Blair scores 29 in Cloverdale win

Saturday, December 16, 2006

The Cloverdale boy's varsity was hoping to open its first home game of the season with a win over a very good Monrovia team on Friday night, and that is what the Clovers did, beating the visiting Bulldogs 76-52 and improving to 4-2 on the season and 1-1 in the West Central Conference.

For the first three quarters, the game was much closer then the score would indicate. As the game got started both teams were shooting very well in a close seesaw battle. But Monrovia had the advantage with some very even scoring from their lineup. Michael Neese hit a three-pointer right before the end of the first quarter to get the clovers to within two points at 14-12.

The second quarter seemed to be where Cloverdale was able to start getting into a rhythm with Craig Blair hitting his first three-pointer of the night putting the clovers in the lead for the first time since early in the first quarter giving them the halftime lead at 24-22.

In the third quarter both teams started lighting things up but it was much of the same as the two teams stayed very close all the way through.

Michael Neese hit a three to get things going then Craig Bair took over, scoring 12 points in the third quarter. Zach Smith of Monrovia kept the Bulldogs in the game scoring 8 points in the third himself.

But Monrovia's overall shooting in the third is what kept them close, as they were 9 of 13 shooting from the field.

The fourth quarter belonged to the Clovers as they were lighting it up from everywhere as 7 different Clovers scored in the fourth.

Cloverdale will play Tri-West Saturday.

At Cloverdale

Cloverdale -- 12 12 19 33 - 76

Monrovia - 14 08 19 11 - 52

Cloverdale -- Blair (29), Neese (21), Cheatham (10), Trinkle (6), Moon (4), Shoulders (3), Dean (2), Hacker (1)

Monrovia -- Hadley (15), Smith (10), Speck (9), Grismore (8), Sampson (5), Steward (2), Palka (2), Martin (1)

Next Game -- Cloverdale will take on Tri-West tonight at 7:30 p.m.

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