Clear Lake Falconhoops

Creek over Lake 52-50 February 5, 2005 If the fans were charged for admission based on the quality of the game played, everyone would have had to shell out much more than two dollars per person Friday night at Carlisle Field House for the game between cross-town rivals Clear Lake and Clear Creek. Everyone got their money’s worth and then some. For over thirty years it has almost always been a great game and this was no exception. In the first round matchup in the Lake gym, Creek dominated Lake late in the game and some expected Creek to dominate again. However, those who reflected back to Alvin playing Creek to double overtime last Tuesday knew Lake’s chances were better than the oddsmakers might calculate. Throw in the "anything's possible in high school basketball" reasoning and the game was certainly up for grabs. In the first quarter Clear Lake took an early lead 8 to 4 before Clear Creek came back and tied it at 10 all with 2:19 remaining in the period. Neither team scored for the remainder of the quarter. The foul count was 2 for Creek and 5 for Lake. The second quarter started with Justin Kurtz making a pass in to Mark Murphy for a layup from the left side to put Lake up 12-10. By one minute into the quarter the foul count was 2-7 (7 on Lake). Yes, Creek was shooting bonus free throws one minute into the second quarter! It was tied again at 14 just over two minutes into the period when Justin again made a quick pass in to Murphy for the layup. Just like last game, Mark Murphy’s very aggressive play led him to be the team’s second leading scorer again tonight (Murphy had 12 points and 7 rebounds). At the 5:33 mark, Justin committed his third foul and was resigned to the bench. Midway through the quarter it was 19-14, Creek up by 5 and a foul count of 2-9. At 3:40, after the refs noticed the foul count, Creek’s Ray Kraemer was awarded his third foul and had to sit out as well. With 3:20 left in the period, Creek was shooting two free throws with each foul. The Wildcats increased their lead to six before Lake narrowed it. In the waning seconds of the half, with Mark at the line shooting two after being fouled while shooting, a technical foul was called on Creek (must have been something said by a player while they lined up for the free throw?). Mark made both free throws but Kendrell Thompson was allowed to shoot the technical free throws. Kendrell made the second one to close the first half at 26-23, Creek up by 3. In the first half the Falcons were 9 of 27 from the field (1 of 8 from three point land). After a close, exciting two point contest in most of the first four minutes of the third quarter, midway through the quarter Kendrell, on his way to a game high 15 points and the highest shooting percentage from the field for his team, tied it at 34 and Gordon Abner tied it again at 36 with a putback. The quarter closed with Creek up by 3, 41-38. After Creek gained an initial lead of 5 points early in the fourth, the final quarter was a one or two point ball game the remainder of the quarter. At 4:15 remaining, Scott finally hit a trey to put Lake ahead 45-43 but Creek answered with a three as well to put them up 46-45. Lake regained the lead at the 3:05 mark when Kendrell drove the right side of the lane one more time to score and put the Falcons up 47-46. At 2:40, a strange foul call on Gordon put Kramer at the line to tie it at 47 and then put Creek up by 1 (Ray Kraemer is their leading free throw shooter averaging 85% from the charity stripe). Creek’s Lance Pevehouse hit a two to make it 50-47, Creek by 3 at 1:38 remaining. Then Justin Kurtz buried his only three to tie it at 50. With 32 seconds left, a foul called on Murphy put the Wildcats’ Chris Spencer at the line. Although he was shooting 1 and 1 and missed the first, the referee blew the whistle and awarded him another free throw. It seems Armie Lewis, despite being behind the three point arc, clapped and the referee decided it was distracting to the free throw shooter, so another free throw was awarded. Fortunately, the boy missed both free throws. A desperation shot by Lake (with 1.47 seconds remaining) fell short. The final score was 52-50. (Lake missed four free throws in the final four minutes of the game). The Lake-Creek rivalry is what personifies a Friday night high school basketball game. The ingredients of this game included two well prepared squads staffed with superb athletes conditioned to what may well be the peek physical condition of their lives (for some of them); each of the two veteran coaches anticipating the strategic moves of his opponent due to the numerous times they have faced each other; a mostly packed field house with ardent fans cheering their team to victory; a close contest, with numerous ties (six times) and lead changes, which goes down to the last shot before the outcome is certain; and seasoned officials administering the regulations of the game in a competent, judicious manner. Well, the game had almost all those ingredients. All but the part about competent, seasoned officials. Unfortunately, the teams were saddled with two very junior officials and another who must have been junior but since he was a stranger, it is difficult to say. Some of his calls made him also look like a beginner at times. There were numerous “iffy” calls made on both sides and there were more than a few critical no-calls by the refs. Example: The worst no-call of the game was when, very late in the game with the score separated by two points, a foul is called on the Falcons under the Falcon basket when the player with the ball was fouled. Creek proceeded down the court to shoot the free throws but sharp shooter Lance Pevehouse, a better free throw shooter, stepped to the line rather than the player who was fouled. The fledgling refs not only overlooked this until it was pointed out to them by Scott Oswald, they failed to call a technical foul on Creek for the noticeable infraction (Rule 10, Section 3, Article 7f). Suffice it to say if you swapped out this set of refs for a seasoned set, there would have been a very different ball game. Perhaps with the same outcome, perhaps not. That is not to say the officials should be used to explain the Falcons loss. They should not. But they did do a bad job of officiating at times. These boys deserve better. In other district games Pearland beat Galveston Ball and Clear Brook defeated Brazoswood. Scoring for the Falcons: Kendrell Thompson 15 (6 rebounds), Mark Murphy 12 (7 rebounds, 2 blocks), Gordon Abner 8, Scott Oswald 6 (6 rebounds), Justin Kurtz 5, Andy Leveque 2, Armie Lewis 2 Score after each quarter 10-23-38-50 US 10-26-41-52 Them Score by quarter: 10-13-15-12 US 10-16-15-11 Them 2’s: 18 of 39 (46%) 3’s: 3 of 17 (18%) Free throws: 5 of 12 (42%) Footnote: the scoring presented in the Houston Chronicle is provided by the home team scorekeeper. In this case, the Clear Creek scorekeeper. The scoring and stats provided here are a compilation of those kept by the Clear Lake scorekeeper, the Clear Lake statistician, and those independently recorded for this website (total of four sets of eyes). Sometimes discrepancies between the home scorekeeper i.e. the Chronicle line scores and our stats do occur but I tend to trust our stats especially when the independent website stats and the Clear Lake stats agree. Infrequently, the official stats recorded by the Clear Lake staff are not available to the website the night of the game. In this case, only the website stats are used. For this game both the Clear Lake stats and the website stats were available.