was a very good one. This was the first game of the tournament that the Falcons really played well against formidable competition. The two teams matched up well which always makes for a fun basketball game to watch. Before the game a key factor to win was to be able to stop the Mustang’s point guard, Antonio Whitehead. He gave the Falcons fits (25 points total) as expected but the Falcons prevailed. In the first quarter Mark Murphy got two quick fouls and had to sit down so Justin Kurtz came in and carried the load. The Falcons played excellent team basketball and tried hard to minimize their mistakes. At the end of a close 1st quarter with both teams making few errors, it was 17-15, Clear Lake up by 2. Early in the second quarter, it was tied at 17 before a Lake steal by Armie Lewis broke the tie. Then a steal by Andy Leveque enabled a 3 on 1 to put Lake up 21-17. Then Lake let the Mustangs beat them down the court two times in a row to knot it at 21 all. Andy got a lay up and a free throw to put Lake up 24-21. With the closing seconds of the first half ticking away, Kendrell Thompson passed to Lee Mazurek in the corner for a three point attempt that was nothing but net as the buzzer sounded. 29-25 at the half. A good omen to end the half for sure. In the early minutes of the 3rd quarter Lake increased their lead back to 6 when Kendrell drove to the hoop and scored and was fouled. With 2:37 remaining in the quarter and the score at 35-33 Gordon Abner gets fouled and knocked to the floor with the ball in his hands. No foul was called in a glaring “no-call”. (There were several calls that provoked the small, but vocal, Lake crowd). At this point, the ref calls a technical foul on the Clear Lake bench as he passed by and heard something which displeased him. That tied it at 35 when Whitehead made both free throws. At 1:23 left, Lake gets behind 35-39. Two more obvious fouls on Lake were not called. 41-35 with 30 seconds remaining. In the waning seconds Justin Kurtz drives to the basket, scores and is fouled. The successful free throw makes it 41-38 with Lake trailing after 3. The Falcons know when it is time to go to work and they did it well in the final period. Prudent basketball with good shot selection and minimal turnovers continued in the final quarter. At 3:25 remaining it was knotted at 48 all after Scotty fed Gordon underneath for a layup and a foul. It was tied again at 50. Timely free throws by Scott and a dunk by Gordon on a perfectly executed play bring the score to 54-50 in Lake’s favor. Lake went on to bring the score to 59-53 final. Scott Oswald went 10 for 10 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter. There were 15 turnovers in the game but only 5 were bad passes. Scoring by quarter: 17-12-09-21 Us 15-10-16-12 Them Scoring for the Falcons: Scott Oswald 12 (10 straight free throws in the 4th quarter), Armie Lewis 10, Gordon Abner 9, Justin Kurtz 9, Andy Leveque 8, Lee Mazurek 5, Mark Murphy 2, Jordan Villarreal 2, Kendrell Thompson 2 2’s: 18 of 40 (45%) 3’s: 3 of 7 (43%) Free throws: 14 of 19(74%) (11 of 13 in the 4th quarter)