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Clear Lake downs Galveston Ball 78-61

Posted by Donald Wilkerson at Feb 2, 2004 4:00PM PST ( 0 Comments )
The Galveston Ball Tornados came prepared and well equipped to twist the Falcons into knots in their first meeting of the season tonight in the Lake gym. There were two fouls called on Lake in 22 seconds. By the first four minutes of the first quarter, Nandi Wijay and Connor Atchley each had 2 fouls on them and Galveston had 1. You could almost hear the Clear Lake crowd thinking “uhh oh, here we go again”. The only thing missing was for Dan Rieke to get in foul trouble early as well. But that is not what happened. In a very close contest throughout the first half, Lake would score then Galveston would score or vice versa. The spread stayed close and the game was tied five times in the first quarter. Not only did Lake’s Dan Rieke not get a foul called on him in the quarter, but it seemed like he was scoring every time he touched the ball on offense. With Atchley sitting out early, Rieke took over. He scored 8 points in the first quarter and had several key rebounds. At the end of the first quarter, it was Galveston 20, Clear Lake 18. In the second quarter it was more of the same as the excitement continued. The Tors early strategy was to platoon the Falcons with frequent waves of substitutions and wear down the Falcons’ tenacious defense. The Tors would score a few, then the Falcons would score a few more. But this time it was not only Rieke who stepped up but Micah Walker who sparked his team. Throughout the half when Galveston would get behind, their #24, Gordon Ward, would crank up a 3 point shot and hit nothing but net. Again, the game was tied five times in the quarter and the lead changed hands probably twice that many. At the half it was Lake 35, Galveston 33. There were 18 fouls called in the half. Could have been much worse. After some half time adjustments by the Falcons and getting Atchley back in the game, the Falcons extended their lead to nine with 2:48 remaining in the third quarter. Throughout this game the Falcons did a better job of emphasizing the pass in to the inside man and thanks to a 9 point output from Connor Atchley in the quarter, the Falcons outscored the Tors 20-15 to close the quarter at Lake 55, Galveston 48. In the final period the game stayed close but with almost four and a half minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Atchley got two quick fouls called on him in 35 seconds so he was forced to the bench with 4:08 remaining in the game with Lake ahead 63-55. Scott Oswald and Dan Rieke controlled the quarter with help from Micah Walker, Aaron Greenwood and the reserves. With 2:33 remaining in the game it was still a 9 point difference in Lake’s favor before Lake decided to take advantage of the tired Tors and started to increase their lead. Lake outscored the Tors 23-13 to make the final score 78-61. Scoring for the Falcons: Dan Rieke 18 pts. (11 rebounds), Connor Atchley 14 (6 rebounds), Micah Walker 13 (6 rebounds), Scott Oswald 11, Aaron Greenwood 9, Dennis Cerny 6, Ross Mahler 3, Nandi Wijay 2. The Falcons were 29 of 51 from the field and 17 of 20 from the charity stripe, a remarkable turnaround from last Friday’s performance. imageimageimage
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Lake Falls to Brook 60-53

Posted by Donald Wilkerson at Jan 30, 2004 4:00PM PST ( 0 Comments )
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
Often no one takes photos of a Lake varsity game to provide to this web site. Some years I receive 230 photos per game. Every photo provided to me is reviewed for use on the site. It takes 5 to 10 minutes per photo to review a photo and prepare it for presentation on the falconhoops web site. Infrequently a professional photographer will take photos and offer them with the hope that viewers will purchase them off his web site.

