Clear Lake Falconhoops

Clear Springs

1-20-09           

Tonight’s game was played in conjunction with one of the most historic presidential inaugurations in American history. For the Falcons, learning from history is all they were concerned about.          

The Falcons lost to the Clear Springs Chargers 49-51 in their first matchup on December 6, 2008 in the CCISD tournament. Clear Lake was up 36-18 at halftime in that encounter but saw their lead evaporate when the Chargers outscored them 18-2 in the third quarter alone. Matt McCollum was asked Monday night how the first meeting between Clear Springs in the CCISD tournament impacted their season. “It definitely set us back a little, I mean any loss does but I think it will provide us with an extremely high level of motivation for the game.” Nick Arrington felt that “it was really hard to come off that loss after being up by so much and blowing it in one half. But every game we lose we figure out ways to learn from it so it affects us positively.”

Tonight’s game started out in much different fashion with the first quarter being a track meet and both teams seemingly scoring at will. Kyle Ashton seemed to have seen something in their defense that he could exploit. Kyle scored 10 straight Falcon points and finished the first quarter with 12. Kyle's 25 was his second best of the season.The McCollum twins ignited his run with a beautiful press break starting with Matt to Mark to Kyle with the basketball only touching the court once. Clear Springs went about scoring a different way with an array of three point field goals from #12 Devan Williams and #10 Javier Aguliar. Clear Lake concluded the first quarter up 20-18.

The second quarter started much slower with Lake only putting six points on the board late in the quarter. Clear Lake was again reminded by #44 Ryan Garcia just how small a team Lake is. The Falcons fell into the same trap that they did in the previous meeting as they were outscored 17-6 by Clear Springs in the second period. Lake entered the locker rooms down 26-35.

Mark McCollum came out of the half ready to lead Lake back with a smooth 12 foot jump shot. Kyle Ashton did a little distributing to continue the comeback with a nice dish to Jared Miller. Clear Lake was only down a mere 5 points at that time when the Chargers called a timeout with 6:27 left in the third and the score at 30-35. The well placed timeout by coach Chris Johnson was the beginning of a Clear Springs run of 8-2. Both teams could only muster 12 points for the third quarter behind physical defense and erratic offense by both teams. Lake began the final period down 38-47.

Brick Pomeroy, Clear Lake’s leading shot blocker, began the quarter with a nice rejection on the wing. The next sequence of plays was puzzling to the fans because it started with a Mark McCollum “foul” (when his arm was hooked by #44 Garcia.). Immediately afterwards Garcia seemed to have words with Blake Gregorcyk and pushed him. The referee called a technical foul on Garcia. Both teams shot free throws (Clear Springs shot 1 and 1 after the technical was shot due to referee error) before Clear Lake was given possession of the ball. That sequence was just what Lake and the Kruger Krazies needed. Free throws cut the lead to 44-51. Later in the quarter a three by Nick Arrington cut the deficit to 53-61 with 40 seconds left. The Falcons valiant come back was too late with Clear Springs winning by the final score of 58-63.

The Falcons loss cannot be blamed on any one thing besides shooting. Clear Lake Shot 24% from beyond the arc, and shot 65% from the free throw line with most of those misses being in the final minutes of the game. After the game Coach Lynn McDonald was asked how the Clear Springs Chargers managed to withhold the lead. “They started making their free throws, which they had not done consistently to that point. We just started playing too late.” The Falcons upcoming game on Friday against Alvin appears to be a much easier task after facing the District standings leaders in consecutive games. Alvin comes into the game with an abysmal 5-16 and 0-5 record in District play. This might be just what the Falcons need to get back on track. Alvin previously lost by 30 points to a Dickinson team that Lake beat by 40, so this doesn’t appear to be a very close game. Let’s just hope Lake can finally learn from history.  -Martin Dehlinger    

No action photos of this game are available. To view photos of previous games, go to  Current Season Photos   . Sometimes you can use the Browser's "BACK" or "BACK Arrow" to return to this website.

Individual Scoring:

Mark McCollum 4 (3 assists)

Kyle Ashton 25 (12 rebounds)

Matt McCollum 3 (3 assists)

Jacob Horton 13 (3 assists)

Blake Gregorcyk 4

Nick Arrington 4 (3 assists)

Brick Pomeroy 3

Jake McKnight

Jackson Hardage

Jared Miller 2