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Clovers get back on winning track; Moore moves into 17th place
JASONVILLE — It was a shootout at Shakamak Saturday between the Lakers’ Lane Gilbert and Cloverdale’s Jalen Moore.
But in the end, the Cloverdale Clovers had just a little bit “Moore.”
Gilbert put up a career-high 39 points, nearly matching his Cloverdale counterpart’s 41.
A quick 7-0 spurt to start the second half turned a six-point game into a 13-point Cloverdale lead. And the Clovers never looked back, winning by a dozen, 67-55 on the Lakers’ home floor.
Gilbert’s previous high of 30 came four weeks ago against White River Valley.
“That’s one heck of a way to go out on Senior Night,” Shakamak coach Nate O’Neall said of his 6-2 senior hustler’s performance. “He played as hard as he possibly could.”
Moore climbed to 17th on Indiana’s all-time career scoring list. The left-handed guard now has 2,234 career points.
“It’s a great feeling,” Moore said of his place in Hoosier history. “But I try not to pay attention to it. I try to stay away from it and focus on my game and getting wins for my team, leading my team to a sectional and beyond.”
Gilbert connected on 14-of-18 shots from the floor and made good on 10-of-13 free throw attempts.
Moore was 13-for-20 from the field and 14-of-16 at the line. Moore also got double-figure support from Jake Wilkes with 17.
“I didn’t want to open this book and see 41 for Moore,” O’Neall said. “But what do you do? He didn’t miss too many shots.”
Still, the Shakamak coach was pleased with Rylee Landry’s defensive effort against Moore. But Laker turnovers led to too many easy baskets for Moore and the rest of the Clovers.
Fourteen of Moore’s points came directly from his or a teammate’s steals. Moore swiped six thefts of his own as Cloverdale forced 21 Shakamak turnovers.
“Rylee dogged Jalen the whole game,” O’Neall said. “If you don’t have all those steals he probably only had maybe 27.”
But all those Laker giveaways — and Cloverdale takeaways — ultimately proved to be the difference in the game.
“We just turned the ball over too many times,” O’Neall lamented. “If we take care of the ball they don’t get 67. You cannot have that many turnovers against a good team and expect to win.”
The shootout began in the second quarter. Moore poured in 14 points to Gilbert’s 11 as the Clovers took a 34-28 lead into the locker room. Both No. 34s each tallied 18 first-half markers.
The teams were deadlocked at 18 after Gilbert put back his own miss and converted a conventional 3-point play. Gilbert came up with a steal and layup, then knocked down both ends of the one-and-bonus to again tie the score at 23-all.
Wilkes then swished a trifecta and Moore canned a pair at the stripe. Nolan Kelley nabbed a steal and got it ahead to Moore in the open court as the Clovers forged ahead by seven.
Layne Webb’s three-ball cut it to four but Moore bagged a pull-up jumper in transition just ahead of the halftime horn.
Cloverdale led by double digits, 38-28 just 40 seconds into the second half. Wilkes snagged back-to-back steals and raced in for layups. Moore stepped back beyond the arc and nailed a triple extending the margin to 13.
Gilbert kept the Lakers in it, going 6-for-6 at the line in the third stanza and adding a pair of inside hoops courtesy of feeds from Landry and Webb. His two freebies with 50 seconds on the clock got Shakamak within five, 46-41.
Moore leaned in on a 3-point attempt and drew a foul. He made good on all three, then grabbed a rebound and took it coast-to-coast to bump the lead back to 10 headed into the final eight minutes.
The Lakers never got closer than within seven thereafter. Shakamak trailed by 14, 57-43 after Kelley and Moore each turned steals into bunnies.
Three straight Gilbert buckets trimmed the deficit to eight, and his free throw with 52.9 ticks left cut it to seven.
But that was all she wrote for the Lakers. Two Nick Winders charity tosses, another from Moore, and one last layup by Moore off Shakamak’s 21st turnover accounted for the final tally.
“They (Shakamak) played with a lot of confidence,” Cloverdale coach Patrick Rady said. “They were good on both ends of the floor. They were definitely hard to guard in the half-court — especially Gilbert.”
Cloverdale (16-6) closes out the regular season tonight at Rockville.
CLOVERDALE (67) – Nick Winders 0-1 4-4 4, Parker Watts 0-2 1-2 1, Jake Wilkes 7-10 1-1 17, Jake Kelley 1-3 0-0 2, Jalen Moore 13-20 14-16 41, Nolan Kelley 1-5 0-0 2, Clayton Miller 0-1 0-0 0, Walker Sims 0-0 0-0 0, Chase Ashcraft 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-42 20-23 67.
3-point shooting: 3-14 (Wilkes 2-3, Moore 1-3, Watts 0-2, J. Kelley 0-2, N. Kelley 0-4). Rebounds 15 (Moore 5). Assists 3 (Moore 2). Steals 13 (Moore 6). Turnovers 10. Personal fouls 18. Fouled out: None.
SHAKAMAK (55) – Rylee Landry 2-6 2-2 7, Mikel Dicus 0-2 0-0 0, Layne Webb 2-2 0-0 5, Lane Gilbert 14-18 10-13 39, Drew Crane 0-0 1-2 1, Devin Stienstra 1-3 1-2 3, John Gould 0-0 0-0 0, Bryant Pilant 0-0 0-0 0, Jadyn Samm 0-0 0-0 0, Hunter Ashton 0-0 0-0 0, Brevon Fulford 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-33 14-19 55.
3-point shooting: 3-8 (Gilbert 1-1, Webb 1-1, Landry 1-4, Stienstra 0-2). Rebounds 21 (Dicus 5). Assists 6 (Landry 3). Steals 3 (Gilbert 3). Turnovers 21. Personal fouls 16. Fouled out: None.
Cloverdale 12 22 17 16 – 67
Shakamak 11 17 13 14 – 55