Clear Lake Falconhoops

Louisville Seneca 55 - Clear Lake 53
For the final day of pool play Clear Lake  faced a worthy adversary in a quick bunch of leapers from last year's finalist Louisville Seneca High School (enrollment 1734, Seneca has been in the finals for the last three years). Too bad for Clear Lake as they fell in defeat to the Redhawks. It was an excellent basketball game that tested the preparedness of both teams.

Seneca is the second largest school in the tournament but one thing Texans may have learned from this trek is that size isn't everything. The small schools in Kentucky, at least the ones in this tournament, are much better teams that most small schools in many other states. Kentucky is basketball country and it is not unusual to see small schools competing with larger ones in basketball. If Paintsville High is any indicator, they actually compete quite nicely. It is also not unusual to see most of a team from a small school comprised largely of sophomores and some freshmen.

In the heart of coal country, Paintsville High has a rich heritage in basketball that stretches back to 1957. The school has had seven Division I-A players who have played major college ball and even more who have gotten other college scholarships. Their coach, alumni Mike Runyan, played professional baseball before returning home to coach basketball. Friendly, warm, hospitable people in the town with the quaintest southern accents make you feel welcome at every opportunity.

Clear Lake knew they would have to step it up a notch after coasting to two easy victories in the two previous outings against small schools. Jimmy Witten surely did. Witten had a team high 18 points, eleven in the first quarter, and six rebounds and a steal in the game. After scoring 20 points in the opening quarter, the Falcons started to show why they should be a contender in this tournament. Outstanding play from Witten, good solid team play, good shooting, and few mistakes encouraged  the small but hearty Clear Lake fan base who traveled the 1120 miles to cheer their boys on  (The Clear Lake crowd consisted of Armie Lewis's parents, Don and Lauretta, Andy Leveque's mom Nancy Quick, her son Hunter, and her mom,  Leo Sarabia and me. Dad Jim Witten saw the second game but had to leave and unfortunately missed his son's impressive efforts).

The first quarter began and ended with Lake taking the lead and maintaining it. The quarter closed with Lake up 11-20.

In the second quarter with 6:40 remaining Justin Kurtz hit his second and last three to bring the score to 15-25, Lake up by 10. A steal and an uncontested layup drive down the lane by RJ Turner made it 15-27. With 3:38 left in the second period it was 20-31. A layup by Armie Lewis made it 22-35 at 2:29. Lake increased their lead to 16 but at the half it was 27-35 in Lake's favor.

In the third quarter Seneca chipped away and steadily reduced the margin.  With 5:59 remaining in the quarter Justin got a very nice assist to Jimmy under the basket with a no look over the sholder pass from the air to bring the score to 29-39.  Midway through the third quarter it was 35-40. With 35 seconds remaining in the quarter the game was tied at 40. Seneca went ahead 42-40 to end the quarter. The Falcons scored one basket by Ross Maha in the last four minutes of the third quarter and were outscored 17 to 7 in the quarter.

The fourth quarter was a seesaw with the game being tied three times and the lead changing several times as well. Forty seconds into the final quarter Kendrell Thompson got a rebound and putback to tie the score at 44. Then a free throw by Kendrell put Lake ahead 44-45. With 4:40 left RJ Turner made a layup in heavy traffic to make it  46-50. With 3:40 left Kendrell made a long overdue three from the left corner to put Lake up 48-53. With 2:14 remaining Seneca tied it again at 53 when Wittten got his fourth foul and sent them to the line. With 2 minutes remaining in the game the Falcons started a stall to get the final shot. A timeout and then another with 11 seconds remaining helped the Falcons plan their strategy. When play resumed Armie Lewis started his attack with less than six seconds showing on the clock by driving down the left side of the lane toward the baseline but had his pocket picked by a behind-the-back steal. A fifteen foot pass down court to a running Seneca guard  and a layup at the buzzer dashed the hopes of the Falcons to go into the final day of competition. Final score was 55-53, a heartbreaker. The Falcons missed more free throws than they made and missed more than the other team shot. Clear Lake has been eliminated from the competition.

Seneca advanced to the final day playoff round to be defeated by a young but scrappy Paintsville team.

