Clear Lake Falconhoops

Galveston Ball 58 – Clear Lake 55

It was an exciting game with the lead changing six times and Clear Lake leading most of the game. Clear Lake led the entire first quarter except when the game was tied at 8. At the end of the quarter a Lake foul, then a Lake technical foul gave Galveston Ball 4 points off free throws plus the ball to put Ball ahead to close the quarter.

In the second quarter Clear Lake retook the lead on outside shooting and moved ahead 20-29 thanks to Jacob Horton who had a standout performance in the quarter scoring 14 straight points off 5 for 5 shooting from the field plus a free throw. Jacob increased the Falcons lead to 10, 22-32, with 2:38 remaining in the first half. At the half it was 29-34, Lake by 5.

In the third quarter another of the game's eight ties occurred, this time at 41 with 1:56 remaining. At 1:25 Galveston went ahead on a layup by slasher Larry Durand (#3). The quickness of the Ball guards caused the same consternation for Lake as they did in the first round game against the Tors. Ball's Durand finished with a game high 23 points going 7 of 13 from the field and 8 of 8 from the line. The third quarter closed with Ball up 43-41 off Durand’s basket.

In the final quarter the score was tied again at 45 and at 47 before Ball went ahead 51-49 with six minutes remaining. At the 2:52 mark the score was still unchanged but Lake retook the lead 51-52 at the 2:40 mark. After a tie at 52, Ball regained the lead 55-52 with 1:45 remaining in the contest. Another free throw by the Tors made it 56-52 with 58 seconds showing on the old scoreboard clock. With 27 seconds remaining a three pointer by Jason Hollis, his second of the game, made it 56-55 before two free throws put Ball up 58-55. In the waning seconds of the game, the Falcons had three consecutive missed opportunities but could not close. The final score was 58-55.

When a team scores almost five times as many points off free throws as you do, you are usually not going to win. Clear Lake made 5 of 10 free throws in the game. Galveston Ball made 11 of 14 in the first half and 24 of 34 for the night (and only one Lake foul was a final desperation foul).

The officiating could have been much worse but also could have been better. The officiating was not why Clear Lake lost.

As expected, the Falcons certainly played noticeably better team basketball than the Tors but could not overcome the deficit caused by the imbalance in free throw scoring. The Falcons' season-long pattern of committing too many fouls continued to plague the squad and it really stood out in this outing because there were just too many really dumb Clear Lake fouls throughout the game.

The Lake defense was often unable to stop the guard penetration by the Tors and Galveston is one of the better rebounding teams Lake has faced this season. Overall it was an excellent basketball game that appeared headed for an upset throughout much of the game.

The Falcons face 23-5A runner-up Hightower Tuesday at Phillips Field House.

Photos for this game can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/falconhoops200708  by Sunday, Feb. 17, at 11 p.m.

Individual Scoring:

Jacob Horton 14, Mark McCollum 12,

Steve Hartman 8, Andrew Gorie 8, Jason Hollis 6, Jay Williams 5, Cody Kinsey 2