Clear Lake Falconhoops

Pearland Downs Clear Lake 66-64 January 28, 2005 I really, really believed Clear Lake would beat the taller Pearland team tonight in the Pearland gym when the second round of district play started. In the previous match-up, Pearland topped Lake by 1 point in their district opener. If Lake made their free throws and played as well as the first game, Lake would win. Lake made their free throws but still lost. To watch Clear Lake play a game like they played last week against Clear Brook was so satisfying because it displayed the team's potential. To watch the Falcons play a game like they played tonight against Pearland was frustrating. Not because they played poorly. The Falcons did not play poorly at all. They played pretty well but Pearland and the officials never let the Falcons get in their groove. Pearland took an early lead and was up 10-7 midway through the first quarter. After another minute of play it was 14-7. At 2:27 Scott Oswald, on his way to a team high 15 points, hit a trey to make it 14-10. Then Kendrell Thompson hit one from the paint to make it 14-12. With only a few seconds remaining in the period, Andy Leveque made a great pass in to Justin Kurtz in the paint. Justin laid it in to bring the score to 18-14. Lake went 5 for 14 from the field in the quarter. The quarter ended with Pearland up 20-14. One minute into the second quarter Armie Lewis stole the ball and Scott hit a trey to make it 20-17. Mark Murphy hit a three at 6:28 to tie it at 20. It was tied again at 22. Midway through the quarter it was 24-22 in Pearland's favor. At the 2:24 mark Lee Mazurek got a rebound and a putback to bring it to 27-24. At 1:15 Justin hit a trey to make it 31-27. The quarter closed at 32-29. Lake shot 6 free throws in the half. Pearland shot 14. At 3:47 left in the 3rd, Gordon Abner hit a free throw after a successful basket to tie it at 36. It was tied again at 38 when Lee Mazurek hit from the right wing with three minutes remaining in the quarter. At the 2:49 mark Scotty hit a three to make it 42-41, Lake down by one before Justin hit a free throw to tie it at 42. The quarter ended with Lake down by 3, 45-42. Midway in the final period Kendrell stole the ball and scored when Pearland in-bounded it to put Lake ahead 50-49. This steal made the TV highlights on channel 55. But Lake’s lead was short lived. Five seconds later Pearland regained the lead and maintained it. With the score at 60-56 in Pearland’s favor, Mark Murphy fouled out. At the 1:15 remaining mark, Justin hit a trey from the right wing to bring the score to 61-59, Lake still trailing. With 39 seconds remaining Justin hit a second trey to bring the Falcons within 1, 63-62. After some successful free throws by Pearland in the waning seconds, the final score was 66-62 in favor of Pearland. One of the many ways an official can affect the outcome of a game is when calling a foul in the act of shooting. Once the foul is called, if it is before the act of shooting began, the offense gets the ball out of bounds but no free throw. If it is after the act of shooting starts, then a free throw or two is awarded. As with most times when the whistle is blown, it is a judgment call by the ref. One of the things that stood out about this game by half time was the number of shooting fouls Pearland was awarded relative to the number of shooting fouls Clear Lake was awarded. It was very one sided in Pearland’s favor throughout the game. This can be explained in a number of ways. It is not the intent of this article to explain why it happens but rather to acknowledge that it was a significant factor in this game. Suffice it to say it was not just because Pearland was smarter about when to foul. Without belaboring the point any more, just consider the number of free throws in the contest. Pearland shot 42 in the game. Clear Lake shot 17. Lake should be commended for making 15 of 17 but it is tough to win when the other team shoots 42 free throws and makes 24 points off free throws! Despite shooting 25 more free throws than Clear Lake, Pearland made only 9 more points than Clear Lake off free throws. The other major reason Lake lost was rebounding. Lake allowed too many offensive rebounds. Depending on whose stats you believe, the Falcons had between 17 and 22 TOTAL rebounds. The Oilers had 23 OFFENSIVE rebounds and a total of 41 rebounds. Even if only one half the offensive rebounds resulted in scoring, that is potentially 24 points allowed because the taller team was often not blocked out effectively. Mighty tough to win when that many offensive rebounds are allowed. Pearland won the first game against Lake because every time the ball went up, every Pearland player, almost without exception, moved toward the basket. How hard is it to learn WHEN THE BALL GOES UP, ALWAYS MOVE TOWARD THE BASKET? DON'T STAND AND WATCH AND WONDER. MOVE TOWARD THE BASKET OR AT LEAST DON'T MOVE AWAY FROM THE BASKET. Pearland won their second game against Lake because they shot mostly close, high percentage shots and they got lots and lots of offensive rebounds. Close in, high percentage shots are a Pearland trademark although their shooting percentage on this night was not that good. Clear Lake shot between 49 and 56 times from the field (based on whose stats you choose to examine). Pearland shot at least 49 times as well. What this all means when you add it up is that Lake should have lost by at least 20 points but they only lost by 4. Not bad when all things are considered. Now if we can just do a better job of blocking out and rebounding. In other district action Brazoswood downed Alvin 33-25 and Clear Brook topped Galveston Ball 90-75. Clear Creek was idle. Score for each quarter 14-29-42-62 US 20-32-45-66 Them Scoring by quarter 14-15-13-20 US 20-12-13-21 Them Scoring for the Falcons: Scott Oswald 15, Justin Kurtz 12, Gordon Abner 10, Mark Murphy 7, Kendrell Thompson 6, Lee Mazurek 4, Andy Leveque 4, Armie Lewis 4 2’s: 13 of 35 (37%) 3’s: 7 of 21 (33%) Free throws: 15 of 17 (88%)