Clear Lake Falconhoops

Clear Lake Falls to Rival Clear Creek 57-47 January 11, 2005. A near capacity crowd assembled to watch what most knew would be a terrific basketball game between two perennial rivals tonight in the Clear Lake gymnasium. As the first round of district play continued, the first of two Lake-Creek shootouts ended with Clear Creek prevailing. Clear Creek has the best team they have had in several years (they are ranked in the top 50 in the state in most rankings). Clear Lake played very, very well. Clear Creek played even better. The challenges for Lake were formidable: how to stop Ray Kramer (#44) when he attacked the paint; how to shutdown deadeye Lance Pevehouse (#24) from the perimeter; how to keep Creek from dominating the boards; how to offset their perimeter shooting. The individual match-ups were really fun to watch. In the first quarter it was tied at 9 midway through the quarter. Lake maintained a slight lead throughout the period and was up 18-13 at the end of the first quarter. The Falcons made no turnovers in the first quarter. In the second quarter despite poor shooting from the field (3 of 12), Lake continued their slight advantage with Creek often pulling close but not able to gain the lead. With 2:50 left in the half, Creek moved ahead 22-21 before Lake retook the lead 23-22 when Kendrell Thompson made a basket. At the half it was Lake 25 – Creek 27 (Lake made only 3 turnovers in the second quarter). The third quarter determined the game’s outcome. Lake’s shooting stayed cold (3 of 9 from the field and they were outscored by 10 points thanks to more blocked shots and Creek’s Ray Kraemer, who pretty much had his way with Lake. Kraemer scored 12 of his 16 (game high) points in the quarter. Clear Lake scored 9. By the end of the period Lake was down by 12, 46 to 34, after Kraemer, at the buzzer, launched an off-balance, unbelievable shot that went in. This was further inspiration for the sometimes classless Creek student fans who did their best impression of a Kingwood student body. Fortunately, the Clear Lake students did not sink to that level. In the fourth Lake narrowed the gap to 7 before Creek pulled away again and increased their lead to 16. At the buzzer Scott Oswald hit an uncontested trey to bring the final score to 57-47. It was another classic match-up between the two rivals. Clear Lake played outstanding basketball in the first half but made some mistakes in the second half brought on by tenacious Creek defense. Lake allowed too many offensive rebounds in the game and that alone made the difference. Some things are more important than winning one Creek basketball game. Justin Kurtz was in the doghouse for some reason and was not allowed to play in the first half of the game (also in the Brazoswood game). He was noticeably absent in the first half and his presence during the second half when he was allowed to play was very noticeable as well. File it under the heading of “character building” and let’s hope that Justin will be allowed to play when he is needed in the future. The responsibilities a player has to his team must be learned and are not always assigned the proper priority by the developing young player. Mark Murphy, after showing some very determined, aggressive play in the first half, did not play in the fourth quarter. Scoring by Quarter 1 2 3 4 18 7 9 13 US 13 14 19 11 Them Scoring for the Falcons: Kendrell Thompson 12, Mark Murphy 8, Armie Lewis 7, Scott 5, Jordan 4, Gordon 4, Andy Leveque 3, Lee Mazurek 2, Justin Kurtz 2. 2’s:14 of 34 (41%) 3’s: 4 of 19 (21%) free throws: 7 of 14 (50%)