Announcement
Montwood 49 - Clear Lake 45, Midland Tournament Game 1
El Paso Montwood 49 - Clear Lake 45
With the five day UIL imposed blackout period prohibiting games and practices over, the Clear Lake Falcons held a light practice session Thursday morning before boarding their flight to Midland to play in the 2007 Bryon Johnston Holiday Classic. The Falcons faced the El Paso Montwood Rams in the opening round of the tournament. Montwood made it to the regional semifinals last year before losing to eventual 5A state champions Duncanville and the Rams coach, Tony Harper, was a member of the 1966 UTEP National Champions so a good ball game between two upper echelon basketball programs was expected when they faced off.
Both teams were rested and relaxed as they entered the game and it showed. It was a very calm, almost sedate game in the first half. After the five day lay-off you would expect some rust would need to be knocked off the edges before the team would appear to play close to their potential. The first half of the game for Lake was one of the most patient, deliberate games Lake has played in awhile. Not typical Clear Lake basketball and probably not typical Montwood basketball either. The difference in the first half was in the accuracy of shooting from the field. Lake shot only 35% from the field in the first half but did very well from the free throw line. Montwood’s number 23, Jesus Delgado, certainly wasn’t rusty. He was deadly from the left wing nailing 12 points (of the team’s total 24 in the first half) on almost perfect shooting from outside.
The two teams were fairly evenly matched but the quicker Rams played better defense throughout the game and better offense throughout much of the game. Neither team was dominant on the boards in the sometimes slow paced contest. The sixth and last time the game was tied was at 34 with one minute remaining in the third quarter. It was a close ball game with Montwood’s largest lead being 7 points late in the final quarter.
The Falcons one bright spot in their first loss in fourteen games was free throw shooting (83.3%). Montwood’s bright spot was number 23 and impressive team defense.
In the second round on the Consolation side of the bracket Clear Lake faces El Paso Andress High School at 10:15 a.m. Friday. By the way, Andress’s head coach, Jim Forbes, was also a member of the 1966 UTEP National Championship team.
FYI: Nick Arrington is out (on crutches) with a groin injury. Nick is expected to be out for at least a week.
Photos for this game can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/falconhoops200708 by January 2, 2008
Individual Scoring:
Cody 13,
Andrew 9, Steve 6, Brian 4, Jay 4, Kyle 4, Jason 3, Jacob 2
|
FALCON STATS |
FG made |
FG attempts |
% |
|
2's |
12 |
32 |
37.5% |
|
3's |
2 |
6 |
33.3% |
|
free throws |
15 |
18 |
83.3% |
|
SCORE BY QUARTER |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
|
|
Clear Lake |
10 |
19 |
34 |
45 |
|
|
Montwood |
13 |
24 |
36 |
49 |
|
|
LINESCORE |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
|
|
Clear Lake |
10 |
9 |
15 |
11 |
|
|
Montwood |
13 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
|
|
REBOUNDS |
LAKE |
Them |
|
Offensive |
7 |
8 |
|
Defensive |
7 |
10 |
