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Clovers win one, lose pair in Wabash Valley Classic
TERRE HAUTE – Cloverdale’s boys’ basketball team competed in the First Financial Wabash Valley Classic at Terre Haute North this week.
The Clovers won their first-round game 63-43 over Riverton Parke, then lost 52-47 to defending tourney runnerup Linton-Stockton and 80-43 to Terre Haute South.
Cloverdale extended its winning streak to seven games with its victory over Riverton Parke before having that streak snapped.
Here is a look at each game:
First round
Cloverdale won its seventh straight game on Tuesday night, defeating Riverton Parke 63-43 in the opening round.
Jalen Moore of Cloverdale, the state’s leading scorer at 38.6 points per game, nearly hit his average and finished with 36 points to lead the Clovers, who advanced to the second round against Linton-Stockton on Wednesday night. The Miners defeated Cloverdale in the first round of the same tournament last year.
Moore hit 10 of 20 shots from the field, including 3 of 9 from 3-point range, and connected on all 13 of his free throws. Moore’s total of 36 points tied him with several players, including former teammate Cooper Neese, for the seventh-best single game in the 18-year history of the tournament.
Moore had eight first-quarter points, but Riverton Parke got a basket from Brogan Sanders with :25 left in the period to take a 14-13 lead at the first stop.
Moore and the Clovers broke the game open in the second period, starting on a 13-4 run for a 26-18 lead with 3:30 left in the half. Moore had two baskets to start a 6-0 streak that opened the period, while Jake Wilkes had all of the points on a 3-point basket and a basket plus a free throw to complete the 12-point stretch.
Riverton Parke cut the Cloverdale lead to 26-20 on a basket by Avery Briddick with 3:16 left in the half, but Moore scored his team’s final nine points of the half for a 35-24 lead at the intermission.
The Clovers expanded their lead to 43-28 on a Moore basket with 4:27 left in the third period before Riverton Parke scored six straight points to cut the gap to single digits again.
Moore hit a pair of free throws in the final seconds of the period for a 45-34 lead at the final stop.
The Clovers eliminated any doubt about the outcome with a 13-0 streak midway through the final period. Moore started the streak with a pair of free throws, added a 3-pointer and hit two more free throws to start the run.
Jake Kelley, Nick Winders and Wilkes each added a basket to conclude the run.
Cloverdale coach Patrick Rady is used to seeing Moore excel offensively, but thinks the senior lefty also deserves a lot of credit for his work on the other end of the court as well.
“Jalen keys our defense, whether we are in man or zone,” Rady said. “He can anticipate passes very well, and I thought he was able to be very active on top of the zone. We actually got more turnovers on the top of our 2-3 zone than we did in man.”
Rady liked the preparation and attention to the scouting report that his players had.
“We knew that [Avery] Briddick and [Jonathan] Virostko were the two main scorers, and we had to switch on ball screens and keep them guarded well,” Rady said. “We did a good job on them.
“A few times they got loose in our press, and I wasn’t very happy with our play in the full-court defense,” he added. “We didn’t rotate as well on defense, especially when they drove baseline, as we would have liked. We made an adjustment at halftime because it wasn’t very good in the first half.”
RIVERTON PARKE (43) – Sanders 1-4 0-0 2, Briddick 6-15 2-4 14, Virostko 2-11 0-0 6, Powell 2-3 0-0 4, Kirchoff 5-7 0-0 11, Lawson 2-4 0-0 4, Hazzard 1-1 0-0 2, Steelsmith 0-2 0-0 0, Hopton 0-1 0-0 0, Harrison 0-0 0-0 0, Atkinson 0-0 0-0 0, Gilstrap 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-49 FG, 2-4 FT, 43 TP.
CLOVERDALE (63) – Winders 1-2 1-2 3, Watts 0-3 0-0 0, Wilkes 6-10 2-3 17, J.Kelley 1-4 0-0 2, Moore 10-20 13-13 36, N.Kelley 2-4 0-0 5, Miller 0-0 0-0 0, Ashcroft 0-0 0-0 0, Sims 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-44 FG, 16-18 FT, 63 TP.
