Clear Lake Falconhoops

           A lot of teams claim to live and die by the three. There is no debating whether Clear Lake does. Shooting a horrid 17% from beyond the arc for the evening, Lake needed to look elsewhere for offense. If you were a casual fan watching tonight’s game you would instantly realize the intensity and animosity between the two teams. Matt McCollum was asked about how the rivalry affected the team.” It really helps motivate ourselves. We all wanted to beat Brook so bad. They talk so much trash. It just gets you pumped up.”           

The much anticipated game started with fireworks. Unfortunately they were from the Brook side of the ball. Clear Brook’s Aaron Miller stepped up to the challenge by hitting two big threes in the opening period. Clear Lake could never seem to contain the Wolverines outside shooting. After the 1^st quarter Brook was leading by a score of 12-6. 

          Clear Lake did not look ready to play and Clear Brook took advantage of that. The Wolverine’s De'Jon John played the game of his career, going on to score a game high 20 points. The Falcons had no answer for him or any of the Wolverines. Clear Brook entered halftime leading 30-16. The Falcons are no strangers to being down at the half, but the deficit was much larger than they were used to. Kyle Ashton was asked what they wanted to do different in the second half, “we wanted to play man defense, and stop making dumb mistakes.”           

This time Clear Lake was the team launching fireworks. The Falcons looked like a completely different team. Jared Miller got the defense going with three charges drawn. Lake was still having a trouble from the three point line though. Jacob Horton; usually the 3 point marksman slithered his way to the basket resulting in free throws. After being down by 14 points at half, Lake cut the deficit to four points by the end of the third quarter. The Kruger Krazies were ecstatic with help from the Clear Lake Flairs as Lake’s student section was the liveliest it had been all season.          

Team Captain Mark McCollum seemed determined to score at any cost. Mark grabbed numerous offensive rebounds resulting in lay-ups. The story of the fourth quarter was written by his brother, Matt. After being down by as much as 11 in the quarter, Matt lead his team back with a three point shot to cut the lead in half. The following possession Matt ran up the court and pulled up for another three and nailed it. The Lake crowd erupted with joy; Lake was within one basket of coming back. The Falcons stopped Brook and got the ball back with 3.4 seconds remaining. Mark McCollum received the ball took one dribble and shot a 16 foot jump shot that bounced off of a Brook player. Lake had one play to run to either win or tie the game being down by 2 points with 2.2 seconds remaining. The shot went up and missed but Kyle Ashton tipped it in as the buzzer went off. To say the crowd was ecstatic would be a gross understatement. 

          Clear Lake had just come off of an improbable double overtime win against Alvin last Friday. Could their overtime luck continue? Overtime began with a pair of swapped baskets by both teams. Clear Brook hit a pair of free throws to lead by 3 with 35 seconds to go. Matt McCollum had the game of his life and drilled a deep three to tie it up with 7 seconds remaining. Again Lake fought back and played like the team they knew they really were. All Lake needed to do was not let the Wolverines score. With 4.8 seconds remaining Clear Brook’s De'Jon John had other plans as he rushed up the court and shot a running three point shot with time winding down. He nailed it! The Brook fans rushed the floor and the Falcons could do nothing but watch.

This disappointing loss brings the Falcons district record to 4-3 (4^th place). Clear Lake starts the second round of district competition at Dickinson Friday with the hopes of turning around its season.

No action photos of this game are available. To view photos of previous games, go to  Current Season Photos   . Sometimes you can use the Browser's "BACK" or "BACK Arrow" to return to this website.

For the results of other district games, go to the 24-5A District Schedule and Scores Page.

Individual Scoring:

Mark McCollum 12 (7 rebounds, 3 assists)

Kyle Ashton 17 (5 rebounds, 3 assists)

Matt McCollum 14 (4 assists)

Jacob Horton 10

Nick Arrington 4 (2 steals)

Brick Pomeroy - ineligible 

Jackson Hardage 2

Jared Miller (4 rebounds, 3 charges taken)

Clear Springs

1-20-09           

Tonight’s game was played in conjunction with one of the most historic presidential inaugurations in American history. For the Falcons, learning from history is all they were concerned about.          

