Cloverdale Clovers | Archive | February, 2008

The latter happened to Cloverdale in game two of the South Putnam sectional
Tuesday, as they surrendered a 17-point halftime lead to Speedway to ultimately
lose 60-59.

The Clovers (8-14) had a chance to put the game away when they were leading
59-55 in the final minute, but Speedway’s Michael Hubbard hit a three-pointer to
cut the lead to one.

Cloverdale’s Ryan Dean puts in two of his 11 points in Tuesday’s sectional loss to Speedway. [Click to enlarge]

On the ensuing Clover possession, Hubbard
stole the ball only to miss a trifecta. However, the Sparkplugs’ Keenan Lewis
got the offensive rebound and put it back to give Speedway the lead for good.

The final play was a microcosm of the entire second half–Speedway (5-15)
missed a shot only to get the rebound and make the Clovers pay. Cloverdale coach
Pat Rady said the board were one of the big issues in allowing the comeback.

“We told them at half time that the defense had to stay solid and we had to
keep hitting the boards. We thought that was going to be the key to the game.
And don’t make turnovers. The turnovers and the lack of rebounding in the second
half really hurt us,” Rady said. And we missed some good shots, and those things
happen.”

The Sparkplugs struggled from long range most of the night, going just
5-for-25 from beyond the arc. The difference in the first and second halves was
just the rebounding.

In the first quarter, the Sparkplugs two early three-pointers and quickly got
up 8-2 quickly.

But after Cloverdale had pulled within three at 10-7, they took over for the
remainder of the half.

From the late first into the early second, the Clovers went on a 17-0 run to
take control of the game. The run was started with a Brandon Moon three that
tied the game, and continued with buckets from Moon, Ryan Dean, Jordan Hayden
and several from Craig Blair.

With their team up 24-10, Moon, then Blair, the Clovers’ two leading scorers,
went to the bench with two fouls each. After that, Cloverdale played the last
5:05 with both on the bench and actually built the lead.

The Clovers led 15-18 at the half.

It didn’t take long in the third quarter for Speedway to start its comeback.
They would miss threes only to have inside players get the boards and put them
back.

While Cloverdale’s offense was fairly balance before the break, only Blair
and Moon scored in the third quarter.

Speedway got really hot late, with buckets from Hubbard and Jake Duman. A
tip-in by Lewis at the buzzer cut the Clovers’ lead to four at 47-43.

Speedway had outscored Cloverdale 25-12 in the third.

In the fourth, the Clovers appeared to be sitting ducks. Speedway took its
first lead since the first quarter on a Hubbard three with 5:20 remaining.

However, the Clovers came back to tie the game and got a spark of hope when
Jaron Avance, who had done much of Speedway’s work inside, fouled out with 3:37
remaining.

The two teams traded shots until Cloverdale built a four-point lead with
under a minute. That was when Hubbard and Lewis took over with their heroics.

In his final game in a Cloverdale uniform, Blair led the way with 21 points.
Moon was next with 12. Dean added 11.

For Blair, Dean, Raine Young, Robbie Randall and Michael Glassburn, Wednesday
was their last game in high school. Rady regretted the loss for them especially.

“I **** it for the seniors. You never like for it to end, but there’s nothing
we can change now,” Rady said. “We hope they’ll always be a part of Cloverdale
basketball. We hope the seniors will come back, and we’ll miss them.”

True to form, though, the coach is also thinking about next year already.

“Hopefully the young kids are looking toward next year. I wish we could get
started tomorrow, but we can’t,” Rady said. “As soon as we can get back in the
gym, I hope we have some young kids looking to get back.

“That’s what you have to do. You can’t dwell on one loss,” he continued.
“Only four teams end up with a win at the end of the year. You have to be a
little philosophical about it. There’s nothing you can change in the past, but
you can change the future.”

Coaches place a lot of emphasis on the tournament, but after the loss, Rady
chose to look at the whole year and enjoy the journey.

