Clear Lake Falconhoops

Hightower 63 - Clear Lake 53

In the Bi-district playoff between District 24 third place finisher Clear Lake and District 23 second place finisher Hightower, Clear Lake came into Stoney Phillips Field House Tuesday night a noticeable underdog so everyone knew it should be a tough game for the Falcons . District 23 consists of the Fort Bend ISD Schools and is considered by many to be among the toughest 5A Districts in the state. Their district winner this season was Elkins  who Clear Lake had surprisingly defeated in the CCISD Tournament championship back in early December.

  

The Hightower Hurricanes are a big, quick, talent rich squad of mostly Juniors (the Canes started only one Senior in this first round playoff matchup). In this contest they did not play as well as most Hightower teams of the past but they certainly played well enough in the second half to easily appear to be the better of the two teams on the floor on this night.

  

The underdog Falcons appeared relaxed, confident, and ready to play. Two successive Cane turnovers and Cody Kinsey hitting the first shot of the game from the right wing started things off right to put Lake ahead. Lake was up 0-5 with just over 5 minutes remaining in the quarter before a slow starting Hurricane squad got on the board. Two free throws tied it at 5 with 3:19 remaining in the quarter. Two free throws by Steve Hartman put Lake back ahead with 2:40 left in the quarter. With 1:49 remaining the score was 5-9 when Brian Campbell used his speed to sneek under the basket for a layup on a feed from Steve on a play that has worked all season. Then a putback by the Canes made it apparent they had at least three players who could play up over us at the rim. With only a few seconds remaining in the first quarter Jacob Horton drained a trey to put Lake up 10-12. In the first quarter stout Falcon defense caused four turnovers to give the Falcons even more confidence as the two teams jockeyed for the lead on the splendid new scoreboard.

  

In the second quarter the Falcons continued to hold their own even as Hurricane midrange scoring appeared easier. With 5:20 remaining a lay-in by Brian on a feed from Jay Williams tied it at 14 before the Canes went ahead 16-14 at the 4:30 mark. A putback by Andrew Gorie tied it at 16 with 4:14 remaining. With 3:10 showing on the clock a steal and a dunk by the Hurricanes only starting senior made it 20-16. An unassisted left handed lay-in by Cody made it 20-18 as he drove the lane at the 2:51 mark. At the 2:11 point Andrew Gorie’s layup from the left side tied the game at 20. Two free throws by Kyle Ashton at the 1:17 mark made it 20-22, Lake by 2. A three pointer and two free throws put the Canes up 5 at the half. 25-22 at the half was certainly not the blowout some Houston area fans had anticipated and the Clear Lake crowd was pleased so far. Now if we can only have a solid third quarter like so many we have had this season.

  

But the Canes took control of the game by dominating the third period and outscored Lake 25-10 to go ahead convincingly 50-32. Despite a valiant effort by the Falcons in the final period, there was just too much horsepower to overcome as the talent laden Hurricanes easily controlled the game. Four of Hightower's starters finished in double figures. Cody Kinsey led all scorers with 16. The final score was 63-53.

 

One of the problems with participating in most team sports in high school especially basketball is your team either goes all the way and wins the state championship or you lose the last contest of the season. For most seniors this is particularly unsatisfying. You lose the last game of your high school career. Most high school athletes will not go on to compete on the college level so their career in organized, school sponsored sports is finished with a loss. Everyone would like to go out a winner but unfortunately that’s just not how it works. What should be remembered is the cumulative accomplishments of a very successful season and not just the last game of the season. The 2007-08 Clear Lake Falcons have a lot to be proud of.

Photos for this game can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/falconhoops200708  by Thursday at 10 p.m.

Individual Scoring:

Cody Kinsey 16 (7 of 8 from the field),

Steve Hartman 8 (5 steals), Brian Campbell 8, Jay Williams 6, Andrew Gorie 6 (4 steals), Jacob Horton 5, Kyle Ashton 4  

	Pts	Free Throws	%	2's	%	3's	%	OR	DR	stls	blks	TOs	Fs
Clear Lake	53	5 of 8	62.5%	18  of 32	56.3%	4 of 11	36.4%	6	14	10	3	20	12
Hightower	63	7 of 17	41.2%	21 of 40	52.5%	4 of 8	50.0%	13	15			14	12

Pts=points scored; OR=offensive rebounds; DR=defensive rebs; stls= steals; blks= blocked shots; TOs= turnovers; Fs=fouls

FALCON STATS	FG made	FG attempts	%
2's		see above
3's

SCORE BY QUARTER	1	2	3	4
Clear Lake	12	22	32	53
Hightower	10	25	50	63

LINESCORE	1	2	3	4
Clear Lake	12	10	10	21	53
Hightower	10	15	25	13	63

This page provides basic game stats and  articles describing each game of the current season with the most recent game first. Once a game is no longer the most current one, the game write-up is reduced to its headline only. To read a hidden article, move the mouse cursor over the headline and left click once. At the end of the season, the articles and photos are moved to the ARCHIVES Section.  Photos are often added to the article within a few days after the article appears. All game photos can be found on the Picasa ALBUMS Web Page at http://picasaweb.google.com/falconhoops

This site publicizes the accomplishments of the Clear Lake High School (Houston, Texas) Boys Varsity Basketball team with the hope that it will enhance the community's enjoyment of Clear Lake Boys basketball by providing information to increase interest and awareness.  