Individual Scoring:
Jimmy Witten 18 (6 rebounds), Kendrell Thompson 11,
Justin Kurtz 9, RJ Turner 6, Andy Leveque 3, Ross Maha 2, Armie Lewis 2, Fulton 2

FALCON STATS	FG made	FG attempts	%
2's	17	43	40%
3's	3	14	21%
free throws	7	15	47%

SCORE BY QUARTER	1	2	3	4
Clear Lake	20	35	42	53
Louisville Seneca	11	27	44	55

LINESCORE	1	2	3	4	Final
Clear Lake	20	15	7	11	53
Louisville Seneca	11	16	17	11	55

REBOUNDS	US	THEM
Offensive	9
Defensive	16

<

The handwriting was on the wall when RJ Turner hit a three 5 seconds into the game. With 5:38 left in the first quarter, RJ hit another three to bring the score to 2-8 before the Falcons stretched their lead to 6-17 when Kendrell Thompson hit a three. The score was 10-19, the Falcons up by 9, at the end of the first quarter. Two minutes into the second quarter Lake increased their lead when Justin Kurtz made a spinning jump shot to bring the score to 14-28. Then Armie Lewis made a steal and a breakaway layup to put Lake up by 16, 14-30.With 3:15 left in the 2nd, Jon Gilmer got a steal and drove to the basket for a breakaway layup to bring the score to 20-34. At the half it was 24-38, closer than it should have been considering the disparity in the size of the two schools and the obvious difference in the talent between them. Allen Central has a good ball club but they were no match for the Falcons. In the second half Lake went to work on them. The depth off the bench really became apparent. At the 6:20 mark of the 3rd quarter the score went to 26-47 when Armie got his fifth of six steals. At the 2:32 mark the score went to 34-58 when Christian Enriquez made his second free throw after an intentional foul which took him to the floor and the wall under the basket. In the fourth quarter it was 45-74 with five minutes remaining in the game. On the final play for Lake in the game Andy Leveque stole the ball and drove down for the final score to make it 53-88. This game was a good warm-up and a confidence builder for Clear Lake but not a test of their skills. It helped them get acclimated to the gym and get used to the floor which has a shorter length than Lake is accustomed to. Allen Central is a small school in Eastern Kentucky (enrollment 395). The Paintsville Tournament has a mix of small and large schools (large being those with over 1000 enrollment. With an enrollment stated in the Tournament Program of 3500, Clear Lake High School is almost the size of the population of the town of Paintsville. There are only two sets of parents in attendance so far, Lauretta and Don Lewis and Nancy Quick and her mom and her son Hunter. Jim Witten is expected today. The Falcons play their second game Wednesday at noon against Ripley, Ohio.

Individual Scoring:
Justin Kurtz 20 (3 blocked shots)
Kendrell Thompson 16, Armie Lewis 13 (6 steals), RJ Turner 10
Jimmy Witten 8, Brandon Wynn 6, Ross Maha 6, Jon Gilmer 6, Fulton Brisco 3, Andy Leveque 2, Christian Enriquez 1

Article incomplete.

FALCON STATS	FG made	FG attempts	%
2's	32	49	61%
3's	8	20	40%
free throws	9	12	75%

SCORE BY QUARTER	1	2	3	4
Clear Lake	19	38	62	88
Allen Central	10	24	45	53

LINESCORE	1	2	3	4	Final
Clear Lake	19	19	24	26	88
Allen Central	10	14			53

REBOUNDS	US	THEM
Offensive	8.
Defensive	22

<

Individual scoring:
Justin Kurtz 22, Kendrell Thompson 21, Armie Lewis 20 (6 steals),
Andy Leveque 6, Ross Maha 3, Jimmy Witten 3 (5 assists), RJ Turner 3, Jon Gilmer 2

FALCON STATS	FG made	FG attempts	%
2's	19	45	42%
3's	10	17	59%
free throws	12	20	60%

SCORE BY QUARTER	1	2	3	4
Clear Lake	27	41	57	80
Pasadena Memorial	17	32	45	61

LINESCORE	1	2	3	4	Final
Clear Lake	27	14	16	23	80
Pasadena Memorial	17	15	13	16	61