“I’ve appreciated the effort and the work they’ve given us, and there’s
nothing they can be ashamed of. I told them, one game doesn’t make a season,”
Rady said. “(The tournament) is what you shoot for, but it’s still a journey. If
this is all that it’s about, then we’re doing the wrong thing. We’ve had some
great moments this year. We’ve had some good wins.”

The coach also took a moment to let the fans know how much they are
appreciated.

“Our fans didn’t deserve to get beat tonight. I thought we had some of the
best fans in our student body and our adult fans,” Rady said. “Hopefully next
year, we’ll try to once again give them a basketball team they’ll be proud of.”

Cloverdale finishes its season at 8-14. Speedway advances to face Covenant
Christian at 6 p.m. Friday at South Putnam.

At South Putnam

IHSAA Sectional 46

First Round

Cloverdale 18 17 12 12 — 59

Speedway 10 8 25 17 — 60

Cloverdale (8-13) — Blair 7-12 7-8 21, Moon 5-10 1-3 12, R. Dean 5-7 1-2 11,
Hayden 3-7 0-0 6, Young 0-1 3-5 3, K. Dean 1-4 0-0 2, Randall 0-1 2-2 2, Salter
0-0 2-2 2. Totals: 21-42 FG, 16-22 FT, 59 points.

Speedway (5-15) — Hubbard 9-22 3-4 25, Lewis 7-13 0-1 15, Avance 3-5 3-4 9,
Duman 3-5 1-2 7, Linville 2-7 0-1 4, Daghe 0-2 0-0 0, Prior 0-6 0-0 0, Jackson
0-3 0-2 0, Coates 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 24-64 FG, 7-14 FT, 60 points.

3-pt FG–Cl 1-9 (Moon 1-4), Spd 5-25 (Hubbard 4-15, Lewis 1-5). Turnovers–Cl
15, Spd 18. Total fouls–Cl 16, Spd 20. Fouled out–Avance (Spd).

Next game — Speedway will play Covenant Christian at 6 p.m. Friday at South
Putnam. Cloverdale finishes the season at 8-14.

After a rather rough game with Edgewood on Wednesday, Cloverdale coach Pat
Rady was happy for his team to get a victory heading into the tournament.

“I think it was very important to finish with a win. I think it really helped
us get some confidence back going into the sectional, especially the way we did
it–we struggled. Things weren’t going our way for a while and Eminence was
playing extremely well. I thought they played with a lot of passion, a lot of
emotion and played some good basketball,” Rady said.

Eminence coach Todd Shupe’s comments sounded a lot like some of Rady’s
throughout the season–his team struggled to play at a consistent level for the
whole evening.

“It’s a tough loss to take,” Shupe mulled. “We were up by double figures at
one time; we seem to be a one-half team.

“We’ve played a lot of teams well, hard, for one half this season, and then
things have just kind of gone downhill many times in the second half.”

Eminence played a solid first half; the Eels led by as many as 10 points
throughout the first two quarters en route to a 33-29 halftime lead, but the
hosts faltered in the second half.

Cloverdale ran off a 6-0 spurt to open the third period, and that’s where it
got rough for Eminence.

The Eels fought to stay within striking distance of Cloverdale, keeping the
game within single digits for the remainder of the contest, and actually led
again at 45-42 as the fourth quarter got underway.

Cloverdale quickly regained its advantage, though, and after a tie at 55-55,
the Clovers kept control for the remainder of the contest.

“The ball wasn’t dropping for us. We were having trouble. It was the kind of
game where we persevered,” Rady said. The kids stayed with it and kept working
at it, and I thought the second half, we got better as a team. We held them to
19 points in the second half. And we increased our points.”

Eminence was forced to foul in order to stop the game clock and regain
possession; Cloverdale meanwhile connected on 5-of-5 free throws as the Eels
fell to 2-18 on the season with the loss. Craig Blair led the Clovers in scoring
with 22 points. Cloverdale finishes the regular season with a record of 8-13.