Riverton Parke 14 10 10 9 — 43
Cloverdale 13 18 10 18 — 63
3-point goals – RP 3-16 (Virostko 2-9, Kirchoff 1-2, Briddick 0-2, Sanders 0-1, Steelsmith 0-1, Gilstrap 0-1); C 7-20 (Moore 3-9, Wilkes 3-5, N.Kelley 1-2, J.Kelley 0-3, Winders 0-1). Rebounds – RP 29 (Powell 6); C 23 (Wilkes 7, Winders 5, Moore 5). Steals – RP 3 (Sanders, Virostko, Hazzard); C 10 (Moore 4, Winders 3). Turnovers – RP 15, C 6. Total fouls – RP 14, C 9.
Second round
Cloverdale was cruising along at halftime of Wednesday night’s semifinal game against Class 2A No. 9-ranked Linton-Stockton.
The Clovers held a 30-19 lead, with the state’s leading scorer — senior Jalen Moore — accounting for less than half of those points. Moore even started the second half with a layup and basket just 18 seconds into the third quarter for a 33-19 lead.
At that point, however, things fell apart for the Clovers.
Linton-Stockton’s shots, which rarely fell in the first half, started finding the mark.
Moore’s ability to drive to the basket and either finish a layup or earn free throws disintegrated.
The result was a 12-0 run that got the Miners back in the game, and Linton-Stockton went on to record a 52-47 win that eliminated the Clovers from the First Financial Wabash Valley Classic winners’ bracket for the second straight year.
“That’s one of those games that he will hopefully learn from,” Cloverdale coach Pat Rady said. “Each game is different. Some games [Jalen]’s been getting fouls called when he goes in there, and tonight he didn’t. You have to be able to adjust.”
Moore had just five points as the Clovers took a 13-10 lead after one quarter, and added nine more in the second period as his team took its 11-point lead into the intermission.
Parker Watts had seven first-half point, while Nick Winders had four, Jake Kelley had three and Nolan Kelley added two.
“I thought we spread the ball around really well in the first half,” Rady said. “We didn’t make that one more pass in the second half like we did in the first half.”
Linton-Stockton trailed just 33-31 after its big third-period run, and tied the game for the first time at 34-34 when Silas Robbins rebounded a missed free throw by his brother Sammy and scored on a put back.
A Nolan Kelley trey put the Clovers back ahead, and Moore hit a pair of baskets in the final 91 seconds of the period to help his team cling to a 41-38 lead at the final stop.
Moore hit two more baskets to open the fourth quarter and put his team up 45-41 before a crucial sequence took place.
Moore had picked up two fouls in the first 2:02 of the game, but remained on the floor and added just one more foul until 4:05 left in the game. Linton-Stockton’s Noah Woodward was driving for a lay up at that point, and Moore was whistled for his fourth foul while defending the shot.
Woodward hit both free throws to start an 8-0 run that put the Miners ahead to stay.
Moore fouled out with 1:28 left, but the Clovers were still within reach at 49-45. Winders scored a basket with 1:14 left to cut the deficit in half, but the Clovers wouldn’t add any more points to their total.
The Miners missed a pair of free throws with 45.1 seconds left, but hit three out of four in the final 20.7 seconds to wrap up the game.
Moore finished with 25 points, hitting just 9 of 30 field goals and missing all six of his 3-point attempts. He was not alone in that last category, though, as the teams combined to hit just 5 of 36 from long range on the night.
Watts had eight points and Wilkes had a game-high 13 rebounds.
The Clovers were in a tough position for the third round regardless of their outcome, facing the prospect of playing one of two teams (Edgewood or Terre Haute South) which had beaten them to start the season.
LINTON-STOCKTON (52) — Fougerousse 4-8 0-0 9, Hayes 2-6 1-2 5, Sa.Robbins 3-3 1-2 7, Slover 2-6 1-4 5, Woodward 2-8 6-6 11, Hale 1-6 0-0 2, Si.Robbins 5-9 3-5 13, Clark 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 19-48 FG, 12-19 FT, 52 TP.
CLOVERDALE (47) — Winders 1-4 0-0 2, Watts 3-6 1-2 8, Wilkes 2-7 0-0 4, Moore 9-30 7-8 25, J.Kelley 1-5 0-0 3, N.Kelley 2-5 0-0 5, Miller 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-57 FG, 8-10 FT, 47 TP.
