Clovers fall to Rockville

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

CLOVERDALE -- It was another tough night for the Cloverdale girls basketball team, who lost 65-32 to Rockville in a nonconference game Tuesday on the Clovers' court.

Winless Cloverdale suffered its 17th straight defeat this season. Cloverdale had 28 turnovers and shot 20.4 percent (10-of-49) from the field, 4-of-20 (20 percent) on 3-pointers.

Clovers' coach Tom Andersen thinks they can make progress, be a competitive team next year and do a complete turnaround in two seasons if they don't get discouraged and walk away from basketball.

"Our biggest challenge is that they don't quit, that they don't give up," Andersen said. "We're not ready to compete against veteran varsity teams. We just have to hang in there until we get it right. We're getting better. We can be better next season and be pretty good in two years."

Even if they had cut down turnovers and made more shots, the Clovers would have been in trouble against Rockville (9-6). The Rox have an overpowering center in 6-foot-3 Beth Mahurin, who scored 27 points on 12-of-16 shooting from the field and 3-of-7 at the free throw line. Mahurin has signed to play in college for NCAA Division I Murray State in Kentucky.

Cloverdale's tallest starter is 5-foot-9 Sydney Shrum.

"There wasn't much we could do against Mahurin," Andersen said.

Sophomore Paige Gruener led the Clovers with 15 points.

"She's learning how to play the game," Andersen said.

Shrum, another sophomore, had nine rebounds and six points.

Andersen would like the Clovers to cut down on turnovers and start making more shots.

"At times, we moved the ball pretty well," Andersen said. "We turned it over way too many times. We made many poor decisions. We'd dribble into trouble and then not back up and we made poor passes. The big thing is we have such a hard time scoring."

Cloverdale's next game is Friday against North Putnam at home in a West Central Conference game. The tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.

At Cloverdale

Rockville 13 17 18 17 -- 65

Cloverdale 5 10 18 4 -- 32

ROCKVILLE (9-6)

Mahurin 12-16 3-7 27, Woodard 3-12 7-9 15, Sutherlin 2-4 0-0 5, Carrington 0-3 2-2 2, Lee 2-7 1-2 5, Greene 2-9 4-9 8, Gordon 1-2 1-2 3, S. Kelley 0-0 0-0 0, Tucker 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 22-53 18-31 65.

CLOVERDALE (0-17)

Shrum 1-5 4-6 6, Sinks 2-4 2-4 6, Gruener 5-20 2-4 15, Skiles 0-12 0-0 0, Nally 1-6 0-0 2, Dean 1-1 0-0 3, Fulkerson 0-1 0-0 0, Woodworth 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 10-49 8-14 32.

3-point field goals: R 3-13 (Woodard 2-6, Sutherlin 1-1, Gordon 0-1, Carrington 0-2, Greene 0-3), C 4-20 (Gruener 3-9, Dean 1-1, Skiles 0-9, Nally 0-1). Rebounds: R 39 (Mahurin 10, Woodard 9), C 39 (Shrum 9, Nally 7). Turnovrs: R 17, C 28. Total fouls: R 8,C 18. Fouled out: Nally. Technical fouls: Rockville (bench), Greene.