Senior Craig Blair led the Clovers with 22 points. Brandon Moon was next with
17. Ryan Dean had eight points.

Jordan Shupe led the Eels with 24 points while grabbing 11 rebounds; fellow
senior Cameron Ford along with junior James Lawson dropped in eight points each.

The Eels finish the regular season 2-18 and travel to Edinburgh at 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday for a sectional matchup with the host Lancers.

Cloverdale will open sectional play at South Putnam on Tuesday when they
battle Speedway, a team that the Clovers lost to by a 58-51 count on Feb. 1.
However, Rady feels the regular season-ending win should give the Clovers some
momentum.

“It was a game that should give us some confidence,” Rady said. “We just
couldn’t get out the gate. I was pleased with the way we persevered on the road
to get a win.

“Now we’re looking forward to a good practice on Monday and getting ready to
play Speedway on Tuesday,” he concluded.

The contest between Cloverdale and Speedway will tip off at approximately
7:30 p.m.

At Eminence

Cloverdale (8-13, 3-3 WCC) — Blair 22, Moon 17, R. Dean 8, Young 5, Hayden
5, Randall 2, Salter 2, K. Dean 1.

As the seconds ticked away, time was running out for South Putnam. In the
chaotic final minute, neither team could do much that was productive. But the
Clovers seemed to be holding on to their lead.

South Putnam guard Oceaia Boetjer (24) brings the ball up the floor against the defense of Cloverdale’s Chelsie Haltom. [Click to enlarge]

The Eagles turned the ball over twice.
Cloverdale turned the ball over twice and hit one out of four free throws.

Time had ticked down, but the Eagles had one last shot. Oceaia Boetjer took
the ball near the top of the key, dribbled to the right wing and drained a
three-pointer to put the Eagles on top 40-39 with 4.5 seconds remaining.

When Kristin McCammon’s three-pointer at the buzzer was off the mark, the
Eagles had finally beaten the Clovers when it counted — in a sectional game.

Of Boetjer’s shot, Eagle coach Debbie Steffy said, “I don’t think we’ve had
any bigger shot this season than that one. know this is sectional and everybody
would say, ‘Oh yeah, this sectional; that’s a big one,’ but was a big shot.”

Ironically, the plan had been for the Eagles (10-11) to go for the tie.
Sometimes plans change.

“We had talked about the fact that we had to take it to the basket on that
last play and as Oceaia got it, she was coming towards our bench on the dribble
and we’re all yelling at her, ‘Hit it! Hit it!’ and she launches it and it goes
right in,” Steffy said.

Cloverdale coach Bruce Cook had also expected a two-pointer, as the Eagles
had attempted just two three-pointer to that point.

“I was a little surprised that Oceaia shot the three when they only needed
two to tie. But that’s a ball player,” Cook said. “They hit one three for the
night and it was a big shot.”

Before the chaos of the final minute, though, it had been a closely-contested
game, but one the Eagles had controlled most of the way.

Bailey Birt began the game for the Eagles, scoring 10 of their 12
first-quarter points.

“Bailey Birt came out on fire. We needed that. She got us going early,”
Steffy said.

Although the Clovers (15-6) struggled to find their offense early, they kept
pace with the Eagles by hitting three shots from beyond the arc.

The score was tied at 12 after one.

In the second, things slowed down considerably for both squads. However, I
theme emerged for the South Putnam defense: they were not going to let Elizabeth
Cheatham, who had scored more the 20 points in each of the Clovers’ last two
contests, beat them.

“(Cheatham) was the focal point the last time we played them and this time,”
Steffy said. “We can’t let her get the basketball because what happens is if
they’re able to throw the ball in to her, then everybody starts to double down
or sag into her and that opens up their outside game.”

Cook saw the same thing from his own bench.

