Clear Lake Falconhoops

Last Wednesday evening in the Fort Worth WhataBurger Tournament Clear Lake defeated one of the better teams in the country when they defeated Harvard Westlake 95-79. Today in the Baytown Lee gym, Clear Lake almost got beat by one of the weakest 5A teams in the region. Sure Lake was firing on all cylinders when they outshone the California team. Sure Lake was probably confident of a win over the Lee Ganders. Sure Lake probably underestimated the Baytown Lee squad who wanted to defeat Clear Lake so badly they could taste it. Sure Clear Lake was suffering from the "Post Tournament Blues". Sure one of the three refs made 85% of the calls, many of which were questionable. Despite all this, Clear Lake was able to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat in the Baytown Lee gym where bad things have been known to happen. The game was about what one would expect in the early stages. Lake scored at will on the Ganders but could not seem to pull away. Baytown Lee's #44 6' 2" Michael Reed kept bringing them back time after time. Lake scored 27 points in the first quarter, then 8 in the second. At the half it was Lake 35, Baytown 28. After 3 quarters it was Lake 50, Baytown 42. Lake pulled ahead by as much as 10 in the 3rd, then Lee closed the gap. Early in the 4th quarter after two dunks by Chris Mitchell, a layup by Aaron Greenwood, and steals by Ross, Gordon, and Dennis, the Ganders pulled to a 4 point margin 54-58 with 5:04 remaining. Lee narrowed the gap to 1 at 2:58 remaining and then tied the match with 2:12 showing on the clock. A few seconds later Lee's Michael Reed sank both free throws to put Lee ahead 66-64 for the first time since the first minute of the game. At 1:34 remaining the ref made a phantom traveling call on Dan Rieke but Lee's Reed missed the front end of a 1 and 1 after being fouled. Rieke then put in a bank shot to tie the game at 66. With 46 seconds remaining, that same ref, yes the one we all grew to know so well, called a mysterious offensive charge on Rieke. (There were 12 such similar violations called on Lake in the game along with some pretty noticeable no-calls as well!). Then with 35 seconds showing on the clock, Lee's Michael Reed was also called for charging and fouled out. At 27.35 seconds, Aaron Greenwood missed a layup but got fouled while shooting after regaining control of the rebound. He made the second free throw to put Lake up by 1, 67-66. After a Lee timeout, with 7.22 seconds remaining, Lee shot and missed and Dan Rieke got the rebound and smothered the ball to watch the time expire. Lake was lucky to pull out the win. Scoring for the Falcons: Aaron Greenwood 14 (6 rebounds), Dennis Cerny 12, Connor Atchley 11 (10 rebounds), Dan Rieke 10 (8 rebounds), Gordon Abner 6, Chris Mitchell 6, Scott Oswald 4, Ross Mahler 2, Micah Walker 2.