Cloverdale Clovers | Archive | March, 2009

Reprinted courtesy of:
Greencastle Banner Graphic

 Wednesday, March 4, 2009
By DAN SHELTON Sports Writer

Kevin Dean powers through the Eagles paint defense for the easy basket in Tuesday’s sectional game. [Order this photo]

It only took them the first half and five minutes into the third
quarter, but the Clovers got in front and stayed there; edging South
Putnam 46-40 for their first sectional game win of the tournament.

“This was a pressure game and I think you suspect that in this
tournament. South Putnam’s play did not surprise me at all,” CHS Coach
Pat Rady said. “Micah does a great job on coaching his team. They play
a good defense and had a patient offense and played smart basketball
and I think the Clovers did the same thing tonight.

“We had good patientce in our offense and we had some good defense too.
It was just two good county rivals playing each other tonight,” Rady
added.

Cloverdale trailed the entire first half and was able to cut the
Eagles’ lead to one, 17-16 when Jordan Hayden sunk two freebies from
the charity stripe, then turned around, stole the ball and hit a long
three before the half expired.

Then it took the Clovers the first five minutes of the third quarter to
get in front. First Jacob Clark nailed a three at the top of the key,
knotting the score at 24. Then Hayden came back down and drained
another three for a 27-24 lead.

Cloverdale never trailed again.

“You never know and you can give reason for anything, and if I did I
would sell a book a be a millionaire because I have been at this for a
few years. But I think a lot of times ,this is the first time that some
of these kids are in the sectional and they are going to be nervous and
cold,” Rady said about his team’s slow start. “And I told my son in the
beginning that we have to work them through that.

“At the half, I told the team that the jitters are over with
and, we are within one, so let’s go out there and play Clover
basketball in the second half , and I thought we did,” Rady said.

The final nail in the Eagles’ coffin in the fourth quarter was the
Clovers’ foul shooting. They went 8-for-8 in the fourth quarter,
ensuring themselves a win.

“You just have to give their kids credit. They stepped up and hit the
shot when they needed,” SPHS Coach Micah Elliott said. “And when you
get more stops than the other team, you are going to win and we just
didn’t get enough stops.

“We played well. We gave ourselves a chance and it didn’t go that way
tonight,” Elliot said. “Give Coach Rady all the credit in the world. He
coached a great game.

Dayne Nelson soars over his Cloverdale defenders Tuesday night in game two of the opening round of the South Putnam Sectional. [Order this photo]

“We played probably played the best team defense we have played all
year long and I told them if you play that hard and you play that well
defensively you walk around with your head held high,” Elliot said.
“That was our best defense we played all year, we just couldn’t get our
shots to go in.”

The Eagles shot 42 percent from the floor in the second half going 8-for-19, but only shot 28 percent from downtown.

One thing is for sure, Rady is glad the first game is over for his Cloverdale team.

“When you get into the tournament the first night, is always the
jittery night and you have to get that night out of the way and get the
butterflies out of your stomach and be ready to play your best,” Rady
said.

At South Putnam Sectionals

Cloverdale (9-13, 3-3 WCC)

Moon 2-6 4-4 6, Clark 3-9 2-2 10, Strunk 0-0 0-0 0, Kukman 4-9 2-2 10,
Hayden 4-9 2-2 13, Dean 1-4 2-2 4, Salter 0-1 0-0 0, Lovins 1-3 1-2 3.
Totals 15-41 FG, 13-14 FT, 46 TP.

South Putnam (6-15, 0-6 WCC)

Nelson 1-2 0-3 2, Zimmerman 3-6 2-2 8, Cash 0-3 3-3 3, Freeman 0-0 0-0
0, Varvel 0-0 0-0 0, Frame 4-4 2-2 10, Welty 4-10 0-0 11, Dean 0-0 0-0
0, Boswell 1-3 0-1 2, Vickrey 2-5 0-1 4, Masters 0-0 0-0 0. Totals
15-33 FG, 7-12 FT, 40 TP.

