Clear Lake Falconhoops

Birthday: January 2, 1988

Jersey number: 12

Elementary school attended: Brookwood Elementary

Intermediate school attended: Space Center Intermediate

Number of years playing school basketball: 6

Graduating Class of 2006

Favorite subject: Anatomy and Math

Favorite teacher: whoever gives me the highest grade

Favorite NBA or college player(s): Ray Allen

Favorite book: The Bible

Favorite food: cheese pizza with tomatoes

Favorite movie: Se7en, Super Troopers, Training Day

Favorite TV show: Too many...Arrested development, House,
Smallville, Simpsons, Family Guy, Seinfeld

Other sports or school activities I participate in: None

Hobbies: shooting hoops with my Dad, playing games, going to the gym

Person I would most like to meet: Jessica Alba

I would like to attend college at: U of H

My plans after high school are: college, medical school, money

What I would like for people to remember about me: My nice and optimistic personality

Clear Lake 85 - Dickinson 53

Clear Lake’s first game of the 73^rd annual Clear Creek ISD Classic Tournament against Dickinson started out as the Justin Kurtz show. Kurtz came out on fire and aced three of the first four buckets made by the Falcons. As is often the case in first round tournament play in what would quickly become evident as an obvious mismatch, the Falcons demonstrated their prowess on the court early and often. In the first four minutes of the game the Falcons were up 16 to 4 after Kurtz racked up a deuce, a trey, and a dunk combined with a basket from Kendrell Thompson and his three successive free throws, and buckets by Jimmy Witten and RJ Turner. Then three buckets by Andy Leveque along with another by Justin and a trey from RJ Turner made it 26 to 4. Not much of a contest but a good confidence builder for the team. Lake’s reserves were in the game early and played a bunch.

Lake stretched their lead to 33 to 7 early in the second quarter. Due to solid defense by Lake, Dickinson went over three minutes in the quarter before they scored their first basket but then they got on track. The Falcons continued to keep the statisticians busy as they racked up 50 points in the first half. On his way to a game high 20 points, Justin Kurtz went six of seven in the first half and barely played in the second half due to the overwhelming lead established early by the Falcons.

For the game Fulton Brisco went six of seven from the field, had three steals, three offensive rebounds, and a blocked shot to show why he should be getting more playing time. Overall a good offensive showing with good team ball especially from Ross Maha but obvious room for team improvement on defense and rebounding at times. Four of the Falcons scored in double figures.

Individual Scoring:
Justin Kurtz 20,
Andy Leveque 15, Fulton Brisco 12, Kendrell Thompson 10,
Armie Lewis 9, Brandon Wynn 5, RJ Turner 5, Jon Gilmer 4, Jimmy Witten 4, Christian Enriquez 1

For all games: scorers listed in descending order. When scoring ties occur, seniors are listed first.

FALCON STATS	FG made	FG attempts	%
2's	27	50	54%
3's	6	23	26%
free throws	13	23	57%

SCORE BY QUARTER	1	2	3	4
Clear Lake	28	22	24	11
Dickinson	7	18	14	14

LINESCORE	1	2	3	4	Final
Clear Lake	28	50	74	85	85
Dickinson	7	25	39	53	53

REBOUNDS	US	THEM
Offensive	16	14
Defensive	13	15

Individual Scoring:
Kendrell Thompson 13,
RJ Turner 8, Armie Lewis 5, Jimmy Witten 5 (9 rebounds, 2 blocked shots), Andy Leveque 3, Justin Kurtz 3, Fulton Brisco 2

FALCON STATS	FG made	FG attempts	%
2's	10	21	48%
3's	3	17	18%
free throws	10	14	71%

