Clear Lake Falconhoops

Clear Lake 96 - Luezinger 85
Clear Lake Plays Their First Game Using A Shot Clock

A myriad of firsts occurred today when Clear Lake began its participation in the 17^th annual Torrey Pines Holiday Classic Basketball Tournament in San Diego, California.

1. first time to play in California
2. first time to play in a tournament which seeded the Falcons on both the winner’s side and the consolation side at the same time.
3. first time to play in a game using a shot clock (35 seconds)

The tournament actually started on December 26, but our Texas UIL has a rule that requires the players to be off for five consecutive days at Christmas to allow the players’ families to have an opportunity to travel at Christmastime. This means no practices or games during that blackout period. So the Falcons were not able to play on the first day of the tournament (which was the fifth day of the blackout period). As a result most of the other teams played on Tuesday but not Clear Lake. Instead, due to some creative bracketing by the tournament director, only the Falcons were seeded on both the winner’s and loser’s side of the bracket at the same time in the prestigious National Division.

In Game 1 on the Consolation side of the bracket, Clear Lake faced Luezinger High School from Lawndale, Ca. Luezinger is a very good team who lost their first round game to a highly ranked Christian Life Academy 62-47. Regardless of the outcome of Lake’s first tournament game, Clear Lake would return to the winner’s side of the bracket and Loezinger would advance on the Consolation side. Luezinger had a bigger, more physical team and is probably as good or better than any other team in District 24-5A with the exception of Pearland.

If the warmup was any indication, the rust that comes from five days with no practice meant Clear Lake would likely struggle in their first game. They were cold as ice. The concern that the Falcons would be rusty in their initial outing quickly faded as the only team from Texas in the tournament came out and played their best offensive game of the season. They also played one of their worst defensive games but they still prevailed.

In the first quarter a great move by Jimmy Witten toward the basket for Lake’s first goal gave the vocal contingent from the Lone Star State encouragement. A three point goal by Kendrell Thompson, his first of six for the game, got the Lake fans smiling even more. With 4:54 remaining in the first quarter, it was 6 to 14, Lake up by 8. A basket and a free throw by RJ Turner made it 12 to 20 before Luezinger went on a six point run to make it 18 to 20. Two free throws by Christian Enriquez, who had perhaps the best game of his high school career, closed the quarter at 18 to 22, Lake up by 4.

At 6:25 in the second quarter Luezinger went ahead for the first time 23-22. Lake regained the lead at the 5:40 mark when an astute Christian Enriquez pass found Fulton Brisco under the goal. The savvy Brisco was at the right place at the right time on offense throughout most of the game and was 7 of 11 from the field. An assist from Fulton to Armie Lewis who sank a two pointer from the three point arc at the top of the key made it 23-26, Lake up by 3. Until this point the vocal Clear Lake contingent was about the only observers for the contest but the crowd grew when the Christian Life Academy team came in to observe and scout the Falcons in the swanky Cathedral Catholic High School gym complex. At the 3:25 mark RJ Turner drove the basket from the left side to make it 25-30. Two successive treys by Anthony Bilcic, who had an outstanding game and went 4 for 4 from the field, made it 25-36 at the 2:28 mark before Luezinger hit a trey as well. Fulton nailed a trey with ease from the right wing to make it 32-44. The first half ended at 35 to 48, Lake’s highest point output for a half this season. Defensively the Falcons stood around and watched a lot, especially on defensive rebounding but excellent shooting from the field and really good offense enabled Lake to command the lead. The Falcons shot 10 of 14 from the field in the second quarter.

The second half started just like the first one with Jimmy Witten making an impressive move under the basket to score. The scoreboard changed to 38-56 when Kendrell drained another trey after two baskets and a free throw by Jimmy. Then a trey by Anthony, his third, made it 42-61. With 1:42 remaining in the third quarter Lake increased their lead to 20 points when Cody Kinsey hit his jumper from the corner as he was fouled. He sank the free throw. The quarter closed at 51-69.

In the fourth quarter the Falcons continued their impressive shooting going 12 of 18 from the field. The Luezinger squad scored much too easily from the paint on Clear Lake throughout the game and Lake fouled too much but you could not have asked for a much better offensive performance. Luezinger’s #2 just killed Lake and made our defense look puny throughout the game as he scored a game high 25 points. They also hit 19 of 25 free throws compared to Lake’s 7 of 11. The game finished with a final score of 85-96 but was closer than it sounded. Two 48 point halves for the Falcons certainly made the scouting Christian Life Academy team sit up and take notice.

Individual Scoring:
Kendrell Thompson 24,
Fulton Brisco 16, Jimmy Witten 13, Anthony Bilcic 11, Armie Lewis 10,
RJ Turner 9,Christian Enriquez 8, Andrew Gorie 8

FALCON STATS	FG made	FG attempts	%
2's	25	35	71.4%
3's	13	21	62.0%
free throws	7	11	63.6%

SCORE BY QUARTER	1	2	3	4
Clear Lake	22	48	69	96
Luezinger	18	35	51	85

LINESCORE	1	2	3	4	Final
Clear Lake	22	26	21	27	96
Luezinger	18	17	16	34	85

REBOUNDS	LAKE	THEM
Offensive	4
Defensive	14