3-pt. FG – C 5-21 (Moon 0-4, Clark 2-5, Kukman 0-2, Hayden 3-8, Dean
0-1, Salter 0-1), SP 3-11 (Zimmerman 0-2, Cash 0-1, Welty 3-8).
Rebounds – C 17 (Clark 4, Kukman 3, Hayden 3, Dean 4, Lovins 3), SP 20
(Nelson 2, Zimmerman 1, Cash 2, Welty 3, Dean 1, Boswell 7, Vickrey 2,
Masters 2). Blocks — C 3 (Lovins 3), SP 0. Assists — C 9 (Moon 4,
Clark 2, Strunk 1, Kukman 1, Hayden 1), SP 6 (Nelson 1, Zimmerman 1,
Frame 3, Masters 1). Steals — C 9 (Clark 2, Hayden 3, Dean 3, Salter
1), SP 7 (Nelson 1, Zimmerman 1, Cash 1, Frame 1, Welty 2, Vickrey 1).
Total fouls — C 16, SP 19. Fouled out — Nelson. Turnovers – C 16, SP
24.

Next game — The Clovers (9-13, 3-3 WCC) play Covenant Christian in the
first game of the semi-final round of the Class 2A, Sectional 46 at
South Putnam Friday night. The game will begin at 6:00.

[!] Flag as Inappropriate

Processing your request, Please wait....

Report as:	Violent or Repulsive Content|Hateful or Abusive Content|Harmful Dangerous Acts|Child Abuse|Spam|Infringes My Rights
Write in Words: (Optional)

Reprinted courtesy of:
Greencastle Banner Graphic

 BY MIKE CLODFELTER, For the Banner Graphic

CLOVERDALE — The Cloverdale Clovers boys’ basketball team hosted the
Eminence Eels Friday night in the final regular season game of the
season, and celebrating Senior night.

This would also be the final “tune up” before the Clovers open IHSAA
tournament play against South Putnam in the second game of the Class
2A, Sectional 46 at South Putnam Tuesday night.

Cloverdale proved they are ready for Tuesday night by playing solid
basketball on both ends of the court, soundly defeating Eminence, 70-48.

The Clovers raced out to at 19-12 advantage in the first quarter, by
forcing the Eels to commit five turnovers, while Kevin Dean, Link
Lovins, Eric Kukman, Brandon Moon, and Jacob Clark got into scorebook
on assists from Jordan Hayden, Kukman, Dean, Clark, and Jason Salter.

When Lovins and Moon got into foul trouble for the Clovers in the
second quarter, and were forced out of the game, Cloverdale’s bench
came into the game, and didn’t miss a beat.

The Clovers outscored the Eels, 25-10, in the period, leading at halftime, 44-22.

Cloverdale continued to dominate in the second half, leading, 57-31, at
the end of the third quarter, and 70-48, at the end of the game, as
Chuck Strunk, Hayden, and Christopher Arnold were able to get into the
Clovers’ scorebook.

The Clovers overpowered the Eels in every statistical category of the
game; shooting percentage, 45 percent versus 34 percent, rebounding,
39, 12 of which were offensive boards, versus 25, blocked shots, 9 to
one, and assists, 19 versus nine.

“I was very pleased with our team tonight,” commented Cloverdale coach
Pat Rady after the game. “We’ve lost to three good teams and I thought
in every one of the games, we showed that we could play with teams of
that caliber.

“It was nice to come back and play before our home crowd on Senior
night,” Rady added. The band and the student body help us so much. They
really stayed behind us.

“It was really a team win tonight. We had some guys get in foul
trouble, and our bench came in and played really well, scoring 25
points in the second quarter. We moved the ball really well, and our
offense was really under control and our defense played some good
man-to-man tonight.

“We thought this was a very good win for us, going into the Sectional,” Rady commented.

Cloverdale had four players scoring double figures, Kukman and Lovins
leading with 13 points each, with Hayden adding 12 and Clark chipping
in 10.

Moon and Dean followed with eight each, and Strunk and Arnold closed out the Clover scoring with three points.

