Clear Lake Falconhoops

The 48 boys teams in the tournament were bracketed into two Divisions. Division 1 in which Clear Lake was placed was comprised of teams considered to be among the 24 best teams entered. Among these teams were 10 state ranked teams in either Texas or Louisiana. If a team is assigned to the upper division, this greatly reduces the chances of coming away even close to being a bracket winner for teams not loaded with already developed talent. Separating all the better teams into one division is done by the tournament administrators to improve the caliber of the games in both divisions. 

There are significant disadvantages to playing in such tournaments especially when a team's coach is not consulted about which division he feels his team should be assigned. When a team has lost most of their players due to graduation and may not be loaded with returning talent, the preseason expectations of a team by outside onlookers are often disproportionately based on last season's performance and the legacy of the school's basketball program rather than regard for current talent on the team. In other words, very strong basketball schools are expected to have very strong teams again this year. Many coaches, especially large school coaches with unranked teams and few returning lettermen, will knowingly avoid tournaments such as this because of the high probability of finishing close to the bottom of the pile and the detrimental effects this can have on a team early in the season when getting a few wins under their belt goes a long way in building the confidence of a team. Since this was the first year the tournament has been structured this way, it was a surprise to most of the coaches.

West Monroe 44 - Clear Lake 43 

In pool play on day 1 Clear Lake faced 10th ranked West Monroe, Louisiana, a young but very quick team, and lost a close game in the last 9 seconds because of a questionable call that put Lake's opponent at the free throw line to win. This had been preceded seconds earlier by a glaringly bad charging call on Lake's Steve Hartman. Clear Lake committed 21 turnovers in the game.

Klein Collins 56 - Clear Lake 53

In the second game of pool play Clear Lake faced Klein Collins. KC is ranked second or third in several state polls and first in the Greater Houston region. With 10 returning  lettermen, seven of which started 8 games or more last season, Collins was the heavy favorite to win the Division 1 Gold bracket (they did by defeating Cypress Springs, also a ranked team, in the finals by 7 points).

In the Clear Lake - Klein Collins game, fans got to witness one of the best Clear Lake games they will see this year. The underdog Falcons were mentally prepared and rose to the challenge. They outplayed and outscored the KC bunch for three very impressive quarters of Grade A+ basketball. Considering it was only their third game of the season, the Lake squad played truly amazing basketball and was up 41-28 at the end of the third quarter.  

But the game is four quarters long. Trying to hold KC's Gonzaga-bound guard Demitri Goodson(#3), Derek Craig (#33, 12 of his 14 points in the 4th quarter), and the talent laden KC Tigers down for four quarters is a task few can accomplish. KC scored as many points in the final quarter as in the previous three to win in the last minute. Goodson also proved to be even more unstoppable against Cy Springs in the finals so Lake's Steve Hartman and Brian Campbell should be proud of their accomplishment. The entire Lake squad should be very pleased about how well they played in most of the game.

In chess and basketball the best way to get better is to play someone who is better than you. There are many immeasurable benefits that come from a game like this for Clear Lake but it still gets marked as a loss. Fans watching the way the Clear Lake squad played their hearts out could not help but be proud of the scrappy Falcons. They are going to be really fun to watch this season.

Clear Lake 57 - Midland 56

Fort Bend Marshall 67 - Clear Lake 65

Clear Brook 56 - Clear Lake 45

Clear Lake came away from the tournament with 1 win and 4 losses. Lake's season record is 2-4.