Clear Lake Falconhoops

Pasadena Texas Invitational Tournament Day 3, Game 1 Vs. San Antonio Taft Raiders Sometimes it just clicks. On Saturday, the final day of a three day tournament, Clear Lake met San Antonio Taft in the semifinals of the Silver Division. Knowing that Lake’s team was playing without three of their players and they were only missing two big post men due to football playoffs, the Taft Raiders had athletes who were ready to prove their point. But they had not expected to encounter such a precision, well-oiled machine as they faced with the Clear Lake team. The Falcons played almost flawless team basketball at times despite having only 8 players and a poor shooting performance overall. In the first quarter it started out looking like it might be a fairly even contest between the two teams but the Falcons changed that notion quickly as they calmly, methodically combined key rebounds with swift movement toward the basket and accurate shooting (6 of 7 from two point range). Coupled with effective defense, the Falcons held the cold Raiders to only 4 points in the quarter. 15-4 after the first. The Raiders got on track in the second quarter with improved rebounding from their big 6’9” post man and scored 14 points to the Falcons 12 to bring the score to Lake 27, Taft 18 af the half. Lee Mazurek sparked the Falcons each time he was in the game with his hustle and shot accuracy . Renowned Taft coach Mike Osterman started to see a glimmer of what he knew his team could do but he didn’t anticipate what the Falcons had in store for the Raiders in the second half. In the third quarter tenacious defense combined with continued good shot selection to enable the Falcons to outscore Taft 13 to 4. Yes, the Falcons held their opponents to 4 points again! A late 3 point shot by Brandon Wynn brought the quarter to a close at Lake 40, Taft 22. The Falcons outscored Taft 10 to 6 in the final period. Lee Mazurek’s and Jordan Villarreal’s hustle seemed to increase with every game in the tournament. How could they not be getting fatigued? The Taft team played like they were tired because the Falcons made them look tired. The final score was Lake 50, Taft 28. The Taft Raiders were in shock after such a whipping. This will probably be their worst performance of the season thanks to the tenacity of the Falcons. This game for the Falcons displayed good team basketball. The Falcons had 8 steals in the game, only committed 7 fouls for the entire game, and played controlled, effective ball thanks partly to only 5 bad passes, their lowest of the tournament. They just seemed to usually be at the right place at the right time, one sign of a well coached team coming together. Lee Mazurek was selected as game MVP Scoring for the Falcons: Gordon Abner 13, Brandon Wynn 9, Lee Mazurek 9, Mark Murphy 9, Kendrell Thompson 7, David Pearce 2, Armie Lewis 1 2’s: 14 of 28 (50%, not good enough) 3’s: 5 of 15 (33%, the lowest of the tournament) free throws: 7 of 14 (50%) dismal