Clovers are Sectional Champs

Saturday, March 7, 2015
The Cloverdale boys' basketball organization celebrates with the sectional trophy. (Banner Graphic/JAY LOCKETT)

SPEEDWAY -- On Friday it took a strong defensive effort, but on Saturday when the Cloverdale boys' basketball team took on WCC rival Cascade it was offensive firepower that propelled the Clovers to the win and the Speedway Sectional title 76-57.

(From Left) CHS' Cooper Neese, K.J. Coleman, Marquise Moore, Tyler Lotz and Brantson Scott celebrate with the sectional championship trophy. (Banner Graphic/JAY LOCKETT)

The Clover boys will face Indianapolis Crispus Attucks in the Greenfield-Central Regional Saturday.

Cloverdale took advantage of its opportunities and clinched Putnam County first boys' basketball sectional championship since 2007.

Clover head coach Pat Rady cuts down the sectional net after the tournament win. (Banner Graphic/Jay LOCKETT)

"Words can't describe how I feel right now," CHS senior Brantson Scott said. "It's just one of the greatest feelings in the world to be coming out on top of a championship tournament like this. All of my teammates came together."

Starting off in a shooting funk, the Clovers were down early in the first quarter. The early buckets from Cascade put the Clovers in an 11-3 hole after five minutes of play.

However an 11-2 run gave Cloverdale a one-point lead after one. Senior K.J. Coleman did the dirty work down low, scoring eight points to get Cloverdale close then Marquise Moore made a shot at the buzzer, making the score 14-13.

Marquise Moore cuts down his slice of net. (Banner Graphic/JAY LOCKETT)

"Before we left the locker room I told them Cascade was a different team than what they faced in January," Clover coach Pat Rady said. "They're hot and they are going to play aggressive. I said you've got to withstand that. They did. It's a game made up of runs and we have to have more runs than they do."

After trading buckets in the second, sophomore Duke Duff nailed a three off a nice feed from Moore. Sophomore Cooper Neese then stole the inbound pass and scored an off-balanced three-point shot from the corner making the score 29-24 Cloverdale.

K.J. Coleman goes to the rim after a feed from freshman Jalen Moore. (Banner Graphic/JAY LOCKETT)

Neese stayed hot and hit two more threes in the quarter and another in the third. Moore scored eight in the second quarter and Coleman made a bucket and three foul shots to help with the 23-point quarter.

"The game didn't start very well," Scott said. But we came together, buckled down on defense, caused some chaos and came out on top."

The chaos defense was in full effect all game. The Clovers had 10 steals on the game and forced two errant passes. In the post Coleman, Scott and Neese held the Cadets in check making them work for buckets.

Scott led the way offensively, scoring six of his nine points in the third helping Cloverdale take a comfortable 51-39 lead into the fourth.

Cascade did anything but quit as they made two threes and all four free throws.

Cloverdale however held its lead due to Duff's early three-pointer, buckets from Moore and Coleman and free throw shooting.

Cloverdale make 16-of-17 foul shots in the fourth to secure its sectional championship.

Cooper Neese get a turn to chop off a piece of championship. (Banner Graphic/JAY LOCKETT)

"It was very fun," Coleman said. "It was chaos. It's the way we tried to perform and we did it. Now we just have to focus on the next one."

The Clover boys get this victory after coming up short in last year's sectional against Speedway. This season the Clovers overcame early losses and injuries to claim the sectional crown.

"It's really great," Moore said. "We've come a long way, from last year to this year. Out goal at the beginning of the season was to win a sectional and we did it. We've accomplished our goal but we're not satisfied there. We're going to regional, semi-state and then State."

Attucks (18-5) is coming off sectional wins against Indianapolis Washington and then Triton Central. Rady said the coaching staff will give the Clover players Monday off but then will be hard at work to prepare for potentially two games on Saturday.

Cloverdale fan support was overwhelming throughout the entire sectional tournament with many students and parents making the trek to cheer on the Clovers. (Banner Graphic/JAY LOCKETT)

"I'm just happy the players get to experience a moment like this," Rady said. "Not very often do you get special moments like this so I told them to seize it and they did.

IHSAA Sectional 44

Jalen Moore laughs as he get his slice of the championship net. (Banner Graphic/JAY LOCKETT)

At Speedway

Cascade 13 13 13 18 -- 57

Cloverdale 14 23 14 25 -- 76

Individual Scoring

Cascade 21-40 9-10 (Hart 7-14 2-2 17, Butler 3-5 5-6 11, Burch 3-7 2-2 10, Stephenson 2-3 6, Parsons 2-2 5, Hosteller 2-5 4, DuBois 2-4) Cloverdale 23-48 (Coleman 7-12 9-12 23, M. Moore 6-17 10-11 22, Neese 4-10 12, Scott 4-6 1-1 9, Duff 2-2 2-2 8, Pfaff 0-0 2-2 2)

Team Stats

3-point shots: Cascade 6-18 Cloverdale 6-17 (Neese 4-9, Duff 2-2) Rebounds: Cascade 25 (Heayemer 7, Burch 5, DuBois 4, Hosteller 4, Parsons 2, Hart 2, Stephenson 1) Cloverdale 24 (Coleman 7, Neese 5, Moore 4, Scott 2, Lotz 2, J. Moore 2, Duff 1, Pfaff 1) Assists: Cascade 8 (Burch 3, DuBois 2, Butler 2, Hart 1) Cloverdale 8 (Neese 2, J. Moore 2, Duff 2, M. Moore 1, Lotz 1) Steals: Cascade 3 ( Hart 2, Burch 1) Cloverdale 10 (Neese 3, Duff 2, Scott 2, Coleman 2, M. Moore 1) Blocks: Cascade 1 (Butler 1) Cloverdale: 3 (Coleman 2, Neese 1) Fouls: Cascade 22 Cloverdale 10

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