The Falcons lost to the Clear Springs Chargers 49-51 in their first matchup on December 6, 2008 in the CCISD tournament. Clear Lake was up 36-18 at halftime in that encounter but saw their lead evaporate when the Chargers outscored them 18-2 in the third quarter alone. Matt McCollum was asked Monday night how the first meeting between Clear Springs in the CCISD tournament impacted their season. “It definitely set us back a little, I mean any loss does but I think it will provide us with an extremely high level of motivation for the game.” Nick Arrington felt that “it was really hard to come off that loss after being up by so much and blowing it in one half. But every game we lose we figure out ways to learn from it so it affects us positively.”

Tonight’s game started out in much different fashion with the first quarter being a track meet and both teams seemingly scoring at will. Kyle Ashton seemed to have seen something in their defense that he could exploit. Kyle scored 10 straight Falcon points and finished the first quarter with 12. Kyle's 25 was his second best of the season.The McCollum twins ignited his run with a beautiful press break starting with Matt to Mark to Kyle with the basketball only touching the court once. Clear Springs went about scoring a different way with an array of three point field goals from #12 Devan Williams and #10 Javier Aguliar. Clear Lake concluded the first quarter up 20-18.

The second quarter started much slower with Lake only putting six points on the board late in the quarter. Clear Lake was again reminded by #44 Ryan Garcia just how small a team Lake is. The Falcons fell into the same trap that they did in the previous meeting as they were outscored 17-6 by Clear Springs in the second period. Lake entered the locker rooms down 26-35.

Mark McCollum came out of the half ready to lead Lake back with a smooth 12 foot jump shot. Kyle Ashton did a little distributing to continue the comeback with a nice dish to Jared Miller. Clear Lake was only down a mere 5 points at that time when the Chargers called a timeout with 6:27 left in the third and the score at 30-35. The well placed timeout by coach Chris Johnson was the beginning of a Clear Springs run of 8-2. Both teams could only muster 12 points for the third quarter behind physical defense and erratic offense by both teams. Lake began the final period down 38-47.

Brick Pomeroy, Clear Lake’s leading shot blocker, began the quarter with a nice rejection on the wing. The next sequence of plays was puzzling to the fans because it started with a Mark McCollum “foul” (when his arm was hooked by #44 Garcia.). Immediately afterwards Garcia seemed to have words with Blake Gregorcyk and pushed him. The referee called a technical foul on Garcia. Both teams shot free throws (Clear Springs shot 1 and 1 after the technical was shot due to referee error) before Clear Lake was given possession of the ball. That sequence was just what Lake and the Kruger Krazies needed. Free throws cut the lead to 44-51. Later in the quarter a three by Nick Arrington cut the deficit to 53-61 with 40 seconds left. The Falcons valiant come back was too late with Clear Springs winning by the final score of 58-63.

The Falcons loss cannot be blamed on any one thing besides shooting. Clear Lake Shot 24% from beyond the arc, and shot 65% from the free throw line with most of those misses being in the final minutes of the game. After the game Coach Lynn McDonald was asked how the Clear Springs Chargers managed to withhold the lead. “They started making their free throws, which they had not done consistently to that point. We just started playing too late.” The Falcons upcoming game on Friday against Alvin appears to be a much easier task after facing the District standings leaders in consecutive games. Alvin comes into the game with an abysmal 5-16 and 0-5 record in District play. This might be just what the Falcons need to get back on track. Alvin previously lost by 30 points to a Dickinson team that Lake beat by 40, so this doesn’t appear to be a very close game. Let’s just hope Lake can finally learn from history.  -Martin Dehlinger    

No action photos of this game are available. To view photos of previous games, go to  Current Season Photos   . Sometimes you can use the Browser's "BACK" or "BACK Arrow" to return to this website.

Individual Scoring:

Mark McCollum 4 (3 assists)

Kyle Ashton 25 (12 rebounds)

Matt McCollum 3 (3 assists)

Jacob Horton 13 (3 assists)

Blake Gregorcyk 4

Nick Arrington 4 (3 assists)

Brick Pomeroy 3

Jake McKnight

Jackson Hardage

Jared Miller 2

Greater Houston Area 5A Rankings as compiled by the Houston Chronicle. (as of Feb 16, 2009)

1. Strake Jesuit (31-0)

2. Hightower (24-9)

3. Cyress Woods (29-3)

4. Kingwood (29-4)

5. Seven Lakes (27-6)

6. Fort Bend Bush (27-5) 

7. Bellaire (24-6)

8. La Porte (25-9)

9. Humble (23-9)

10. Galveston Ball (23-6)

Varsity District 24-5A Standings  for 2009-2010

District Win/Loss Record as of February 20, 2010

top 4 teams enter playoffs