Clovers lose track of Tri-West

Monday, December 17, 2012
Cloverdale senior Brody Pfaff soars past Tri-West's Austin Musial after a pump fake. (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

LIZTON -- The Saturday night luck ran out for the Cloverdale boys' basketball team against Tri-West this week.

The Clovers entered the game with a 2-0 Saturday-night record, but lost to the Bruins 74-35.

CHS coach Pat Rady was short on words following the loss.

"We've got to be more ready to start a game," Rady said. "We have to play 32 minutes, but you can't have 14 turnovers in one half (as CHS did in the first)."

The defense of the Clovers was porous in the early going. The Bruins took advantage by driving straight to the rim, making eight-of-nine two-point shots in the first quarter.

Tri-West shot 64 percent in the first half (18-for-28).

Cloverdale didn't shoot badly (nine-for-22, 41 percent), but the team's 13 first-half turnovers were too much to overcome.

Six players finished with nine or more points for the balanced Tri-West attack, led by sophomore Trevor Waite's 15.

The Clovers trailed 46-21 at the break, nearly insurmountable for the CHS players, Rady said.

"We're not a team that has skill enough that we can come from behind," he said. "You've got to be able to have patience, slow the ball down, and make them play defense.

"When we tried that, we'd throw it away, we'd make a bad pass. And we missed some shots.

"If we could hit some of the open shots that we missed, that would help. We missed some shots that you've got to hit."

CHS upped the pace in the third, trying to shoot its way back into the game, but the team could only keep pace.

Junior Kedrick Collet, Cloverdale's most consistent shooter and scorer so far this year, was called for an intentional foul late in the quarter after he pushed a Bruins player.

With Collet on the bench for the rest of the game, Cloverdale lost its offensive rhythm, making only one-of-eight shots for the remainder of the game.

Sophomore Brantson Scott was the lone brightspot for Cloverdale, scoring a game-high 20 points and hauling in eight rebounds.

Senior Nick Cupp had seven boards and two blocks.

Brody Pfaff, a senior that missed the team's first five games due to an injury, also had two blocks.

Cloverdale doesn't have long to figure out solutions to the ongoing three-game skid.

The team returns to action Tuesday at Eastern Greene.

"Eastern Greene is probably one of the better teams we play," Rady said. "We've got one night (of practice) to work on some things. We can't panic. We've got to keep working."



At Tri-West Hendricks
Cloverdale -- 11 10 8 6 -- 35
Tri-West -- 28 18 21 7 -- 74

Individual scoring
Cloverdale: Scott 6-10, 7-11, 20; Dorman 2-7, 0-0, 5; Pfaff, 1-6, 2-7, 4; Collet 1-4, 1-2, 3; Schroer 1-9, 0-0, 2; Cupp 1-2, 0-0, 2; Cummings 0-1, 0-0, 0; Hughes 0-0, 0-0, 0.
Tri-West: Waite 3-5, 7-8, 15; Hendershot 5-7, 1-1, 12; Burks 5-10, 0-0, 10; Gadberry 4-6, 2-2, 10; Tucker 5-7, 0-0, 10; Musial 4-10, 1-2, 9; Phelps 1-1, 3-4, 5; Lynn 1-2, 0-0, 2; Miller 0-4, 1-2, 1; Frecker 0-4, 0-1, 0; Miller 0-1, 0-0, 0.

Team scoring (three-point)
Cloverdale 12-38 (2-14), 9-19, 35; Tri-West 27-56 (5-15), 17-20, 74.

Rebounds (offensive)
Cloverdale 30 (10), Tri-West 37 (12).

Turnovers
Cloverdale 20, Tri-West 11.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: