Clear Lake Falconhoops

Ripley, Ohio met "Clear Lake, Texas" Wednesday at noon in the second game of pool play in the Paintsville, Kentucky Classic Basketball Tournament. Attendance was slightly over 100. Again, a small school faced the giant Texas school and fell to defeat. Again, the game was decided early although the scrappy squad from the Midwest never gave up and fought a valiant fight. Just as in the first game the Falcons got most everyone's attention before and during the game with their athleticism but they have yet to earn the respect of the crowd with their basketball prowess due to not yet displaying that they can play up to their potential. Two dominant, but unimpressive wins over small schools does not wow the crowd when the difference in talent is so noticeable.

This was a very physical basketball game at times because the Ripley Blue Jay football players who happened to be on the court in uniform did not take to being humiliated by the dominant Falcons. Lake started out a bit slow and it was 9-3 Lake, then 15-6. The quarter closed at 18-10, Clear Lake up by 8.

In the second quarter the Falcons watched as the Blue Jays clawed their way back to 20-17 with 5:24 remaining in the half. Then Lake called a timeout, got their act together and increased the defensive pressure and increased the lead to 24-17. Midway through the second quarter Kendrell Thompson hit a three to make it 28-17 after Jimmy Witten made a free throw. At the half it was 34-23.

Clear Lake's reserves could beat the tenacious Ripley bunch and in the second half they did. The third quarter got pretty ugly and the refs had to stop and talk to both squads as the tempers began to show a bit. At the 4:51 mark, with five juniors on the floor the score was 39-23. The Falcons spread their lead to 19 by the close of the quarter and held the smaller Ripley bunch to five points in the period (the tallest player on the Blue Jays is 6'2" but he takes up some room).

With a 19 or 20 point lead throughout most of the fourth quarter the Falcons did not play all that well as they toyed with the Blue Jays while they were improving the Falcons' stats. In the final  period both squads cleaned up their act a bit but there was still some fouling that was not appreciated by the Falcons.  At 2:04 remaining in the final period Ross Maha hit his third free throw to bring the score to 57-38. With 1:40 remaining, Andy threw a long pass to Jon Gilmer who drove to the basket for a layup. Then Ross got another two tries at the charity stripe. He made the first. On the miss of the second attempt, Gilmer leaped up for a beautiful putback to bring the score to 63-38. The final score was 65-38.

Good distributed scoring from the Falcons but some of the players who should be scoring in double figures are not noticeable factors in the game. The next game should be more of a challenge.

Season record is 14-6.


Individual Scoring:
Armie Lewis 18 (5 steals),
Jimmy Witten 9, Jon Gilmer 7, Fulton Brisco 6, RJ Turner 6 (4 steals), Kendrell Thompson 6, Justin Kurtz 5, Ross Maha 4, Andy Leveque 4

FALCON STATS	FG made	FG attempts	%
2's	20	36	56%
3's	3	22	14%
free throws	11	16	69%

SCORE BY QUARTER	1	2	3	4
Clear Lake	18	34	47	65
Ripley	10	23	28	38

LINESCORE	1	2	3	4	Final
Clear Lake	18	16	13	18	65
Ripley	10	13	5	10	38

REBOUNDS	US	THEM
Offensive	13
Defensive	20

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