Linton-Stockton 10 9 19 14 — 52
Cloverdale 13 17 11 6 — 47
3-point shooting — Linton 2-16 (Fougerousse 1-4, Woodward 1-4, Slover 0-1, Hale 0-3, Hayes 0-4), Cloverdale 3-20 (Watts 1-3, N.Kelley 1-3, J.Kelley 1-5, Winders 0-1, Wilkes 0-2, Moore 0-6). Total fouls — Linton 13, Cloverdale 16. Fouled out — Moore, Winders. Turnovers — LInton 16, Cloverdale 6. Rebounds — Linton 50 (Fougerousse 9, Slover 8, Si.Robbins 8, Sa.Robbins 7, Hayes 6, Woodward 4), Cloverdale 27 (Wilkes 13, Moore 4, Winders 3, Watts 2, N.Kelley 2). Assists — Linton 11 (Woodward 5, Slover 4, Fougerousse, Hayes), Cloverdale 6 (Moore 4, Winders 2). Steals — Linton 5 (Woodward 3, Fougerousse, Slover), Cloverdale 12 (Wilkes 4, Watts 3, Moore 2, Winders, J.Kelley, N.Kelley). Blocks — Linton 1 (Fougerousse), Cloverdale 2 (Winders, Wilkes).
Consolation bracket
Terre Haute South had beaten Cloverdale 93-65 in Novermber, and Rady’s fears of South’s dangerous nature came true.
The Braves led 8-0 and 15-2 on their way to a 24-7 lead at the first stop. Cloverdale hit just 2 of 12 shots in the quarter, with Moore having several shots blocked by taller defenders than usual under the basket.
South led 39-22 at halftime and 60-33 after three quarters.
Moore finished with 34 points and set tournament records for most made free throws in a game (14) and most attempts (19).
Jake Kelley and Jake Wilkes added six points each for the Clovers, who will be able to take a short break before preparing for Western Indiana Conference action against Owen Valley next Friday.
TERRE HAUTE SOUTH (80) — Washington 7-11 1-2 15, Logsdon 3-5 3-4 9, Reddy 1-2 0-0 2, Porter 5-5 0-0 10, Hanes 0-0 0-0 0, Sholty 5-11 4-4 14, Cotton 1-4 1-2 4, McCoskey 5-6 1-2 15, Deckard 0-0 2-2 2, Bender 2-2 0-0 4, Johnson 1-2 0-0 2, Turner 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 31-49 FG 12-16 FT, 80 TP.
CLOVERDALE (53) — Winders 1-4 2-3 4, Watts 1-4 0-0 3, Wilkes 3-11 0-0 6, Moore 7-23 18-23 34, J.Kelley 2-6 0-0 6, N.Kelley 0-1 0-0 0, Miller 0-0 0-0 0, Sims 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-49 FG, 20-26 FT, 53 TP.
Terre Haute South 24 15 21 20 — 80
Cloverdale 7 15 11 20 — 53
3-point shooting — THS 6-9 (McCoskey 4-5, Turner 1-1, Cotton 1-3), Cloverdale 5-18 (J.Kelley 2-5, Moore 2-7, Watts 1-3, Wilkes 0-3). Total fouls — THS 22, Cloverdale 15. Fouled out — none. Turnovers — THS 18, Cloverdale 9. Rebounds — THS 50 (Sholty 14, Porter 5, Washington 4, Cotton 4, Deckard 4, Logsdon 3, Bender 3, Reddy 2, McCoskey 2, Johnson 2, Hanes, Turner, Team 5), Cloverdale 13 (Winders 4, Wilkes 2, Watts, Moore, J.Kelley, Team 4). Assists — THS 18 (Washington 5, Porter 3, Deckard 3, Logsdon 2, Cotton 2, Hanes, Sholty, McCoskey), Cloverdale 6 (Winders 2, Moore 2, Wilkes, N.Kelley). Steals — THS 8 (Logsdon 3, Washington 2, Porter, Hanes, Deckard), Cloverdale 12 (Moore 5, J.Kelley 2, N.Kelley 2, Miller 2, Winders). Blocks — THS 9 (Porter 3, Washington 2, Logsdon 2, Sholty, Deckard), Cloverdale 1 (Wilkes).