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Cloverdale boys top Greencastle at McAnally
The Cloverdale boys' basketball team traveled to Greencastle to attempt to hand the Tiger Cubs their first loss of the season in the opening West Central conference game of the season. The Clovers succeeded, 56-39.
"I thought we came out kind of slow but then we battled back and tied the game at halftime," Greencastle coach Troy Greenlee said. "Our kids play hard and we played a really good team tonight."
"It was a tough game, especially in a rivalry game it's tough," Cloverdale head coach Pat Rady said. " I thought we played exceptionally well at times."
Led by sophomore Cooper Neese who had a team-high 20 points and senior K.J. Coleman who pitched in 14, the Clovers outscored the Tiger Cubs by 17 in the second half after going into the half tied at 21 apiece.
The Clovers (4-2, 1-0 WCC) got out to an 8-1 lead in the first quarter but pressure by the Tiger Cubs (3-1, 0-1 WCC) defense slowed the Clovers and only allowed one more basket before the end of the period. Cloverdale looked like it had momentum heading into the second quarter but Greencastle had a little momentum changer of its own.
Greencastle junior Ryan Coble got hot in the second quarter, scorching hot.
"They have two excellent shooters in (Collin) York and (Ryan) Coble. There are no better shooters than them, our kids had to be, they had to be with them and I was pleased with our defense in the second half," Rady said.
To start the quarter Coble drained a three, then after a Neese basket, Coble hit another. On the next possession, Coble splashed again. Coble single-handedly forced the Clovers to take a timeout after he made a runner in the lane to score 11 points in just over three minutes to give the Tiger Cubs a 16-13 lead.
"Ryan was the one that was hot for us and we wanted to feed the hot guy," Greenlee said.
Cloverdale scored two buckets out of the timeout to retake the lead but then Greencastle stormed back to take a 21-19 lead and after a senior Brantson Scott layup the game went to half tied at 21.
After the half the Clovers started to press and started to pressure the Tiger Cubs into taking ill-advised shots and only had 10 points in the third quarter. The Clovers scored 21 points in the third quarter highlighted by Neese's three 3-pointers. The Clovers would cruise from then on out to win by 17 points and defeat Greencastle.
"We put in two new offenses and I think they executed them very well tonight," Rady said. "We really wanted to go inside tonight."
"We were not as sharp as we were last week and they were able to take advantage," Greenlee said.
Cloverdale's K.J. Coleman led the game with 15 rebounds including seven offensive and Greencastle's Coble led the game with 25 points which included seven 3-pointers.
The Tiger Cubs struggled mightily with rebounding as they were out rebounded 39-14 by the Clovers and they gave up 15 offensive boards.
"That was the difference in the game, they are big inside and when you do not block them out and they get second shots that is a huge part of the game," Greenlee said. "If you look at the stats that would be the one big thing that will stand out."
"Practice is going to be very important this week because we have two very tough teams coming up," Rady said. "We both press and we will have to see who caves first.
"I think tonight was the best we have played all season," Rady said.
Clover senior Marquise Moore was injured in the third quarter but still led both teams with four assists and five steals.
The Greencastle Tiger Cubs will welcome Sullivan Saturday night at 7:30 and the Clovers are off until a home game against Monrovia next Friday night.
At Greencastle
Cloverdale 11 10 21 14 - 56
Greencastle 5 16 10 8 - 39
Scoring
Cloverdale (56): Neese 7-16 2-2 20, Coleman 3-11 8-11 14, M. Moore 3-6 2-2 9, Scott 4-9 1-1 9, J. Moore 0-0 4-4 4, Duff 0-1 0-0 0. Total: 17-43 (5-13) 17-20, 56.
Greencastle (39): Coble 9-16 0-0 25, Bollman 2-6 3-4 7, York 2-8 0-0 5, Foxx 0-7 1-4 1, Mitchell 0-0 1-2 1, Gerard 0-2 0-0 0, Hughes 0-0 0-1 0. Total: 13-39 (8-25) 7-11, 39.
Rebounding (Total-offensive)
Cloverdale (39-15): Coleman 15-7, Scott 8-2, Neese 7-3, M. Moore 3-1, Duff 2-1, J. Moore 2-0, Lotz 1-1, Fislar 1-0.
Greencastle (14-5): Bollman 6-2, Foxx 4-1, York 2-1, Coble 1-1, Mitchell 1-0.
Fouls: C 11, GC 20. Turnovers: C 9, GC 12.
Assists: C 11, GC 6. Steals: C 9, GC 6.