Announcement
Clear Lake 68 - Clear Creek 63 (CCISD Tournament Game 3)
Saturday, December 3, 2005
The rivalry between Clear Creek and Clear Lake goes back over thirty years to the days when Clear Lake High School was built and hired Creek’s head coach, Bill Krueger. Although it is not typical or preferable that Lake compete against their arch rivals prior to district play, sometimes it works out like that. As usual, the outcome is never very predictable. With Clear Creek ranked 10th in the region and 20th in the state and Clear Lake unranked and not even suppose to make the playoffs in some opinions, the Falcons were noticeable underdogs coming into the semifinal match-up of the 73rd Annual CCISD Classic Tournament. Sometimes being the underdog is a good thing. It is almost always good for Clear Lake to be the less favored.
A victory over Clear Creek is even sweeter when Lake is not supposed to win. Creek has not had the strongest of teams in the past five or so years so they are reveling in the glow of having a really good team this season. Led by their three point ace, West Point bound Lance Pevehouse (18.4 ppg), and backed up by 6’9” big man Coy Custer (regional leader in blocked shots with 2.4 pg), the Wildcats are formidable competition for almost anyone this year. That makes a victory over Creek even sweeter. The Falcons were supposed to be out sized and outgunned in this contest. Clear Lake’s 6’ 5” is not considered big among the large 5A schools these days but the Falcons have one of the best defensive teams in the school’s history and they are not accustomed to being out rebounded by very much. The depth off the bench is not too shabby either.
The game started with Kendrell Thompson hitting three three’s to put Lake in the lead 9-5. Then a steal by Armie Lewis and a layup made it 11-5. The quarter closed with Lake up by 6, 17-11.
In the second quarter Creek narrowed the gap and tied the game at 21 with 4:22 remaining in the period. Two free throws by Kendrell gave the Falcons the lead again. A minute later Creek knotted it again at 23. A critical rebound by Ross Maha and a pass to Armie Lewis who sank a trey made it 26-23. Clear Lake would not relinquish the lead again in the close game. Another timely key rebound by Ross and a pass to Armie who drove the lane in traffic to score made it 30-23. Creek reduced the lead to 5 when Pevehouse hit a three, 30-25 with 45 seconds remaining in the first half. Two free throws by Armie and another Creek basket closed the half at 32-28, Lake up by 4. Another exciting Lake-Creek close game.
Forty-five seconds into the third quarter Jimmy Witten went to the bench with his third foul. Creek then closed the gap to 1 point 32-31. Kendrell Thompson scored 13 points in the first half. Creek’s strategy was to shut down Kendrell in the second half which they did. Justin Kurtz then stepped up to lead the Falcons with 18 points in the second half. With 3:40 left in the third quarter a pass from Armie to Jon Gilmer who was wide open under the basket brought the score to 41-36, Lake by 5. Creek’s tenacity kept the score close but Lake briefly increased their lead to 10 points when Fulton Brisco fed the ball to Andy Leveque for a drive down the middle with two minutes left in the quarter. The quarter closed at 48-43, Lake by 5.
Jimmy Witten hit a quick basket to open the fourth quarter. Creek played with confidence and composure but every time they would pull close Justin would hit another trey to put a discouraged look on their faces. With just over four minutes remaining in the ball game Creek narrowed the gap to 53-50 before Kurtz hit another three to increase the lead to six (Justin hit four of five from the field in the final period). In the last three minutes we started using the clock but lost the ball a couple of times. Six consecutive free throws by RJ Turner and two by Armie Lewis once Creek got into desperation mode and started fouling put the icing on the cake. With 26 seconds remaining in the game, the score was 65-63. In the waning two minutes Creek’s Pevehouse was allowed several almost uncontested shots because Lake would not attempt to stop him (for fear of fouling) so three or four of his baskets came late in the game after it was almost too late. Final score was 68-63, a good win for Clear Lake.
Now Creek’s savvy head coach Buddy Carlisle, in his 30th year coaching at his alma mater, is armed with the knowledge of what must be done to stop their arch rivals once district play begins. The next time the two teams meet the Falcons can once again take Creek's big man out of the game as they successfully did in this struggle. The question is can the Falcons develop more distributed shooting from the rest of the team since intense defensive pressure will be applied to Kendrell and Justin when next the two rivals meet. Time will tell.
Individual Scoring:
Justin Kurtz 24 (18 in the second half),
Kendrell Thompson 13, Armie Lewis 11, RJ Turner 10,
Jimmy Witten 4, Jon Gilmer 4, Andy Leveque 2
|
FALCON STATS |
FG made |
FG attempts |
% |
|
2's |
15 |
31 |
48% |
|
3's |
8 |
20 |
40% |
|
free throws |
14 |
16 |
88% |
|
SCORE BY QUARTER |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
|
Clear Lake |
17 |
15 |
16 |
20 |
|
Clear Creek |
11 |
17 |
15 |
20 |
|
LINESCORE |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Final |
|
Clear Lake |
17 |
32 |
48 |
68 |
68 |
|
Clear Creek |
11 |
28 |
43 |
63 |
63 |
|
REBOUNDS |
US |
THEM |
|
Offensive |
11 |
12 |
|
Defensive |
10 |
14 |
