Jalen Moore sinks last-second layup, Cadets

Saturday, January 14, 2017

Clover junior also scores 1,000th point

CLAYTON — Cloverdale junior Jalen Moore not only scored his 1,000th point but hit the game-winner Friday night in a 76-74 win over Cascade, spoiling the Cadets’ homecoming and taking a conference win in the process.

Moore scored on a layup as time expired going coast-to-coast with 7.6 seconds remaining. Moore became the lead option after senior Cooper Neese fouled out on the previous play, trying to go for a steal.

After Cascade’s Evan Burch hit both his free throws to tie the game, Moore took the ball from out of bounds and juked his way past defenders for what ended up being an almost uncontested layup.

“We didn’t want to go against a set defense,” Cloverdale coach Patrick Rady said, explaining why he didn’t want to call a timeout at 74-74. “Jalen is very good in an open court. To just have the wherewithal to know he still had enough time to get to the rim, a lot of times guys will settle and shoot deep, but he knew the time situation.”

According to Rady, Moore deserved his moment to shine.

“It was a special night for him to get 1,000 points and to hit the game-winner,” he said. “That’s a great honor for him. He’s put a lot of time in to get better individually, and it was nice to see him get that plateau tonight.”

Moore finished with a game-high 32 points. Neese finished with 26. Neese scored his only fourth-quarter field goal with 40 seconds remaining to make it a 73-70 game, and also went 6-of-6 from the line in the final stanza.

Jake Wilkes finished with six points, Parker Watts scored five and Nick Winders had three. Jaren Rossok and Seth Pfaff rounded out the scoring with a bucket each.

Cascade’s two-headed monster of Burch and Dalton DuBois gave Cloverdale trouble most the night. Burch finished with 25 points, and DuBois finished with 23, despite failing to score in the fourth quarter.

“Cascade’s a great team, and this is a tough place to come in and play,” Rady said. “Burch and DuBois are a handful and their other guys stepped up and hit shots. It’s hard to contain good players and those two are outstanding players.”

The win marks the Clovers’ sixth in a row as they improve to 11-5 and 3-2 in the Western Indiana Conference. Cascade drops to 7-5 overall and 2-2 in the conference.

Cloverdale hosts North Putnam on Thursday.

On the girls’ side, Cloverdale lost 69-57 after sporting what was at one time an eight-point lead midway through the third quarter.

Up to that point with a 40-32 lead with 4:45 remaining, the Clovers had succeeded in one of their keys of the game, which was limiting 3-pointers. Yet, once the Cadets hit their first to make it a five-point game, they hit another and sparked what would become a 20-4 run to close the quarter.

The Clovers cut the deficit back to single digits with five minutes remaining but another 3-pointer from the Cadets made it a 62-50 game with 4:40 left. Cascade brought its lead to as many as 18 before Cloverdale finished on a 7-1 run.

“This is a top-10 ranked team in the state, and they’ve blown out a lot of teams,” girls’ coach Matthew Langdon said. “We wanted to come in, take away the 3-point line, and they didn’t hit a 3-pointer in the first half. We put pressure on them, and I felt like we had them a little bit rattled.”

Cascade finished just 4-of-14 from beyond the arc but each came at a crucial time.

“In the third quarter especially we had a couple mental breakdowns,” Langdon said. “The press breaker -- they just continued to do it all game. We were beating it early and hurting them with it, but then those mental breakdowns, if you do that against a good team, that’s where they got a lot of their 3-pointers. We just can’t make those mistakes and be able to beat a quality team like this.

“At the end we had a seven-man rotation and just ran out of gas a little bit, but I was excited for our girls. They stuck to the game plan and were aggressive.”

Cloverdale had a couple players with double-doubles. Tori Combs led all scorers with 24 points. She also added 11 rebounds and three blocks. Sammie Shrum scored all of her 16 points in the second half and pulled down 10 rebounds.

Cascade was led by Bayleigh Walker’s 22 points and Makayla Collier’s 15.

Class 2A No. 6 Cascade stays undefeated in the East Division at 5-0 and is now 13-4 overall. Cloverdale is 11-8 overall and 1-4 in the conference.

Next, Cloverdale hosts Rockville on Tuesday.

At Cascade

Boys’ game

CLOVERDALE (76) – Neese 8-13 6-6 26, Moore 10-16 11-15 32, Wilkes 3-6 0-0 6, Winders 1-3 0-0 3, Pfaff 1-3 0-1 2, Watts 1-3 2-4 5, Rossok 1-1 0-0 2, Miller 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-45 FG, 19-26 FT, 76 TP.

CASCADE (74) – DuBois 10-17 3-3 23, Burch 10-17 4-4 25, A Alderson 2-8 0-1 5, Hopper 3-6 0-0 8, Stephenson 3-4 0-1 6, M Alderson 1-1 0-0 3, Edwards 1-1 0-0 2, Walker 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 30-55 FG 7-9 FT, 74 TP.

Cloverdale 20 18 13 25 – 76

Cascade 19 16 19 20 – 74

3-point shooting – CD 7-14 (Neese 4-6, Moore 1-2, Winders 1-2, Watts 1-2), CC 4-16 (Burch 1-8, Hopper 2-4, M Alderson 1-1) Rebounds – CD 24 (Neese 8, Wilkes 7, Moore 3, Winders 2, Watts 1, Pfaff 1), CC 29 (DuBois 12, A Alderson 5, M Alderson 3, Hopper 3, Burch 2). FG Pct. – CD 55.5, CC 54.5. FT Pct. – CD 73.1, CC 77.8. Turnovers CD 10, CC 11.

Girls’ game

CLOVERDALE (57) – Combs 11-21 2-4 24, Walker 1-3 0-0 3, Shrum 5-15 5-5 16, Heltenbrand 1-5 0-0 2, Thomas 2-10 3-5 8, Price 0-1 1-2 1, McCracken 1-3 0-0 3. Totals 21-58 FG, 12-16 FT, 57 TP.

CASCADE (69) – Walker 9-15 4-4 22, Collier 4-9 5-6 15, O Bryant 4-11 4-5 12, E Bryant 3-5 0-0 6, Hostetler 0-0 0-0 0, Rasnake 3-7 0-0 7, Gross 1-2 0-0 2, Norris 1-2 1-4 4, S Bryant 0-0 1-2 1, Batts 0-0 0-0 0, Cleveland 0-0 0-0 0, Church 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-51 FG 15-21 FT, 69 TP.

Cloverdale 13 14 17 13 – 57

Cascade 12 15 25 17 – 69

3-point shooting – CD 4-12 (Walker 1-3, Shrum 1-2, Thomas 1-6, McCracken 1-1), CC 4-14 (Collier 2-5, Rasnake 1-5, Walker 0-2, Norris 1-1, E Bryant 0-1). Rebounds – CD 36 (Combs 11, Shrum 10, Heltenbrand 2, Thomas 2, Price 3, McCracken 2), CC 34 (E Bryant 10, Walker 6, O Bryant 5). FG Pct. – CD 36.2, CC 49. FT Pct. – CD 75, CC 71.4. Turnovers – CD 21, CC 21.

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