Clovers outgunned by Mounties

CLOVERDALE -- When an opponent gets hot from the three-point line, sometimes it's just hard to keep up.

The Cloverdale boys' basketball team had that trouble Friday night, when the visiting Southmont Mounties went 10-for-17 from beyond the arc.

Outscoring their hosts 43-30 in the second half, the Mounties left Cloverdale with a 66-56 victory.

Hot shooting by Mounty senior Tyler Price kept Southmont (4-6, 0-3 Sagamore) in the game in the first half. He had 14 of the Mounties' 22 first half points.

When fellow senior Andrew Actis also got hot from three in the second half, the Clovers (4-8, 1-2 WCC) were in trouble.

"It's hard to simulate in practice the type of game that was played tonight. That was not something we had experienced," Clover coach Pat Rady said.

Price and Actis made all 10 Mounty threes, with Price going 7-of-10 and Actis going 3-of-6.

"I thought we had good hand-to-face, but some of those were deep threes. They shot well," Rady said.

In the first half, it looked like the Clovers' twin scoring threat of Craig Blair and Brandon Moon would take the day. Each had 10 points at the break after having led the Clovers back from a 17-10 deficit early in the second quarter.

Some timely turnovers and hot shooting got the Clovers back in it and provided to a 26-22 halftime lead.

Problems came in the third, though, as the Clover offense went cold and the defense struggled equally. Blair scored just two points in the third as Moon went scoreless.

The Mounties outscored the Clovers 19-10 in the frame to take a 42-36 lead after three.

"We always seem to have one bad quarter," Rady said. "I thought we were out of that rut because last night (Friday) against Cascade we didn't have that; we played four quarters of basketball. Tonight we came out and didn't do a very good job in the third quarter on either end of the court."

In thinking back to Friday's game, though, Rady mentioned another problem with the Clovers' consistency. They've had trouble playing on back-to-back nights this season.

"We've had trouble putting two nights of basketball together," the coach commented. "We ran a lot, and I don't know if some of it's (being) tired. We've gotta keep slugging."

In the fourth, Blair gave the Clover faithful a glimmer of hope. The senior began to make some plays and actually tied the game at 50 midway through the fourth.

It looked like the game could become a Price-Blair shootout down the stretch, but timely free throw shooting from the Mounties built the margin to 10 by the final horn.

Blair finished with 23 points for Cloverdale, followed by Moon's 16.

Price led all scorers with 28 points. He was joined in double figures by teammate Actis with 12.

Rady continues to see a Cloverdale squad with improvements to make. He remains positive, but knows his team has to work for everything it gets.

"There's no phase of the game in which we can dominate somebody, so we almost have to play a perfect game every night," Rady said. "We have to work hard at everything we get because we don't have a lot of natural ability. It's tough sometimes, but the kids can't get down.

"It's still a work in progress," he continued. "We just know we have to get better. Each game is a learning tool. When you're on the short end and sometimes even when you're on the good end, that opponent shows you weaknesses that you have."

According to the coach, learning, minimizing and correcting those weekends by sectional will be the key.

Cloverdale hosts Tri-West at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in a game that was originally slated for Dec. 15.

At Cloverdale

Southmont 12 11 19 24 -- 66

Cloverdale 10 16 10 20 -- 56

Southmont (4-6, 0-3 Sagamore) -- Price 10-14 1-2 28, Actis 3-10 3-5 12, Vansoyoc 3-6 1-2 7, Truncone 3-6 0-1 6, Buck 2-4 0-1 4, Paris 1-2 2-4 4, Burkett 0-3 3-4 3, Rash 1-3 0-2 2. Totals: 23-48 FG, 10-19 FT, 66 points.

Cloverdale (4-8, 1-2 WCC) -- Blair 7-21 8-10 23, Moon 5-11 4-4 16, K. Dean 4-5 0-1 8, R. Dean 2-3 1-4 5, Salter 1-1 0-0 3, Young 0-4 1-2 1, Randall 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 19-46 FG, 14-21 FT, 56 points.

3-pt. FG--Sm 10-17 (Price 7-10, Actis 3-6), Cl 4-16 (Moon 2-7, Salter 1-1, Blair 1-4). Turnovers--Sm 11, Cl 14. Total fouls--Sm 17, Cl 16.

Junior varsity result

Southmont 32, Cloverdale 24

Next game -- Cloverdale hosts Tri-West at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.