In its eight season (2008-09),  ClearLakeFalconhoops.com  is an unofficial website provided without advertising by a dedicated, slightly fanatical Clear Lake boys basketball fan. Based on activity, this site is the number 1 high school basketball website in the state of Texas among high school web sites and AAU websites. First time visitors can click on this link to get an overview of the website. http://www.eteamz.com/falconhoops/news/index.cfm?id=3022096&cat=0SITE OVERVIEW

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LATEST NEWS

TEAM CAMPS

CLEAR LAKE JV AND VARSITY INVITATIONAL TEAM CAMPS ATTENDED

A Clear Lake Team comprised mostly of Junior Varsity players  attended the June 6-8 Great American Shootout Team Camp in College Station. Their record was 2-2.

A team comprised mainly of Clear Lake Varsity players attended the Team Camp at the University of Texas on June 13-15 (record 6-4).

The Varsity also attended the Team Camp at Texas State University on June 27-29 and had a 6-4 record in the 12 team large varsity division

OTHER NEWS 

Maintaining the tradition set by the 2006-07 team which was the best free throw shooting team in the state of Texas, the 2007-08 Clear Lake Varsity was the second best free throw shooting team in the state of Texas. Great Job Fellas! 

Finishing third in District play, the Varsity finished the season 25-10 (and 8-4 in District) despite a very tough schedule. Six of the Varsity losses were by 3 points or less. All but two of the teams Clear Lake defeated in pre-district play made it to the playoffs.

 With a season record of 22-9, 11-1, the JV Team was District Champs as were the Sophomores (20-11, 10-2) and the Freshman B Team (26-4, 12-0). The Freshman A Team finished the season with a 13-16 record and a 5-7 District showing. 

 Jay Williams was selected Varsity MVP by his teammates and was acknowledged by his coach as perhaps the most improved player ever to play at Clear Lake High School over the four year period from when Jay played on the Freshman B Team at Clear Lake High School.

 Steven "Sparky" Hartman was selected by his teammates to receive the George Wang Hustle Award and Bernie Lang, class of 1981, was inducted into the Clear Lake Hall of Fame. Bernie's mom, wife, and two children were in attendance to see Bernie inducted at the annual banquet.

The '81 team had a record of 38-2 and a perfect 16-0 in district, the only Lake team to ever go undefeated throughout district play. Lang, along with teammates Greg Singleton and  Russ Capps were "All Greater Houston" players out of the top five in the Houston area. Never before or since have three players from the same school received this honor. Although this team did not make the trip to Austin to the state tournament due to injuries, many believe the '81 team to be the greatest team to ever represent Clear Lake High School (see Memory Lane Page).

 

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FalconHoops Website Activity

The 2007-08 season marks the end of the seventh year for this website. In the three month period between Nov. 15 and Feb. 15 this site got over 9,400 hits, an average of over 780 hits per week. During December 2007, the activity rate topped 1,000 hits in a week. Thank you for your interest in Clear Lake High School Boys basketball.

After each game an article summarizing the game (for out of town games and district games) can be found on the FALCON FLASHES Page.

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PHOTOS

FYI: Prior to the 2008 Banquet over 3300 photos of varsity action were provided this season as well as almost 30 video clip highlights. In addition there are 1158 JV game photos (scroll to the bottom of the Picasaweb 2007-08 albums to view the JV games).  

A very special thanks is extended to Randall Hollimon,  Dr. Joe McCollum, and Gene Pearce for the abundance of fine photos provided this season. A very special debt of gratitude is also owed to Kyle Snow for the outstanding video highlights he provided.

http://picasaweb.google.com/falconhoops200708 for current season game and event photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/falconhoops for prior season game and event photos (so far only the last two seasons: 2007-08 and 2006-07).

Game and Event Photos.

The ALBUMS Section of this website will be relocated to the Picasaweb Albums before the start of next season.  Generally, you can reach the PICASAWEB PHOTOS site  by clicking on any individual embedded photo appearing on this web site.  

 Directions to games shortcut: During the season the next week's upcoming games are listed on this website HOME page at the bottom of this page.

Click on the Game Name under "Event" to get directions to the school. These written directions are highly reliable and are regularly updated each season. Click on the School Name under "Location" for a map to the school. Be advised that the maps generated by Mapquest are not always reliable.

ClearLakeFalconhoops.com logo by Clear Lake student Colin Lubinsky.