Clovers late surge falls short against Monrovia

CLOVERDALE-- Cloverdale's boys played decently in three quarters and poorly in one in a 70-50 loss to Monrovia in a West Central Conference basketball game Friday on the Clovers court.

"It's a tough loss, but I'm pleased with the fact we didn't quit," legendary Cloverdale coach Pat Rady said. "We only had three turnovers in the second half and that's a big plus. But we didn't stay focused the entire game. The second quarter was our downfall again. There's a lot of things that we're doing better, but we need to stay focused.

"Our team has to wear hard hats all year because we're always going to be under construction."

The Clovers (2-4, 0-2 WCC) stayed with the Bulldogs (3-1, 2-0 WCC) for much of the first quarter, trailing 14-11.

But Monrovia scored the last four points of the opening period and went on a 9-0 run to start the second to take a 27-11 lead.

The Clovers stopped the bleeding when Kendrick Collet made a strip steal and scored on a layup and Brantson Scott scored a two-point basket to cut their deficit to 12. But they never got any closer.

Kade Schroer made the score look more respectable when he knocked down three straight 3-pointers in the third quarter. The 6-foot junior had five 3s on eight attempts and also converted all three free throws when fouled on a 3-pointer to lead the Clovers with 18 points.

Cloverdale's promising 6-foot-5 sophomore Brantson Scott scored 14, making 6-of-12 field goals and 2-of-3 free throws.

The Clovers play at Tri-West tonight.

At Cloverdale
Monrovia -- 18 17 22 13 -- 70
Cloverdale -- 11 6 14 19 -- 50