Clear Lake Falconhoops

Clear Lake 67 - Clear Creek 59 in overtime.

1-13-09

Martin Dehlinger

Mdehlinger2525@yahoo.com          

It doesn’t take much to get excited for Clear Lake Basketball, especially as of late with the Falcons entering the game on a four game winning streak. But anytime The Falcons play their archrivals Clear Creek, it’s always a sight to see. This wasn’t their first matchup of the season. The first was in the CCISD Classic which Lake won by a score of 70-48, with Kyle Ashton and Matt McCollum pouring in season highs of 28 and 15 points respectively. 

Clear Lake started the game off slowly with a pair of missed three point field goals. It wasn’t until Jacob Horton’s trio of free throws that finally put them on the board for the first time. Soon afterwards Mark McCollum made a perfect spin move jump shot off a steal, to put the Falcons ahead 8-3 with 3:15 left in the first quarter. 

With a score at 11-10 entering the second quarter the Falcon faithful weren’t sure what to expect from their beloved team. The game sped up but not in favor of Clear Lake with  Creek's #10 Drew Spangler hitting a pair of three pointers to jumpstart the Wildcats. Lake wasn’t rattled and gave the ball to Blake Gregorcyk who hit all three free throws after being fouled and then a lay-up to put them up 20-19 with 3:27 remaining in the second quarter. Coach McDonald’s team entered halftime down 26-23.  

Coming out of halftime Clear Lake knew it needed to do something different, Nick Arrington had this to say “It was hard coming back from 2/8 shooting beyond the arc. Coming out of half we knew we had to put the ball in the hole and rebound and for the most part we did that.” Arrington took matters into his own hands when he hit a deep three to start off the second half. Nick was plenty busy collecting five steals in a physical point guard matchup with #5 Denzel Benson.

Still recovering from his ailing left foot Kyle Ashton scored seven points and five rebounds. Kyle added another highlight play by finishing a teammate’s missed lay-up at the rim. Jared Miller hit a trio of reverse lay-ups to give him six points for the night including intimidating post defense and rebounding throughout the game.

Clear Lake entered the fourth quarter down 39-37. Matt McCollum started off the quarter the right way with a big three pointer to put Lake ahead 40-39. McCollum tied his season high of 15 points which was also against Clear Creek earlier this season. Later in the quarter Creek increased the lead to five until Matt made a lay-up with 3:30 remaining in the fourth. The rally continued with Jacob “Snake” Horton hitting a clutch three pointer with three minutes to go making it 47-49 Creek.

Lake needed a stop; Kyle Aston was there to draw a game changing charge. Following the charge Nick drew a foul driving to the bucket and sunk both free throws tying the game up at 49 apiece with two minutes to go. Clear Creek answered the call with a three pointer. The next possession team capitan Mark McCollum caught the ball on the left wing of the court and nailed a three that looked like an impossible angle that made the score 52-51 with 1:22 remaining. The Kruger Krazies erupted and ignited the lackluster crowd to that point. Mark McCollum was fouled on the next possession and hit both free throws. Creek wasn’t done yet though, with #5 Benson hitting a game-tying three point field goal at the top of the key to make it 54-54 with 24 seconds remaining. The Falcons had a shot to win it but it rimmed out.  The game had eight lead changes in regulation play and went to overtime.

Overtime is not a new thing to the Falcons who are undefeated in two previous district contests. Pre-district wins over Milby at home in the season opener and Deer Park in double overtime in the Baytown Lee College Tournament helped the Falcons prepare for the extra period.

Creek started off the overtime period with a deep three by #41. Lake continued to fight back like it had been doing all night with two easy free throws by Matt McCollum. Finally the Falcons began to pull away with a huge three pointer by who else but Jacob Horton to make the score 62-59 with 1:15 remaining. Lake closed out the game with a series of free throws and won the game 67-59 putting them at 16-7 overall and 3-0 in District 24-5A competition.

After the game Mark McCollum was asked about how it feels to beat their rivals and how they played and had this to say “It feels good. It shows sometimes we don’t play our best but we do what needs to be done to win and that can be attributed to the great chemistry that we have.”

Nick Arrington was asked what Creek did differently compared to their previous meeting, “They came out with more intensity and wanted revenge from the 20 point blowout we gave them. They really exposed our weaknesses but we fought through it and came out with a big win in OT.”

This win will be short-lived with an always tough away game Friday against Galveston Ball who is also undefeated in District play. The Galveston Ball game is always an interesting game to watch because sadly the outcome of the game is not always up to the players. It usually is determined by the officiating. Needless to say this Friday at Galveston Ball High School will be a great preview to see who can take control of District 24-5A. 

          -Martin Dehlinger    

In other district action:
Brazoswood 64 at Galveston Ball  77
Clear Brook 72 at Alvin  61
Dickinson 60 at Clear Springs 65

Action photos of this game should be posted by Wednesday midnight. To view photos of this game once they are posted, go to  Current Season Photos   . Sometimes you can use the Browser's "BACK" or "BACK Arrow" to return to this website.

Individual Scoring:

Matt McCollum 15, Jacob Horton 12,

Mark McCollum 9 (9 rebounds, 6 assists), Nick Arrington 9 (5 steals), Kyle Ashton 7 (5 rebs.), Jared Miller 6, Blake Gregorcyk 5,
Brick Pomeroy 2, Jackson Hardage 2,