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Falcons storm by Tors 77-52

Posted by Donald Wilkerson at Feb 20, 2004 4:00PM PST ( 0 Comments )
A strange thing happened on Galveston Island Friday night and it was not just the Mardi Gras weirdness. Due to a discipline problem with the Galveston Ball Tornados varsity basketball team, several of their players were suspended and did not play in the game against Clear Lake. According to prevalent rumor, Galveston Ball Tors team members are required to wear a tie to school on game day. A few of them did not and were suspended from playing the final game of the season by first year varsity coach Steven Alves. Some other teammates who had worn their ties joined in and said they did not wish to play unless their teammates were allowed to play, so they too were suspended. Way to go Coach! As a result there were not enough players to field a team so some Galveston JV players were moved up to play in the varsity game but this left the JV without enough players so Freshman A team players were moved up to play in the JV game. The Freshman A game was forfeited to Clear Lake. The JV team for Lake was a mix of JV players and the Freshman A team. The JV players would play a while then the freshmen would play some. Lake’s composite JV won. Consequently, the varsity game was an easy victory for the Falcons. It was like an uneventful scrimmage in a very hot gym. Dennis Cerny was out due to his ankle injury but was walking without crutches. Lee Mazurek and Brandon Wynn were moved up from the JV to fill in for Dennis. Needless to say, the reserves played a great deal in this “contest” and the Falcon players got the chance to display their basketball prowess. The Falcons were up 18-9 after the first quarter. All first quarter scoring was from inside except one 3 by Scott Oswald. At the half it was 42 to 21, 62 to 35 after 3, and the final score was 77 to 52. Among the highlights , as you might expect, were several dunks by Connor Atchley and the big guys, and the second quarter started as the Chris Mitchell Show. Chris put the ball through the hoop the first five times of the quarter (3 free throws and 2 dunks) before Gordon Abner put in his own slam dunk to bring the score to 27-12. Needless to say, not the most exciting game overall but still a “W”. Free throws were a problem for the Falcons. The Falcons have a bye next Tuesday before they play in the second round of the playoffs on Friday. Their opponent, not yet determined, will probably be Eisenhower. Scoring for the Falcons: Connor Atchley 19, Dan Rieke 12, Chris Mitchell 9, Scott Oswald 8, Aaron Greenwood 8, Lee Mazurek 6, Gordon Abner 4, Micah Walker 4, Armie Lewis 4, Ross Mahler 3. imageimageimage
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Final District Standings

Posted by Gene Pearce at Feb 20, 2004 4:00PM PST ( 0 Comments )
Lake Takes Another 24-5A District Championship (article contributed by Gene Pearce) The District 24-5A season is completed. Clear Lake won the 2003-2004 District Championship. Runner-up was Alvin and third place was Clear Brook. The final District standings follow. TEAM DISTRICT RECORD Clear Lake 9 - 1 Alvin 8 - 2 Clear Brook 7 - 3 Galv. Ball 3 - 7 Clear Creek 3 - 7 Brazoswood 0 - 10
True to the tradition of Clear Lake High School, the Clear Lake boys basketball teams finished the 2003-2004 regular season with impressive results.
 
The Varsity (27-7) won district, the JV (28-4) won district, the Sophomores (23-7) tied for second, the Freshman A Team (30-1) won district, and the Freshman B Team (24-9) tied for first.

Way To Go Falcons!!!
If there was doubt in anyone’s mind about who the District 24 5A champions were, Tuesday night at the Clear Lake gym the Clear Lake Falcons resolved the issue with authority. The Falcons defeated the Wolverines 64-45 in front of a highly charged, packed house. Still stinging from their only loss in district play to Clear Brook, the 26-7 Falcons came out well prepared and eager to show everyone they were worthy of their regional and state rankings. The Falcons started off slowly and spotted the noticeably quick Wolverines 5 points before a basket by Nandi Wijay broke the ice. The game also started off on a sour note when less than 4 minutes into the first quarter an intentional foul was called on Lake for a foul by Nandi Wijay (and Dennis Cerny) when stopping a fast break drive to the basket by fouling Drew Washington. What a flakey, dubious call! Certainly it was because the refs wanted to set the tone of the game early and not let the intense rivalry get out of hand but it was just a bad call. The Clear Brook fans had a warning of what was to come though when both free throws were missed. The Wolverines went on to miss six in a row before they finally made one. A total of eight free throws in the first half were missed by Brook and the Wolverines only made 7 of 20 for the night. The brief Brook lead in the first quarter was ended when Dennis Cerny swished his first 3 pointer for the night and put the Falcons ahead 9-8. The score stayed within a point or two until Brook reclaimed the lead 16-14. But then two free throws by Dan Rieke tied it at 16, a 3 by Armie Lewis and a basket by Aaron Greenwood closed out the first quarter with Lake up 21-16. The defense from both squads was at times impressive and it was a thrilling first quarter. The second quarter was a defensive contest as well. The Falcons went three and a half minutes before they scored their first bucket when Connor Atchley put it in. The Falcons outscored the Wolverines 9 to 6 to make the score 30-22 at the half. The foul count was slightly excessive in the first half but not as bad as it has been for the Falcons in many games this year. At the halftime, the Falcons must have said “Okay, enough foolin around, let’s go to work”. And Boy did they! At 4:25 remaining in the quarter, Dan Rieke took a charge, his THIRD of the game. Very impressive! With each one you could feel it electrify the team just a bit more. The focused, intense Lake squad went on to outscore the Wolverines 18 to 6 in the quarter with great defense, consistently unselfish team play, and balanced scoring. Solid rebounding by Connor Atchley and Chris Mitchell helped as well as the speed and hustle of the guards and the remarkable talent display of Nandi Wijay and Scott Oswald. The third quarter closed at 48-28 in Lake’s favor with everyone getting in on the act. Twenty point lead. Not bad for a team who let Brook beat them 60-53 only three weeks earlier on a bad night. The reserves got to play a considerable amount in this game. In the final period, with the reserves playing most of the quarter, Lake went to their slow down game to run some time off the clock. Lake only scored three baskets but went 10 of 12 on their free throws to further perplex the bewildered Wolverines. Final score was 64-45 but the lead could easily have been greater. No need though. The Falcons had said what they came to say. Scoring for the Falcons: Dan Rieke 12, Connor Atchley 10, Scott Oswald 10, Nandi Wijay 6, Dennis Cerny 6, Armie Lewis 6, Ross Mahler 5, Chris Mitchell 4, Aaron Greenwood 4, Gordon Abner 1. I am almost positive that Micah Walker scored as well but not according to the official scorebook. The Falcons were 15 of 19 from the free throw line. imageimageimage
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Clear Lake edges Clear Creek 59-57