“I didn’t think we ever got anything in sync offensively and they did a good
job of bottling us up on the inside,” he said. “We hit some threes that kept us
in the game, but usually we have to sprinkle that with some inside play and we
didn’t have that tonight.”

Cheatham finished with just five points, while forward Ashley Koosman was
scoreless until she put in seven fourth-quarter points.

The key to the effort on Cheatham was Eagle senior Liz Mink.

“Mink just did the job on Cheatham all night long,” Steffy said. “She missed
a couple of passes underneath the basket and was so disappointed. I said, ‘Hey,
just do your job playing defense and you’ll get the next one. To her credit, she
came back in and did a good job on Elizabeth.”

After a low-scoring second, the team were once again tied at the half with 19
points each.

The Clovers remained cold in the third, but the Eagles began to build a lead.
Mink had a bucket and Birt and Canary each added a pair in the period.

Cloverdale, on the other hand, could manage just five points in the third and
South led 30-24 after three.

Early in the third, South built the lead further. When another Canary bucket
made the score 35-27, Cook knew his team was in trouble.

That’s when the Clovers’ never-say-die attitude kicked in again. Koosman led
the charge to pull the squad within two at 35-37. Then Haltom’s three with 55
seconds left gave the Clovers their first lead since early in the third quarter.

But down the stretch, Boetjer ultimately made the play that made the
difference.

“We hit some runners on the inside. Chelsie hit the big three on the outside.
We got them where we wanted them,” Cook said. “The inbounds pass went
over-and-back and we had two missed free throws.”

Steffy was simply proud of how her team built its lead and of how it battled
back after losing the lead.

“I’ve just got to hand it to our kids. We came out and played well and got to
a big lead. Cloverdale came back and took the lead and our kids just wanted to
win. They just worked hard and they had to in order to get the victory in that
last minute,” Steffy said.

While Boetjer, a junior, hit the big shot, Steffy gave much of the credit to
her three seniors. Birt got the offense started in the first quarter. Mink
defended Cheatham all night. Canary, normally the team’s leading scorer, fought
through some tough defense in the first half, making plays to help teammates
score and finally getting her own chances in the second half.

“Canary’s always going to come out big,” Steffy said. “She’s a gamer. She
wants to score, but not to the point of being selfish. She just wants to win.
She did a job nice tonight of handling the pressure, handling the basketball and
getting people where they were supposed to be.”

Cook, likewise, was proud of his three seniors and what they’ve done for his
program.

“Chelsie Haltom has meant so much to this program. She’s been at it for four
years and in that time I’ve never seen her come in down. I’ve never seen her not
smile. She’s just a great kid to coach,” Cook said.

“You can’t say enough about Koosman’s hustle. She just comes out and plays
hard. We knew she might not be at full strength, but I think she played the
whole second half,” he added.

But on Wednesday, perhaps the biggest accomplishment of any Clover was senior
Kristen Schroer simply making it into the game. Having missed two months with an
ankle injury, she made her return just in time to contribute ina sectional game.

“Kristen worked real hard to come back. After that ankle injury, she gave us
20 to 22 minutes tonight and did a nice job,” Cook said. “It was tough for her
to do that. She didn’t have her move on the inside, but she rebounded, played
some defense and gave us some time where Koosman and Cheatham to get on the
bench a little bit.”

Cook has watched the Cloverdale program grow in his five years as coach, and
he gave much of the credit to the trio he is graduating this year.

“Those three seniors have meant everything to our program. They set the tone.
You’ll see in the next two or three years that will still hold true and that all
started with their attitudes and their work ethic,” Cook concluded.

Birt led all scorers with 16 points. Boetjer was next with 14. Haltom was the
only Clover in double figures, with 12.

The Eagles will be back at Cascade at 7:30 p.m. Friday for the second
semifinal game against Covenant Christian. The Warriors defeated Monrovia 51-42
in Wednesday’s second game.