REBOUNDS	US	THEM
Offensive	8
Defensive	11

//Disable right mouse click Script //By Maximus (maximus@nsimail.com) w/ mods by DynamicDrive //For full source code, visit http://www.dynamicdrive.com var message="To order photos: Note the 4 digit ref number when you move the cursor over the picture, left click on the photo. This will take you to the photo web site. Use clearlake hoops as the password when you link to the web site for the photos."; ///////////////////////////////////

Clear Lake 56 – Dobie 53

Saturday afternoon Tennessee spanked the University of Texas Longhorns on television and the Clear Lake Falcon squad traveled over to J. Frank Dobie High School to do the same to the Dobie Longhorns. Instead they faced a determined Dobie Longhorn bunch who seemed at times to want it worse than the Falcons. After Clear Lake jumped out to a nine point lead in the first three minutes of the game, some assumed it would be an easy victory. When it comes to high school basketball, how many times have we learned to never think like that? The first quarter closed at 18-12, Lake up by 6. The Falcons appeared to be a noticeably better basketball team but the scrappy Dobie bunch clawed their way to an 18-18 tie one minute into the second quarter. It remained close throughout the quarter with Dobie tying it at 25 and again at 27 to end the half. The Falcons might have gotten fussed at in the locker room at halftime. A somewhat “invigorated” Lake squad started the second half with a steal by Jimmy Witten and a pass to Armie Lewis who drove to the basket to put Lake ahead. Dobie countered with a trey to retake the lead. The lead see-sawed back and forth until Dobie went up by 4 with 5:40 remaining in the quarter. The Longhorns would score and then Lake would score to keep it close for the remainder of the quarter. The period ended with Dobie up by 2, 41-39. The see-saw battle continued in the fourth quarter with Lake trailing by one or two or three until Kendrell Thompson got a rebound at the 4:20 mark, drove coast to coast, and put it in to bring the score to 48-47, Dobie up by 1. With 3:33 remaining Dobie started shooting 1 and 1 when the Falcons committed their 7th foul of the half. Dobie hit their free throws to maintain the lead. With 1:33 left in the game Dobie went up by 5, 52-47. Then Justin Kurtz got an offensive rebound and scored on a spin-around jump shot but was fouled. Justin hit his free throw to bring the score to 52-50 with 1:22 remaining. After a tie ball with 34.5 seconds showing on the clock, Lake called time out. With 12 seconds left Jimmy Witten puts in up from the left side of the basket to tie the game at 52. In the waning seconds there were three jump balls called on our end of the court in less than 30 seconds. Remember this rare moment. The refs certainly seem to be favoring Clear Lake at this point. The cluster of coaches from nearby schools in the stands there to scout broke into open laughter at some of the calls at this point. Three jump balls in about twenty seconds?? The Falcons went 6 of 17 from the field in the fourth quarter. In the overtime Dobie controlled the jump but Kendrell stole the ball and passed to Armie who was fouled on the shot. That put Lake in the bonus as well. With 2:51 remaining and a one point lead, Lake spread their offense and started their stall. A basket by Jimmy and single free throws by Armie, Jimmy, and Justin allowed Clear Lake to cling to the lead, 53-56. With 20 seconds on the clock Dobie brought the ball down the court and launched a three but missed. A rebound by Justin nailed it shut. It was a much closer contest than it should have been. The Falcons went 2 of 7 from the charity stripe in the overtime period and 24 of 70 from the field for the game. It was not pretty but it was a win. In other action Saturday the Freshman A Team defeated Clear Brook to win the CCISD Tournament Championship. This team has played in the championship game in all three tournaments it has entered this season.


Individual Scoring:
Justin Kurtz 23 (7 rebounds), Jimmy Witten 19 (6 offensive rebounds, 3 steals), 
Armie Lewis 7 (7 assists),  Kendrell Thompson 4 (6 rebounds),  Andy Leveque 2, RJ Turner 1

5 Turnovers, 12 Steals

FALCON STATS	FG made	FG attempts	%
2's	22	48	46%
3's	2	22	9%
free throws	6	14	43%

SCORE BY QUARTER	1	2	3	4	OT
Clear Lake	18	27	39	52	56
Dobie	14	27	41	52	53

LINESCORE	1	2	3	4	OT
Clear Lake	18	9	12	13	4
Dobie	14	13	14	11	1

REBOUNDS	US	THEM
Offensive	17
Defensive	13

<