In addition to the Home Page and the  FALCON FLASHES article page for a game, many other photos are often added to the collection on the ALBUMS website. See the adjacent article if you wish to donate pictures to be posted on the web site.
Fri. Jan. 30 7:30pm Clear Lake at Clearbrook >Tue. Feb. 03 7:30pm Lamarque at Texas City >Fri. Feb. 06 7:30pm Texas City at Santa Fe >Tue. Feb. 10 7:30pm Lamarque at Dickinson >Fri. Feb. 13 7:30pm Clear Creek at Clear Lake >Tue. Feb. 17 7:30pm Clearbrook at Clear Lake >Fri. Feb. 20 7:30pm Clear Lake at Ball High
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Clear Lake defeats Clear Creek 61-55

Posted by Donald Wilkerson at Jan 27, 2004 4:00PM PST ( 0 Comments )
The George Carlisle Field House at Clear Creek High School is an excellent gym for a high school basketball game. Tuesday night arch rivals Clear Lake (ranked 6th in the greater Houston area) and Clear Creek (ranked 13th in the GHA) met at Creek for their first of two showdowns in District 24-5A action and the fans got their money’s worth and then some (Can you name a better bargain for $2?). Clear Lake has a more talented basketball team this season but that often does not matter when the Falcons and the Wildcats get together so the outcome prior to tipoff is usually a mystery. After missing their first five shots in the game, the Falcons got on track. Clear Lake broke out an early lead and it appeared they might take control of the game quickly. As usual, the Falcon reserves were a very significant factor throughout this game. In the first quarter 12 of the Falcons 21 points were scored by the reserves. In a superb first quarter performance Micah Walker came off the bench to score 7 quick points. With time running out in the quarter Ross Mahler launched his only three point attempt of the game from half way between the midcourt line and the 3 point arc and put it in as the buzzer sounded. At the end of the first quarter it was Lake 21, Creek 12 In the second quarter, the Falcons took control of the game and pumped in another 19 (7 points coming from Nandi Wijay and 7 from Connor Atchley in the quarter). Impressive at times, the tenacious Falcon defense held Clear Creek to 10 points for a score of 40-22 at the half. With an 18 point advantage at the half, it appeared the Falcons might dominate the remainder of the game but anyone who knows the Clear Creek teams knows that is not likely due to the adjustments clever Coach Buddy Carlisle and his squad will make at halftime. Those adjustments worked and the stubborn Wildcats were not to be denied as they held the Falcons to 7 points while scoring 16 in the third quarter to close it out at Lake 47, Creek 38. You could almost feel them chipping away at the lead. The foul count was imbalanced in Creek’s favor so Lake had to go to a slowdown game mid way through the quarter to try to even it out. With cooperation from the refs and savvy ball handling by the Falcons, it got more even. As in many games this season, and in all but one of the last seven or eight games, Turbo Wijay, in a scramble to gain possesion of the ball from his opponents, engaged the after-burners and was again able to get the ball and call timeout in mid-air as he was flying out of bounds. Several veteran fans have decided that there should be one time out in each game designated as "Nandi's Timeout" (this past July in Las Vegas at the Adidas Big Time Classic tournament, the biggest AAU tourney in the country, Nandi's speed and incredible quickness were noticed not only by this writer, but by some major school scouts as well). Back to the game. The fourth quarter was a very close ball game. Lake never fell behind but the Wildcats pulled to within 5 several times. Then with 1:58 remaining in the game, the score was 53-49, the narrowest gap since the start of the game. At 1:02 remaining the score was 55-51, still anyone’s game. The Falcons missed 8 free throws in the fourth quarter and could not seem to make the front end of a 1 and 1 or of 2 shot free throws. This worked in Clear Creek’s favor once the seconds ticked away and they had to start fouling to get the ball. Aaron Greenwood was the exception to this. He had some key rebounds and some very timely, successful free throws to keep the Wildcats at bay. The game’s outcome was not evident until the last 30 seconds of the game. Scoring for the Falcons: Atchley 13, Cerny 11, Oswald, Walker, and Greenwood each had 8, Wijay 7, Mahler and Rieke each had 3. FYI: Under the category of who really cares, The stands were mostly full but the designated seating arrangement splintered the fans into groups. Some followed the signs and sat where they were designated to sit; some ignored the signs and sat where they have always sat. The intent was to place the student fans of the two respective schools away from each other and not facing each other. For the most part, this worked okay but the adult fans were scattered on both sides of the floor. Before the game ended, four of Clear Creek's student fans were individually ejected from the gym due to a little too much youthful exuberance. imageimageimage