At Cascade

IHSAA Girls’ Basketball Sectional

First Round

Cloverdale 12 7 5 15 — 39

South Putnam 12 7 11 10 — 40

Cloverdale (15-6) — Haltom 4-11 2-4 12, Shepherd 2-9 2-4 8, Koosman 2-7 3-6
7, Cheatham 2-4 1-2 5, McCammon 2-16 0-2 5, Franklin 1-2 0-0 2, Schroer 0-3 0-0
0. Totals: 13-52 FG, 8-18 FT, 39 points.

South Putnam (10-11) — Birt 6-13 4-6 16, Boetjer 5-12 3-5 14, Canary 3-6 1-2
7, Mink 1-3 1-2 3, Butts 0-3 0-0 0, Searles 0-0 0-2 0. Totals: 15-37 FG, 9-17
FT, 40 points.

3-pt FG–Cl 5-23 (Haltom 2-4, Shepherd 2-8, McCammon 1-10, Franklin 0-1), SP
1-3 (Boetjer 1-3). Turnovers–Cl 13, SP 16. Total fouls–Cl 16, SP 16. Fouled
out–None.

Next game — South Putnam will face Covenant Christian at 7:30 p.m. Friday in
the first semifinal of the Cascade Sectional. Cloverdale finished its season at
15-6.

The Clovers fought that again Friday night, carrying a lead over Speedway
through most of the game. However, they surrendered the lead to the Sparkplugs
early in the fourth quarter and ultimately lost 58-51.

Guard Brandon Moon sends a pass across the lan in the first half of Friday’s 58-51 loss to Speedway. [Click to enlarge]

“We had some bright spots, but we just
have to learn that we have to play 32 minutes,” Rady said. “We had a lull there
when we came out in the third quarter. We just didn’t get things going there.
You can’t play that way against anybody in high school. It’s a 32-minute ball
game. We’ve fought that all year. The closest we’ve come is Cascade. We’ve done
it once, but we haven’t done it before or since.”

The turning point came at the outset of the second half, when the Clovers
(7-11, 3-3 WCC) turned the ball over on their first four possessions. Having
trailed by as much as 11 in the first half, the Sparkplugs (4-12, 4-2 WCC)
opened with a full-court press in the second and made the Clovers pay.

“I think their quickness and their pressure may have gotten to us and we made
some silly mistakes,” Rady said. “You can’t have turnovers. Turnovers are
costly, and the ones we made ended up in a basket or a breakaway where maybe we
fouled. When you don’t get a chance to shoot at the basket, that takes a
possession away from you and gives them one where they’re scoring.

“We just made too many mistakes there down the pike that cost us,” Rady said.

In spite of the early turnovers, the Clovers battled back and maintained
their lead throughout the quarter. However, it was just three points, at 40-37,
at the end of three.

An 11-0 run gave the Sparkplugs the lead early in the fourth at 45-50.
Although the score was again tied at 45, that was as close as the Clovers would
get. Speedway made its free throws down the stretch and maintained its lead.

With the conference season over, Rady is now thinking mainly about preparing
for sectional in the coming weeks.

“Now we have three weeks to get ready for this tournament. This tournament is
going to be very competitive,” the coach said.

Cloverdale hosts Edgewood at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12.

At Speedway

Cloverdale (7-11, 3-3 WCC) — Blair 6-13 6-11 18, Young 5-5 0-1 12, Salter
3-5 0-0 7, R. Dean 1-2 3-4 5, Moon 2-7 0-3 5, Randall 1-3, 2-2 4, K. Dean 0-1
0-0 0. Totals: 17-33 FG, 11-21 FT, 51 points.

Speedway (4-12, 4-2 WCC) — Avance 5-10 3-7 13, Lewis 4-7 1-2 12, Jackson 4-5
0-0 10, Linville 2-7 4-7 9, Hubbard 2-9 2-3 7, Prior 2-7 0-0 4, Daghe 1-3 0-0 3,
Duman 0-1 0-0 0, Eggert 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 20-49 FG, 10-19 FT, 58 points.

