Clear Lake Falconhoops

The Graduating Class of 2009 has brought many great people and things to Clear Lake High School. Tonight was a night to honor five of those people: Clear Lake Varsity basketball players Kyle Ashton, Nick Arrington, Mark McCollum, Matt McCollum and Jared Miller. Each player has been working tirelessly since before they were in middle school to get to this point. Finally the countless hours in the gym during the summers have paid off.  

Following the pre-game ceremony honoring seniors and fans there was still a District 24-5A game to be played. Although it was Senior Night Jacob Horton, a junior, got things rolling for Clear Lake. Horton scored 11 of his game high 23 points in the first quarter to get the Falcons going. With at least two games remaining, Jacob has 99 three point baskets this season through 33 games (37.5%), the most since Kendrell Thompson in 2007 who had 98 through 40 games (40.3%) (Thompson, who now plays for Sam Houston State, finished his senior year as the #1 three point shooter in the state of Texas).

The 2009 seniors weren’t left out of the action in tonight's game though. Matt McCollum broke the press and dished off to Kyle Ashton who finished second on the team with 19 points and five assists. The Falcons ran away from the Alvin Yellow Jackets in the first quarter by the score of 19-6.

Alvin’s leading scorer Tylr Archie, who torched Clear Lake in their first matchup with 31 points, came into the second quarter and did most of the scoring for the Yellow Jackets. Archie finished with a team high 17 points. Lake's Jared Miller  had his best game of the season and dropped in two points at the end of the second quarter to draw the half to a close, with Lake winning 27-16.

Matt McCollum began the half giving one of his five assists to Jackson Hardage for the easy hoop. Later in the quarter Mark McCollum drove to the bucket, put the ball in the hole and finished with made a free throw to complete the “And 1 play.” Mark finished with a well-rounded stat line amassing 9 points, five assists, and five rebounds. Immediately after that Alvin showed its resilience by going on an 11-1 run to trim Clear Lake’s lead to 10 with 1:21 remaining in the third quarter. The Krueger Field house fans were getting increasingly nervous. The run brought back memories of the double overtime game Lake won at Alvin in their first matchup this season. Jackson Hardage closed out the third period with a lay-up to put Lake in the lead 41-31.

Clear Lake started the final quarter on a 9-2 run highlighted by Jacob Horton’s slam dunk. The dunk excited the crowd, and with 4 minutes remaining it did not seem as if Alvin would be coming back trailing by 16 points. Kyle Ashton cemented the win with 2:21 remaining by scoring a lay-up off of an Alvin turnover, to put the score at 56-43. Clear Lake beat Alvin by the final score of 64-49.

Due to a win by Clear Springs tonight at Galveston Ball it just made things that much tighter for second place in 24-5A. Clear Lake has one more regular season game to go. The Falcons last regular season game will be played away against Clear Brook High School. In case you forgot, Brook defeated Lake at home on a half court buzzer beater in overtime. That game could possibly be one of the best games of the season. Unfortunately it just didn’t go the Falcons way. The upcoming match-up this Friday is sure to be just as competitive with playoff seeding on the line.

Martin Dehlinger

Action photos of this game should be posted by Wednesday at 5 p.m. To view photos of any game this season, go to  Current Season Photos   . Use the Browser's "BACK" or "BACK Arrow" to return to this website.

Individual scoring: 

Mark McCollum 9 (5 rebs, 5 assists)

Kyle Ashton 19 (5 assists)

Matt McCollum 2 (5 assists)

Jacob Horton 23

Blake Gregorcyk

Nick Arrington - did not play due to health

Brick Pomeroy 2

Jake McKnight - did not play due to injury

Jackson Hardage 7

Jared Miller 2 (6 rebounds, 2 steals, 4 blocks, 1 CD)