Announcement
Most years when the annual trek to Brazoswood is made, one wonders "Is the drive down going to be worth the effort?" Will the game be close enough to be exciting? Will Clear Lake dominate the game as they usually do because of the obvious disparity in talent between the two squads or will the Falcons play down to the level of competition and allow Brazoswood to stay in the game? Will this year's Buccaneers, who played Clear Lake to a five point game after three quarters in Lake's gym, prevail on their home court? Or will the Falcons come out early, dominate the game as they should, and have their way with the lesser Buccaneers to dispel the notion floating around in the minds of the Bucs that they can beat Clear Lake? What kind of a game will it be?
Falcons dominate every aspect of the game.
Most years the game is one-sided with Clear Lake taking control very early and never looking back. This year's game was exactly that, a carbon copy of almost every Brazoswood/Clear Lake game at Brazoswood except Clear Lake was even more dominant than usual. This was the easiest win of the season for Lake (the other two were in Kentucky in the first two games in the Paintsville Classic). The Falcons took control immediately and left little doubt about who should win (at the half, it was 31-11). The Bucs' 6'5" center, Taylor Parrett, was sidelined with an injury (arm still in a hard cast) and this certainly affected the outcome to a small degree but it is doubtful that he could have made that much of a difference. The Falcons' Andy Leveque was suited up but saw no action since he was not needed. His ankle injury had caused him to not practice since the last game until the shoot-around today but he was ready if the need arose. His teammates insured that Andy got more recuperation time.
Embarrassing Officiating
With one almost intermediate official and two very inexperienced officials calling the game, some would hope that the refs would not do too bad a job (there could have been three very inexperienced refs). Sometimes they just do very poorly. Tonight they had what could kindly be called an "off night" The officiating was not good. The more senior official had a decision to make. Will he lay back and allow the beginners to make most of the calls to help them learn and be there if they need him? Or will he play the most active role, make most of the calls, and "show them how it is done" as he controls the tempo of the game and the tendency to blow the whistle by all the refs? (The referee should never control the tempo of the game!!). The more senior ref (which is a real misnomer) tonight made most of the calls but unfortunately he made a lot of bad calls. I mean, a lot. Judgment errors, rule interpretation errors, oversights, just a badly officiated game. The senior ref of the three (who is not very senior) proved tonight that he is not quite ready for the challenge of being the lead official. Fortunately it did not determine the outcome of the contest.
Game Recap
Halfway through the first quarter the score was 1-8. Clear Lake scored at will while Brazoswood did a lot of standing around and watching. Then the Bucs sorta woke up and got into the game a little more. After two free throws by Armie to put the score at 3-10, a team steal by RJ Turner, Kendrell Thompson, and Jimmy Witten at mid-court made it 3-12 at the 2:55 mark. At 2:04 remaining in the first quarter, Fulton Brisco and Ross Maha entered the game. Good timing since Ross got a steal immediately upon entering the game. A free throw by Jimmy and a three pointer by Kendrell on an assist by Jimmy made it 5-16 to close the quarter.
Clear Lake displayed very good ball movement consistently in the game. At the 4:48 mark in the second quarter, Kendrell passed to Fulton on the left wing. Fulton, on his way to going 5 of 6 from the field, jacked up what appeared to be a three attempt but was only recorded as a two. Shortly afterward, Justin was fouled as the Bucs were bringing the ball down. It should have been called as a double foul (there were two other double fouls called in the game). Our less than adored more experienced ref, who was not really looking directly toward the situation, called the foul on Justin. Crazy call. At our end of the court then Justin was nailed again on a rebound but this time the refs did call the foul on Brazoswood. With 3 minutes remaining in the first half the score was 7-23. With back-to-back assists from RJ, two scores by Kendrell and Fulton made it 7-27. Two free throws by RJ made it 7-29. With the sympathy vote certainly favoring Brazoswood by this point, once again our favorite ref makes an astounding call. With 39 seconds left in the first half, he called a technical foul on Jimmy for not getting off the court fast enough. Huh? Not a team technical foul for having six men on the court once the ball is in play but a technical foul on Jimmy. He saw that somewhere in an NBA game and wanted to use it, I suppose. The score at the half was 11-31.
At 5:35 in the third quarter, Kendrell, shot an awkward, off balance, 15 foot jumper from the left side and was fouled. There was no arch on the ball and no way it would go in but the ball had eyes and went straight to the rim and rattled in for a surprising basket to make it 15-35. Is it any wonder with shots like that how Kendrell went 10 of 12 from the field? The next score came quickly when Ross fed Kendrell under the basket for a 15-37 score. Then Ross found Justin in the paint for a jump shot to make it 15-39. Next, Armie drove the right side of the baseline to about eight feet from the bucket, jumped up, made an overhead, one hand hook pass to Ross awaiting under the basket. Ross’s score brought it to 15-41. With 1:44 remaining in the third quarter it was 19-45. RJ then hit a jumper from the left side to make it 17-47. At the close of the quarter it was 21-51.
In the final period Clear Lake was again up by 30 when a pretty play by Kendrell, as he fed Fulton coming across the lane, allowed Fulton to cut to the basket and score on a right side layup (Fulton broke into double digits for the first time this season. Got to play him more). That made it 23-53 two minutes into the fourth quarter. With the score at 28-56 and 2:20 remaining in the game, Lake started their stall. Brazoswood then really started acting like they wanted to play and got even more into the game. Several baskets by the Bucs ensued. Final score was 41-61.
Lake had too many turnovers, allowed the other team too many offensive rebounds in the third quarter(8), and got played even in the second half (each team scored 30 points) due partly to the kindness of the Lake squad. The Falcons have plenty of areas to work on in preparation for their big game with Creek on Friday night.How did the other Clear Lake teams do?
Clear Lake teams won all the games by wide margins with the exception of the Freshman A Team which lost by 4 in the last few seconds. In the Freshman B Team game, Falcon Ben Hardy scored 10 three pointers (unofficially, a school record)
In other district action Clear Creek beat Alvin at Creek by 33-31 on a tip-in by Lance Pevehouse with 5 seconds remaining in the game. It was his only basket of the game. In the first quarter Creek was held scoreless. In the fourth quarter Alvin scored 3 points and Clear Creek scored 4. In other action, Clear Brook lost at Pearland 42-31.
Individual Scoring:
Kendrell Thompson 21 (10 of 12 from the field) (8 rebounds), Fulton Brisco 11 (7 rebounds, 5 of 6 from the field), Armie Lewis 10 (6 rebounds),
Justin Kurtz 6, RJ Turner 6, Ross Maha 3, Jimmy Witten 3, Christian Enriquez 1.
Turnovers 16
|
FALCON STATS |
FG made |
FG attempts |
% |
|
2's |
24 |
45 |
53.3% |
|
3's |
1 |
4 |
25.0% |
|
free throws |
10 |
18 |
55.5% |
|
SCORE BY QUARTER |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
|
Clear Lake |
16 |
31 |
51 |
61 |
|
Brazoswood |
5 |
11 |
21 |
41 |
|
LINESCORE |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Final |
|
Clear Lake |
16 |
15 |
20 |
10 |
61 |
|
Brazoswood |
5 |
6 |
10 |
20 |
41 |
|
REBOUNDS |
LAKE |
THEM |
|
Offensive |
13 |
12 |
|
Defensive |
18 |
7 |