SCORE BY QUARTER	1	2	3	4
Clear Lake	8	16	9	6
Desoto	14	22	15	3

LINESCORE	1	2	3	4	Final
Clear Lake	8	24	33	39	39
Desoto	14	36	51	54	54

REBOUNDS	US	THEM
Offensive	3	9
Defensive	16	16

Like most Milby/Lake games, it was a good ball game. Both teams were playing well. Milby was shooting very well from outside and dishing off and scoring in the paint just as well. The  Milby bunch at times seemed as if they were playing with five guards who could not miss. As usual, the well coached Buffalos presented a balanced attack but there was something a bit different about the Buffs. No Alton Ford, no Larry Posey, no Jawaan McClellan. Lacking a big man, they compensated with plenty of hustle, excellent outside shooting, consistent play, and doing exactly what they were told. Five players scored in double figures. Lake was noticeably out hustled in the second and third quarters but the difference for Clear Lake was mainly turnovers and free throws. The Falcons had 16 turnovers and missed 8 free throws. Some of the turnovers were due to Milby's quickness; too many were just mistakes. Rebounding was fairly even.

Milby out shot Lake and took a 7 point lead, 8-15, mid-way through the first quarter. Armie Lewis hit a three, then stole the ball. Jimmy Witten, on his way to a double double, got a put-back to bring it to 12-15 with 2:04 remaining in the first quarter. Justin Kurtz hit a three to tie it at 17 with 1:20 left in the first period but Milby quickly answered with one of their own. Andy Leveque then hit a trey to tie it at 20 before the quarter ended.  Milby was 9 of 11 from the field in the first quarter! The referees started out calling a very tight game with several traveling calls in the first quarter. Overall for the game, the officiating was consistent and good. Surprising, considering the relative inexperience of all three referees.

In the second quarter the game was tied three times before Brandon Wynn hit a three to put Lake up 27-26. Then, after a tie at 27, Milby maintained a two to six point lead for the remainder of the quarter. With 15 seconds remaining in the half, Fulton Brisco scored to close out the half at 37-41, Lake down by 4.

In the third quarter Milby wanted it more than Lake did. Three Lake turnovers at the start of the second half did not help. Milby increased their lead to ten with three minutes left in the third quarter and then increased their lead to 13. In the second portion of the third quarter Milby was scoring every time down the court but we were not. The quarter closed at 52-65.

In the final period the Falcons decided they wanted to win. Two successive baskets by Jimmy Witten fired up the Falcons, 60-67, with 5:30 left in the game (Witten scored 10 points in the fourth quarter). With 3:50 remaining Armie hits both free throws to make it 66-71. Justin hits another three to narrow the gap with 2:43 left (69-73). At 1:56 Kendrell sank a trey from the right corner to bring it to 73-75, Lake down by 2.  A missed three point attempt at the one minute mark gave them the ball with the score 73-79. After Milby missed a free throw Justin hit another three with 6.12  seconds remaining to bring it to 76-79. Lake called time out then Milby inbounded the ball. After we fouled they made a free throw.
 The final score was 76-80.   In the last minute it could have gone either way. A typical Lake-Milby barn burner.


Individual Scoring:
Kendrell Thompson 18, Jimmy Witten 14 (11 rebounds, 3 steals), Justin Kurtz 12
Andy Leveque 9, Fulton Brisco 6, Armie Lewis 6, RJ Turner 3, Brandon Wynn 3, John Gilmer 3, Ross Maha 2

Falcon Stats	FG made	FG attempts	%
2's	24	47	51%
3's	7	21	33%
free throws	7	15	47%

Score by Quarter	1	2	3	4
Clear Lake	20	17	15	24
Milby	20	21	24	15

Linescore	1	2	3	4	Final
Clear Lake	20	37	52	76	76
Milby	20	41	65	80	80

Total Rebounds	US	THEM
Offensive	14	7
Defensive	18	20

Clear Lake was supposed to lose their home opener against La Porte according to some so-called experts. Did not happen. With La Porte’s Rett Thibodeaux and Dustin Kempf missing from their lineup (due to football) today at 2 p.m. when the Falcons took on the Bulldogs, the two teams matched up well despite the slight height advantage enjoyed by La Porte. Clear Lake’s tallest player is 6’5” Jimmy Witten and it is critical for him to see extended playing time, but the refs took a personal liking to Jimmy early in the game. Jimmy was in early foul trouble thanks mainly to picky calls and the refs natural tendency to call fouls on the big men. Guess Jimmy will just have to learn some tricks to avoid those foul calls.

