Menu
Cloverdale boys dominate
SPENCER -- Owen Valley has never been a friendly venue for visiting boys' basketball teams, especially ones from Putnam County.
Coming into Tuesday night's game, the Patriots had bagged 15 straight wins at home over the likes of Greencastle, South Putnam and their opponent for the evening, Cloverdale.
The Clovers, coming into the game as the last county school to win in Spencer, the 2001-02 season, broke a 1-7 streak against their southern rivals with a convincing 80-53 win.
Cloverdale head coach Pat Rady knew the players would be in for a tough outing but said their effort in practice translated onto the court Tuesday night.
"Owen Valley always plays tough and tonight was no different," Rady said. "They play a good brand of defense, they can shoot the three and when we laid off them, they nailed them.
"We had to stay with them and I thought our kids did a good job. I have to give this win to the players because of their focus and the effort that they're giving us in practice.
"We're asking them to be extremely coachable and understand what we're going to do," Rady added.
Owen Valley skipped through the Cloverdale press for the first few minutes of the game, holding an early 6-0 advantage.
The visitors took their first lead at 10-8 on a Marquise Moore three before the hosts took their last lead at 11-10 on a Matthew Campbell three.
The Clovers scored the final 11 points of the quarter by changing press schemes, rushing the Patriots into several poor possessions.
Rady said the defensive effort and the team's ability to switch between presses continued to be a major factor in controlling the tempo of the game.
"We started off with one press and it wasn't working very well," Rady pointed out. "We switched to another one early in the first quarter that worked and we stayed in it the rest of the night.
"We definitely caused chaos, as Coach (Patrick) Rady has gotten us to start thinking about. We've really been working on our presses hard in practice and challenge them to stay focused."
Cooper Neese and KJ Coleman combined to score the final 11 points of the quarter to give the visitors a 21-10 lead after the first quarter.
Neese and Coleman continued their offensive tear in the second period, scoring 18 of Cloverdale's 22 second-quarter points to push the Clover lead to 43-23 at halftime.
Owen Valley's offense was better in the half-court set in the third quarter, requiring Cloverdale to keep their own output moving.
The visitors used a balance scoring attack as Neese scored eight points, Coleman and Marquise Moore scored five points apiece and Branston Scott chipped in four points to stretch the halftime lead out to 65-39 by the start of the fourth quarter.
Even with substitutes moving in and out, Cloverdale did not yield the fourth quarter to the Patriots, outscoring the hosts 15-14 in the final frame to restore some pride for Putnam County before the schools become conference members once again in the 2015-16 season.
Rady was pleased with the offense production but also pointed out that the whole team was putting in quality performances all over the court.
"We moved the ball well and had four guys in double figures," Rady noted. "Two had over 20 points and Marquise had 19.
"Marquise also had seven rebounds and five assists. If you can get a guard to come down there and do that, that's really adding to the game."
Cloverdale hosts Turkey Run on Saturday and Rady said the squad needed to continue to maintain the intensity it had shown in recent weeks.
"We need to stay and play at a high level," Rady said. "Turkey Run is well coached and will try to do something to offset us, maybe hold the ball and shorten the game.
"We had some great fan support coming down here and we want to keep this thing going. They'll have a plan to cause us problems and we have to focus on what we do, stay focused, cause chaos and see what happens."
At Owen Valley
Cloverdale 21 22 22 15 -- 80
Owen Valley 11 12 16 14 -- 53
Statistics
Scoring
Cloverdale -- 31-59 FG, 8-17 3-FG, 10-12 FT -- Coleman 26, Neese 24, M. Moore 19, Scott 11, J. Moore 0, Duff 0, Lotz 0, White 0
Owen Valley -- 20-41 FG, 10-19 3-FG, 3-4 FT -- King 15, Campbell 14, Wood 10, Sturgeon 4, Boyd 3, C. Wade 3, Arthur 2, Shouse 2, Daffron 0, Herrington 0, E. Wade 0, Ferguson 0
Rebounding (Offensive)
Cloverdale 18 (7); Owen Valley 18 (6)
Assists
Cloverdale 18; Owen Valley 13
Steals
Cloverdale 12; Owen Valley 2
Blocks
Cloverdale 0; Owen Valley 2
Turnovers
Cloverdale 6; Owen Valley 18
Fouls
Cloverdale 9; Owen Valley 9
Next Game: Cloverdale (15-5, 4-0 WCC) hosts Turkey Run (***) Saturday.