Clear Lake Falconhoops

Clear Lake 62 - Alvin 30 (Game # 29)

Article by Brooks Kubena

The Clear Lake Falcon basketball team maintained their unblemished 10-0 District record in their home victory against Alvin (0-9), 62-30. The momentum was even between the two teams, that is, until Lake won the opening tip-off. The closest the Yellow Jackets would come to tying Lake was when they went down by two points after a Rob Lewis jumper. The Falcons would proceed to score the next six baskets of the game successively and end the first quarter with a score of 18-4.

            “I thought we played very well.” Lake Head Coach Tommy Penders said. “It’s hard to play in situations like that when you’re trying to use players in combinations they’re not used to playing with each other. I thought our kids did very well. We were able to rest Lewis, Clayton, Miles, and Krenek. They logged a lot of minutes. As much as we use Davis, Blackmar, Quintanilla, Ruta, and West, these guys play a lot of minutes. So it’s good to get some rest and some of the guys that don’t get to play, they’re real good players, so it’s good to see them out there too.”

             Senior guards Nick Collins and Aaron Quintanilla would get the start, allowing junior guards Alden Miles and Paris Clayton a few minutes of rest. Quintanilla would set the tone on the defensive end of the court. After stealing the ball from an Alvin defender, Quintanilla dished it to teammate Connor Ruta for an assist. This was the first of the 19 turnovers the Falcon defense would force.

“We’ve been solid all year on defense,” Penders said, “and one thing we haven’t been able to do to ourselves is turn the ball over. We rarely turn the ball over. That’s a real credit to our primary point guards taking care of the ball. But our defense was there. We rebounded well in particular. I was real pleased with tonight and these games aren’t easy to play. It’s kind of a trap game in front of Clear Springs and our kids stayed focused. They were ready for Alvin tonight.”

With Alvin coming into the game not yet having won a District ball game, there might have been some worry that the team would have overlooked this game. Though the win wasn’t as impressive as the 70-19 slaughter the previous match-up between these two teams was, a 32 point margin cancels out the thought of a lack of preparation on the Falcons behalf.

Having won their seventeenth straight ball game, Penders believes the team has still not fulfilled the extent of their potential.

“We’re definitely not where we need to be yet.” Penders said. “What I see is that we have been steadily progressing the entire season. When you look at our roster, there are a lot of young kids out there playing so the sky is the limit, and we have to understand that and keep striving for more. I think we have to have a point where we totally limit our defensive lapses. We have been somewhat solid defensively. But if you want to keep moving a little bit further than most people think you could, you need to be real solid for 32 minutes and that’s a challenge. You work on things in practice like game situations. ‘Alright this is the last four minutes of the championship game.’ You know those are the kind of things we need to work on. We need to focus for 32 straight minutes. If we do that I think you all will see improvement.”

            Lake will travel to play cross town rival Clear Springs Friday at 7 PM. With the Chargers coming off of a tough loss against Clear Brook 67-61, the Falcons will have to maintain their focus as they push towards having the first undefeated District season since 1980.

Individual scoring:

Nick Collins 1

Connor Ruta 4

Alden Miles 13

Rob Lewis 9

Paris Clayton 11

Will West 4

Aaron Quintanilla 2

Jordan Davis 2

Colton Krenek 5

Blake Blackmar 3

Colton Torrance 3

Matt Dancy 3

To view game photos of this season's game as well as previous seasons, go to Photo Albums. Not all games will have photos submitted.

Clear Lake xx - opponent yy  (Game #   )

Individual scoring:

Alden Miles

Colton Torrance

John Paul Barajas 

Keith Heinzel

Drake Green

Mark Skol

Eric Santen

Will West

Eugene Maima

Jordan Davis

Blake Blackmar

Bradley George

Chris West

Orion Lewis

To view game photos of this season's game as well as previous seasons, go to Photo Albums. Not all games will have photos submitted.

Clear Lake 74 - Brazoswood 33 - (Game # 27)

Individual scoring:

Alden Miles 15

Rob Lewis 19

Paris Clayton 14

Will West 6

Jordan Davis 3

Colton Krenek 6

Blake Blackmar 3

Colton Torrance 6

Mark Skol 2

To view game photos of this season's game as well as previous seasons, go to Photo Albums. Not all games will have photos submitted.

December 20, 2011
CLEAR LAKE 45 (W) at Brazoswood 30
Clear Springs 43 at Pearland 46 (W)
Dickinson 32 at Clear Creek 46 (W)
Clear Brook 56 (W) at Alvin 19

January 3, 2012 - Tuesday
Pearland 54 at CLEAR LAKE 62 (W)
Alvin 30 at Clear Springs 60 (W)
Brazoswood (W) 73 at Dickinson 70
Clear Creek 53 at Clear Brook 77 (W)

January 6
CLEAR LAKE 70 (W) at Alvin 19
Clear Springs 32 at Clear Brook 45 (W)
Clear Creek 48 (W) at Brazoswood 44
Dickinson 41 at Pearland 62 (W)

January 10 - Tuesday
Clear Springs 48 at CLEAR LAKE 55 (W)
Pearland 35 (W) at Clear Creek 33
Clear Brook 80 (W) at Brazoswood 45
Alvin 31 at Dickinson 59 (W)

January 13
CLEAR LAKE 61 (W) at Clear Brook 55
Clear Creek 52 (W) at Alvin 23
Dickinson 41 at Clear Springs 53 (W)
Brazoswood 37 at Pearland 52 (W)