Next game — Cloverdale hosts Edgewood at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 12.

The winner would take all.

Unfortunately for the Clovers, they came out on the short end of that
all-important game, falling to the Sparkplugs 69-61.

Senior Ashley Koosman eyes a three-point attempt in the second half of Cloverale’s loss at Speedway.

After fighting back from a slew of first-quarter
turnovers that put them in a nine-point hole at quarter’s end, the Clovers
(15-5, 4-2 WCC) could not fight back from a foul disparity in the second half.

Cloverdale committed seven turnovers in the opening frame and got behind by
as many as 10 in the first. They still trailed 18-9 at quarter’s end.

Although Coach Bruce Cook thought his team battled out of that initial hole
in the second period, he certainly knew the turnovers were costly.

“We got it to 25-25 and I felt like we were right back in it, but turnovers
in the first quarter plagued us, and a lot of them were unforced turnovers. We
discussed that a little bit at halftime,” Cook said.

The key to the second quarter comeback was center Elizabeth Cheatham.
Although the team had been looking to Cheatham the entire game, she was able to
get things going in the second, scoring 16 points in the period.

“We looked inside to Elizabeth, and she struggled a little bit in that first
quarter, but then I think she turned things on a little bit in the second
quarter and really got us back in the game,” Cook said.

Cheatham finished with 26 points to lead all scorers.

“I think Elizabeth does a nice job. She’s really improved these last two
games, giving us 28 and 26. Before that, I think she had two games with four
points apiece. In order for us to be successful, she’s going to have to be the
one who steps up.”

Speedway (14-5, 5-1 WCC), however, had some fight left in them and closed the
half with a 33-29 lead.

The first half was extremely physical and closely called, with a total of 20
fouls whistled. After the break, Cloverdale kept getting whistled, but Speedway
did not. While Cook did not blame the officiating, he did say his squad
struggled with the change in how the game was being called.

“I thought we had a really tough time adjusting to the inconsistency of the
calls. (There were) 20 fouls in the first half and in the second, Speedway had
four with two minutes to go. It was tough for us to adjust to that,” Cook said.
“We got frustrated at that and I think that bothered us a little bit.”

In spite of this, Cloverdale was able to make a 7-0 run early in the third to
take a 36-35 lead early in the third. The Plugs came right back, though, and
reclaimed the lead.

Speedway was able to stretch the lead to as much as 12 with an 11-0 run in
the fourth quarter. With some fouling and late three-pointers, though,
Cloverdale got the game back to its final eight-point margin.

“The Sparkplugs are deserving of the win. They are a good conference
champions. They represent us well,” Cook said.

The Sparkplugs were also able to take full advantage of the fouls called on
Cloverdale, going 23-of-33 from the free-throw line. By comparison, Cloverdale
was 8-for-18.

Shaley Anglea led the Sparkplugs with 23 points.

Their regular season now over, the Clovers move on to the first round of the
Cascade Sectional. They will face Putnam County rival South Putnam at 6 p.m.
Wednesday at Cascade.

At Speedway

Cloverdale (15-5, 4-2 WCC) — Cheatham 12-18 2-7 26, Koosman 3-13 4-7 11,
McCammon 3-12 1-2 10, Haltom 2-9 0-0 6, Franklin 2-4 0-0 5, Shepherd 1-5 1-2 3.
Totals: 23-61 FG, 8-18 FT, 61 points.

Speedway (14-5, 5-1 WCC) — Anglea 6-11 11-13 23, Tierney 4-15 9-10 19,
Emerson 4-10 2-5 10, Miller 3-5 1-2 8, Walton 3-12 0-2 8, Jones 0-2 0-1 0.
Totals: 20-55 FG, 23-33 FT, 69 points.

Next game — Cloverdale faces South Putnam in game three of the Cascade
Sectional at 6 p.m. Wednesday.