Clovers drop nail-biter to Patriots

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Brandon Moon leaps into Tyler Collier of Owen Valley Monday night in the Clovers game against the Patriots. Moon finished the game with 29 points.

CLOVERDALE -- Charles Dickens once wrote in his book a Tale of Two Cities "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

The saying was true for Cloverdale Monday night as they dropped a 58-57 heartbreaker to Owen Valley.

The "Best of Times" for Cloverdale was in the first three quarters, especially the third quarter where it outscored the Patriots 17-9, building its lead from two points to ten. The Clovers even saw activity out of the their man in the middle, Link Lovins. He put up seven of the Clovers' third quarter points and was the dominant force in the paint.

But like the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.

The Patriots bounced back in the fourth frame, hitting key three pointers to bring them back into the fold.

"Those kids fought hard," CHS Coach Pat Rady said. "They were a good size team and they had some good shooters."

The big three-pointer for Owen Valley came with just under two minutes left from Tyler Collier. His trey knotted the score at 54-all. Then two easy buckets by his teammate Kyle Herbert, sealed the game for the Patriots.

"We thought that we could contain their shooters, but we couldn't and they got away from us," Rady said. "The turnovers and not knowing where the shooters were hurt us."

In the first half, everything was going right for Cloverdale. They shot 71 percent from downtown, going 5-for-7. They went 8-for-9 from the charity stripe and held the Patriots to just two threes for the half while controlling the tempo of the game.

They even carried the momentum into the third quarter, but in the fourth, Cloverdale just couldn't hold on.

The Clovers missed the easy shots in the post and gave up too many offensive rebounds and Owen Valley capitalized on it.

Out of the nine points the Clovers scored in the fourth quarter, seven of them came from the free-throw line. Cloverdale went 1-for-9 from the field in the last frame.

"If you turn the ball over a lot against a good ball club, they will come back to haunt you -- and Owen Valley is a good ball club," Rady said. "It was a tough loss, but we have to figure that this is the end of the season and the tournament is coming around, so we can't dwell on this game," Rady said.

Pacing the Clovers for the evening was Brandon Moon who had 29 points, while Jason Salter had eight points and Lovins had seven points.

The Clovers are back in action on Friday when they host Eminence at 7:30 p.m.