Dean led the Clovers in rebounds with a game-high 12 boards, Kukman had
eight, and Lovins grabbed six, Hayden followed with four, Moon, Salter,
and Mitchell Williams had two each, and Strunk, Franky Skiles, and
Christopher Arnold grabbed one each.

Lovins had a game-high seven blocked shots, with Moon and Salter each getting a block.

Clark passed for a game-high four assists, Kukman and Hayden passed for
three each, Moon, Dean, and Salter had two each, and Strunk, Lovins,
and Donavon Scisney passed-out one each.

Dean had a game-high three steals, with Hayden grabbing two, and Clark and Scisney each had a steal.

In the junior varsity game, Cloverdale suffered a heart-breaking loss in double overtime to Eminence, 40-47.

Christopher Arnold led the Clovers in scoring with 13 points, followed by Seth Jonte with 10.

Franky Skiles scored seven, Joseph Fidler added four, and James Hinton,
Mitchell Williams, and Chuck Strunk closed out the Clover scoring with
two points each.

This was also the final game Cloverdale seniors Eric Kukman and Link Lovins will play on their home court.

The Clovers (8-13, 3-3 WCC) play South Putnam in the second game of the
Class 2A, Sectional 46 at South Putnam Tuesday night. The game will
begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game between
Covenant Christian and Cascade, which begins at 6 p.m.

At Cloverdale

Cloverdale (8-13, 3-3 WCC)

Moon 3-9 0-0 8, Clark 4-8 2-2 10, Strunk 0-2 3-4 3, Kukman 6-11 1-2 13,
Hayden 4-8 0-0 12, Dean 3-5 2-2 8, Salter 0-2 0-2 0, Skiles 0-0 0-0 0,
Lovins 5-9 3-4 13, Arnold 1-2 0-0 3, Scisney 0-1 0-0 0, Williams 0-1
0-0 0. Totals 26-58 FG, 11-16 FT, 70 TP.

Eminence (5-15, 1-4 TRC)

Hudson 6-12 6-10 18, Ray 0-0 0-0 0, Gore 4-9 0-0 11, Shupe 0-4 0-3 0,
Marcum 2-6 0-0 5, Wagner 0-2 1-2 1, Watkins 0-3 1-2 1, Lawson 4-9 4-5
12, Garland 0-0 0-0 0, Feutz 0-0 0-0 0, Ford 0-0 0-0 0, Goss 0-2 0-0 0.
Totals 16-47 FG, 12-22 FT, 48 TP.

3-pt. FG – C 7-17 (Moon 2-6, Clark 0-2, Hayden 4-6, Salter 0-1, Arnold
1-2), E 4-13 (Hudson 0-2, Gore 3-5, Shupe 0-1, Marcum 1-2, Wagner 0-1,
Goss 0-2). Rebounds – C 39 (Moon 2, Strunk 1, Kukman 8, Hayden 4, Dean
12, Salter 2, Skiles 1, Lovins 6, Arnold 1, Williams 2), E 25 (Hudson
1, Ray 3, Gore 1, Shupe 2, Marcum 3, Wagner 2, Watkins 7, Lawson 5,
Ford 1). Blocks — C 9 (Moon 1, Salter 1, Lovins 7), E 1 (Shupe 1).
Assists — C 19 (Moon 2, Clark 4, Strunk 1, Kukman 3, Hayden 3, Dean 2,
Salter 2, Lovins 1, Scisney 1), E 9 (Hudson 2, Ray 1, Gore 2, Shupe 2,
Marcum 1, Wagner 1). Steals — C 7 (Clark 1, Hayden 2, Dean 3, Scisney
1), E 9 (Hudson 3, Shupe 1, Wagner 2, Watkins 1, Lawson 2). Total fouls
— C 19, E 15. Fouled out — none. Turnovers – C 15, E 16.

[!] Flag as Inappropriate

Processing your request, Please wait....

Report as:	Violent or Repulsive Content|Hateful or Abusive Content|Harmful Dangerous Acts|Child Abuse|Spam|Infringes My Rights
Write in Words: (Optional)