In the first quarter Clear Lake garnered an early lead after Justin Kurtz and Armie Lewis were on target and then Kendrell Thompson hit a trey from the corner to put Lake up 12 -3. In the second quarter it looked like it would be more of the same as the Falcons increased their lead to 11 with 2:53 remaining in the period. With three minutes remaining in the first half, Lake up by 12, 29-17, Jimmy Witten had to sit down with his second foul. Then their post, Jereal Scott, # 44, went to work to narrow the gap.  Lake held firm and was up by 9 at the half when Fulton Brisco hit 2 to make it 34-25.

In the third quarter Jimmy got an immediate third foul and was called to the bench. La Porte narrowed the difference to 3, 37-34 in less than the first two minutes of the second half. Lake seemed temporarily ineffective on offense as a 14 point lead dwindled while La Porte scored repeatedly. Maybe the Falcons wanted to get our hearts pounding good before we go digest all the turkey and trimmings tomorrow. It worked. The second half was exciting. Anyway, after a two minute interval when the Bulldogs outscored the Falcons 14 to 3 and brought the score to 37-39, La Porte’s first lead of the game, Lake got back on track when Justin hit a 3 to put Lake back in the lead 40-39. In the next two minutes the lead changed hands twice and the game was tied twice in a see-saw battle. As the quarter progressed, the refs seemed to make things worse by calling multiple player control fouls on Clear Lake (most of these were called by the same ref). Just before the three minute mark Justin hit another trey to tie it at 45 before La Porte went up again by two. Then Brandon Wynn ended a long dry spell,  lasting over six games, when he nailed a trey to make it 48-47 at 2:52 remaining. With 35 seconds showing on the clock in the third quarter, Justin, on his way to a game high 21 points, hit another three. The quarter closed at 56-52, Lake up by 4 in an exciting ball game.

One minute into the fourth quarter the score was 56-55, Lake by 1, and the foul count was 10-4 (the 10 was on Lake). Lake would not relinquish the lead again though. RJ Turner and Kendrell scored to increase the lead to 63-57 before Jimmy fouled out at the 4:39 mark. The Bulldogs brought the scored to within 4, 66-62, with 2:30 remaining. Then RJ hit another lay-up to give a little breathing room before La Porte scored to make it 68-64 with 2:07 left to play. As mentioned earlier, numerous player control turnovers plagued the Falcons. Our final charging foul looked very untimely with 44 seconds remaining until Armie quickly stole the ball and passed to Kendrell for a lay-up. This increased the lead to 6 but the Bulldogs were tenacious as Bulldogs tend to be. With 40 seconds left and Lake leading 71-68, La Porte called their final timeout and started fouling to regain possession but too little, too late. With just enough good free throw shooting, Lake prevailed with a final score of 76-68. A great way to start a wonderful holiday season in the most bountiful country on earth.

Several varsity alumni were spotted in the crowd including Alan Hudson, Dan Rieke, David Pearce, Scott Oswald, Aaron Greenwood, and Blair Greenwood. Blair was sporting his NCAA national championship ring from the Baylor women’s team. "Now how does that work?", you ask. Blair was the manager of the Baylor Girls team last year. (Additional photos in the ALBUMS SECTION)

Happy Thanksgiving

Individual Scoring:
Justin Kurtz 21 (11 rebounds),
Kendrell Thompson 17, Armie Lewis 14,
RJ Turner 7, Jon Gilmer 5, Jimmy Witten 5, Fulton Brisco 4, Brandon Wynn 3

Falcon Stats	FG made	FG attempts	%
2's	19	35	54%
3's	7	18	39%
free throws	17	26	65%

Score by Quarter	1	2	3	4
Clear Lake	14	20	22	20
La Porte	10	15	27	16

Line score	1	2	3	4	Final
Clear Lake	14	34	56	76	76
La Porte	10	25	52	68	68

Total Rebounds	US	THEM
Offensive	6	14
Defensive	22	19