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Lake Falls to Brook 60-53

Posted by Donald Wilkerson on Jan 30 2004 at 04:00PM PST
Like the Lake-Creek game, the Clear Lake/Clear Brook game is what high school basketball is all about. Two ardent rivals, a packed gym on a Friday night, the roaring crowd on its feet cheering for their team in a game which might go either way but not decided until the last few seconds. Unranked underdog Clear Brook wanting desperately to knock off 15th ranked Clear Lake. The highly ranked Falcons hopeful of another win to edge their way toward a district championship. But sometimes the shots just don’t fall for you. Such was the case for the Falcons in a 24-5A district matchup when Clear Lake was defeated by the Clear Brook Wolverines 60-53 in their first meeting of district play for this season. This was only the second time in the history of Clear Brook High School that the Wolverines have defeated the Falcons in varsity boys basketball (first time was Nov. 17, 2001 in a tournament). The fact that the Falcons still need to focus more on getting the ball inside closer to the basket before shooting became even more evident in this game. In the first half the Falcons were 7 of 25 from the field (28%). They also missed more free throws than they made (4 of 9 made, 44%) for the half. It’s tough to win against a good team when your shooting percentage is so abysmal. Combine that with a plethora of unforced turnovers and it spells disaster especially when your opponents are shooting extremely well like Clear Brook was. Clear Lake came out ready and focused but they could never seem to get their game on track in the first half. It wasn’t so much that they were taking bad shots. The shots just weren’t falling. At the end of the first quarter it was Brook 17, Lake 10. In the second quarter the Falcons missed 5 of 8 free throws, shot 3 of 13 from the field, yet still they were only down 26 to 19 at the half. A small miracle due to some tenacious defense at times by the Falcons who held the Wolverines to 9 points as well. Clear Brook never trailed in the game from the opening tipoff and led by as much as 11 in the third quarter until the Falcons closed the gap to 9 with a score of 44-35 at the end of the quarter. The Falcons stepped up the intensity some in the 3rd quarter and really stepped it up in the 4th quarter. With 4:40 remaining in the game, the Falcons closed the gap to 46-42. The foul count at this point in the second half was Lake 10, Brook 2! The Wolverines scored the next five points to put it at 51-42 with 3 minutes remaining. The Falcons were still in it but big man Connor Atchley fouled out at this point which probably sealed the fate of the Falcons. At 2:20 remaining Dennis Cerny hit a clutch jumper to bring the score to 54-46. Then Lake's Dan Rieke came on strong to score two quick baskets to put it at 54-50 in Brook’s favor. With 41 seconds remaining, Rieke again scores on a finesse shot to bring the score to 54-52 (Rieke was 5 for 5 from the field and 2 for 2 from the charity stripe). Every spectator in the packed gym was on his or her feet for the last two minutes of the thrilling contest. After a successful free throw by Brook and with 22 seconds showing on the clock, Scott Oswald drove to the basket and was fouled. He made the first for Lake but missed the second. 55-53. Still not too late. But this was the Wolverines night. Brook went on to score 5 more to put the final score at 60-53. The final foul count for the second half was Lake 16, Brook 5. Clear Lake did not play well enough to win in the first half and the excessive, one-sided fouls called against Lake in the second half took them out of the game. (The foul count was 12-2 against Lake before the third foul was called on Brook in the second half). With Clear Lake’s aggressive defense you would expect more fouling by Lake but 12-2? Come on. Stats for the Falcons: Atchley 18 pts., Rieke 12 (8 pts. in the last four minutes of the ball game), Oswald 6, Mahler 5, Cerny 5 pts. (7 assists), Mitchell 3, Abner 2, Greenwood 2. The Falcons were 8 of 15 from the free throw line, 21 of 50 from the field, and there were 25 fouls called on the squad. Clear Lake's season record is now 21-7. In other district action Alvin defeated Brazoswood 51-47 and Galveston Ball upset Clear Creek 54-52. After four district games, there is no undefeated team in the district. imageimage

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