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Cloverdale boys blow out Riverton Parke Saturday
ROSEDALE--While the evening at Rosedale Elementary School was dedicated to coach Pat Rady's return to the place that he started his coaching career, Cloverdale's boys' basketball team was focused on getting its first win of the season against Riverton Parke.
The Clovers, having dropped their season opener to North Central (Farmersburg) on Tuesday, pressured the Panthers into 26 turnovers and had three players score in double digits to pick up an 81-39 victory Saturday night.
Rady said that the team was unselfish in its play and moved the ball to make great looks throughout the night.
"I was pleased with our play tonight," Rady said. "Riverton Parke is missing their big kid and when they get him back, they'll be a different team.
"I thought the ball had eyes tonight. We made some awful good passes tonight as guys gave up good shots to guys who had great shots."
Cooper Neese got the Clovers off to a flying start by burying his first four three-point shots while Marquise Moore added 10 points in the first quarter himself to immediately put daylight between the two teams.
More encouraging for Cloverdale, however, was the defensive pressure, sharp passing and major rebounding advantage the players utilized Saturday night.
The visitors amassed 23 assists on 34 baskets while picking Panther pockets 15 times and outrebounding the hosts by 32 during the course of the game.
Moore in particular was a big beneficiary of the strong defensive game, scoring a fair amount of his game high 29 points on the break. Branston Scott helped the cause with 21 points and 13 rebounds while Neese finished with 18 points.
The end result was scores of 24, 25 and 25 in the first three quarters that allowed Rady to insert his entire squad into the game by the time the fourth quarter began.
Given the setting at the old Rosedale gymnasium, Rady said the good shooting night was a big positive overall.
"We shot around 59 percent tonight so the ball went through the hoop in a gym that has tight rims," Rady said. "If you hit any part of the rim, it was going out.
"I thought we shot well because we let the offense give us our shots tonight. I was very pleased with that."
While the offense clicked and the defense put pressure on the Panthers, Rady said that fouls and free throws were still an issue that had to be fixed before Cloverdale entered the tougher stretches of the season.
"We got some offense but we can't put people on the free throw line," Rady noted. "We have to be careful with our hands because that's a new rule this year and we used them too much tonight and we've got to work on that this week."
Cloverdale travels to Eminence on Tuesday before participating in the Putnam County Class on Friday and Saturday.
While the Clovers won two contests against the Eels by 30 and 16 points respectively, Rady knew neither score was indicative of how the games went and that his team would need to be ready for a big scrap before the county tournament.
"We'll be going in blind because we've not seen Eminence play," Rady said. "Their first game was (Saturday) night.
"We'll have to adjust on the fly and a lot of times, as coach (John) Wooden would say, if you execute yourself and you know what you're doing, you can force the other team to adjust to you."
At Rosedale Elementary School
Cloverdale 24 25 25 7 -- 81
Riverton Parke 8 6 9 16 -- 39
Statistics
Scoring
Cloverdale -- 34-58 FG, 8-22 3-FG, 5-10 FT -- M. Moore 29, Scott 21, Neese 18, White 7, Fislar 4, Lotz 2, Duff 0, J. Moore 0, Hall 0, Heavener 0, Winders 0, Pfaff 0
Riverton Parke -- 12-40 FG, 2-10 3-FG, 13-20 FT -- Dickey 13, Griffin 6, Sanders 4, White 4, Fifer 4, Milner 3, Edge 3, Cobb 2, Falls 0, Blacketer 0, Thomas 0
Rebounding (Offense)
Cloverdale 56 (34); Riverton Parke 24 (12)
Assists
Cloverdale 23; Riverton Parke 7
Steals
Cloverdale 15; Riverton Parke 7
Blocks
Cloverdale 1; Riverton Parke 1
Turnovers
Cloverdale 17; Riverton Parke 26
Fouls
Cloverdale 21; Riverton Parke13
Next Game: Cloverdale (1-1) travels to Eminence (0-1) Tuesday.