Clear Lake Falconhoops

Falcons Spank Wolverines 71-59 January 21, 2005 What A Great Basketball Game! It looked as if it would be a long night when the Clear Brook Wolverines came out charging against the stunned Falcons in their first district match-up of the 2004-05 season tonight in the Clear Lake gym. The two teams had previously met in the CCISD Tournament on December 4, 2004 to determine the third place finish. Clear Lake prevailed 48-42 in that contest. Tonight the Wolverines were determined not to allow a repeat of the previous match-up. They were much better prepared. They attacked Lake’s weaknesses with the precision of a Navy Seal Team on a clandestine mission after Lake took an early 7 to 6 lead. The Clear Brook bunch was runnin’ and gunnin’, scoring at will, and appeared to be unstoppable in the first four minutes of the game. Some fans in the overflow crowd began imagining a blowout as they braced for the worst (or the best if you were a Clear Brook fan). Lake’s man-to-man defense was ineffective to say the least. With 3:34 remaining in the first quarter, the score was 19 to 9, then 23 to 13, as the Wolverines dominated the game on both ends of the court. But then something truly superb happened. Clear Lake’s Coach Lynn McDonald, fresh from his 200th victory on the previous outing, called his second quick timeout and made some substitutions and changed his defense to a zone. Andy Leveque and Jordan Villarreal entered the game and, together with their teammates, stopped the nonsense. The Falcons began to hit their shots and Lake was down by 2 with the score at the end of the first quarter at 23-21 after some truly impressive offense by the Falcons. Lake scored 10 unanswered points in the last three minutes of the quarter. There were only three fouls called in the quarter so they were letting them play. In the second quarter it was defense that dominated after a run-and-gun first quarter. Clear Brook continued to lead until 2:27 remaining, when Kendrell Thompson drove to the basket and was fouled. The refs called goal tending and awarded the basket. His free throw tied it at 27 all. The quarter finished with Brook up 33-29. In the first half (and the second half), the effect that Justin Kurtz had on the game, on both ends of the court, was at times indescribable it was so impressive. In the first 35 seconds of the second half, Mark Murphy put in two timely free throws and then Kendrell Thompson tied it again at 33 when he pulled up for a short jumper from the right side of the basket. At 5:57 remaining in the third quarter, Kendrell tied the game for the third time when he hit a three point shot. It was tied again at 37 and at 39. WOW! What a ball game. At 4:29 Scotty hit a trey to put Lake ahead 42-39. Lake’s slightly superior offense and defense would not allow Clear Brook to retake the lead in this game. A basket by Justin Kurtz at 2:39 put Lake ahead 44-39. A reverse layup by Scott and baskets by Justin and Kendrell closed the quarter with Lake up 50-45. Early in the final period Justin got fouled on a three point attempt that would never have gone in. The score was 50-47, Brook trailing by only 3 points, their narrowest margin for the remainder of the game. Justin sank two of the free throws to increase the lead to 5. Then, with Justin lying on the floor after some "contact", an intentional kick by Brook’s Ryan Umeh led to Armie Lewis sinking two free throws when the technical foul was called. This brought the score to 54-47. With 6 minutes remaining in the game Lee Mazurek hits two free throws to bring the score to 59-51. Two more charity tosses by Scott brought it to 61-51 (foul count was 3 and 9 at this point) before Kendrell hit a short jumper from the right side to make it 63-51 with 3:40 remaining. Clear Brook was unable to narrow the gap to less than 9 in the remaining minutes. At just over two minutes remaining, Umeh got another technical called on him and was ejected when he shoved a Clear Lake player under Brook’s basket right in front of the official. Can you spell “attitude”? With one minute remaining the Wolverines started purposefully fouling but the ten point deficit was too much to overcome. Final score 71-59, a huge victory for Clear Lake. Reflections on the game. This was the 900th victory for Clear Lake High School in boys varsity basketball. How fitting that it should come from a game which personifies what high school basketball is all about. Huge rivalry, two superbly coached, well prepared squads comprised of outstanding athletes learning the satifaction and the joy of teamwork at its very best. Stands packed with zealous fans eager for their team to prevail. Tonight the Falcons showed who was the better team. There is a fine line between prepared and over-prepared for an important game. Both mentally and physically, the Falcons were very well prepared for this game. Despite a scary start, once the Falcons got on track they showed the Clear Brook coaches again that they are not a one-man team. Three players scored in double figures; eight players scored. The entire squad showed what they are capable of when they make up their minds. This was one of the best games Lake has played all season, perhaps better than their season opener against Fort Bend Marshall (now ranked #1 in the state in several polls). Although they are a young team, the Falcons have potential that has been untapped most of the season. Tonight in a win against one of their archrivals they demonstrated what they can do. Hopefully, with some added leadership from the team, they will peak at just the right time and achieve the potential for this season that some of us know they can achieve. They sure are fun to watch! FYI: Scott Oswald has agreed to play football at the Naval Academy. Congratulations, Scotty. Scoring by quarter: 21-08-21-21=71 US 23-10-12-14=59 Them Scoring for the Falcons: Justin Kurtz 23, Scott Oswald 17, Kendrell Thompson 14, Armie Lewis 6, Gordon Abner 5, Lee Mazurek 2, Mark Murphy 2, Andy Leveque 2 2's: 20 of 41 (49%) 3's: 4 of 13 (31%) Free throws: 19 of 26 (73%)