BB: Clovers finish regular season with win

*Story courtesy of www.bannergraphic.com*

From Staff Reports

EMINENCE — Cloverdale trailed by as many as 10 points in their
boys’ varsity basketball contest at Eminence, and was tied with as little as two
minutes remaining in Saturday’s make-up contest. However, the Clovers took
control late, en route to a 62-55 victory.

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