Posted by Donald Wilkerson at Feb 13, 2004 4:00PM PST ( 0 Comments )
The Clear Lake, Clear Creek basketball rivalry dates back 30 years to when Clear Lake stole Clear Creek's basketball coach when the school was opened. This rivalry, like many, has come to mean intense, close games where, no matter what each school’s record before the contest, the outcome is usually not decided until late in the game. This game was no exception. Everyone got his money’s worth. Playing to a near-capacity crowd in the Lake gym, the Clear Creek Wildcats came into the Friday night game with upset on their mind. The Falcons, currently ranked 17th in the state in 5A and tied for first place in the district with Clear Brook, considered this a must win game to keep their hopes alive for a shootout for the championship with Clear Brook next Tuesday. Clear Lake previously defeated Creek in the first round by a score of 61-55 so everyone expected a close game despite Creek’s poor showing in district play(2-5) (Creek previously defeated Kingwood and Cinco Ranch, both highly ranked teams in Region III, in pre-district play however). The Lake/Creek game had all the indicators of a “barn burner” and it was. The first quarter was close throughout. After a tie at 6, Creek pulled ahead by 1 or 2 points and maintained the lead until the last few seconds of the quarter when Micah Walker scored to make it Lake 15 - Creek 14 at the end of the quarter. Dan Rieke scored 7 of the 15 points for Lake in the quarter. In the second quarter Lake jumped out ahead and pulled to a 7 point lead 26-19 before Creek chiseled away at the lead to reduce it to 4. Then Lake pulled away again when Scott Oswald scored a layup at the buzzer to make it 33-26. The foul count was 8 to 3 against Lake at one point in the half. In the third quarter Lake pulled out to a 10 point lead before Creek reduced it to 5, 46-41. Then Gordon Abner sank two free throws to end the quarter 48-41. Still too close for comfort. In the first four minutes of the final period, Creek outscored Lake 8 to 4. Then Creek’s #44 6’3” junior Ray Kraemer stuffed it in for 2 and then scored again to bring the score to 52-51 with 2:40 remaining in the game. Lake scored only 4 points in 5 minutes and 20 seconds of the 4th quarter but the benevolent Wildcats decided to quit making free throws. At the 1:27 mark Creek had missed 6 free throws in a row. With the foul count again at 8 to 3, the lopsided foul count which favored the Wildcats worked against them when they had to start fouling but could not get to 1 and 1 soon enough. With 42 seconds remaining, a basket by Connor Atchley finally broke the ice and a free throw by Scott Oswald put it at 55-52. With 17 seconds remaining, freshman Armie Lewis, only the third freshman to ever play varsity ball at Clear Lake, calmly stepped to the free throw line and sank both shots to make the score 59-54. Then Creek scored a questionable three pointer with 7 seconds showing on the clock to make it 59-57. Scott Oswald missed a free throw and the Wildcats advanced the ball down the court, passed it to their #44, Kraemer, who launched a shot from 15 feet away. You could feel the crowd stop breathing as the ball advanced to the hoop in what appeared to be right on target. But the shot was off and time expired. Wow! Lake narrowly escaped an overtime period and the potential for a loss at the hands of their archrivals Clear Creek. Scoring for the Falcons: Dan Rieke 14, Connor Atchley 10, Scott Oswald 9, Nandi Wijay 5, Armie Lewis 4, Gordon Abner 4, Aaron Greenwood 4, Dennis Cerny 3, Ross Mahler 2, Chris Mitchell 2, Micah Walker 2. In other district action Alvin defeated Clear Brook at Brook by a score of 62-47. Thank you Alvin. Galveston Ball outpaced Brazoswood 62-49. With the Clear Brook loss to Alvin, Lake is in first place in the district but a win Tuesday night over Brook is still imperative to clinch the title (assuming a win over Galveston Ball next Friday). If Ball should defeat Clear Lake on Ball's home court, the score in the Brook-Lake games could become crucial (Brook won by 7 in the first round, 60-53).