Clovers split unusual twinbill with Braves; girls improve to 10-1

Not playing on the same court or even in the same city Friday night, the Cloverdale and Indian Creek basketball teams played a conference coed doubleheader Friday night ... sort of.

In an early girls’ game on the Clovers’ home court, the Clovers topped the Braves 44-43.

Later that night in a matchup at Bankers’ Life Fieldhouse, the Indian Creek boys defeated Cloverdale 62-49.

Girls’ game

Able to overcome a second-half charge even when the shots weren’t falling, the Clover girls’ team got a key conference win.

Indian Creek (5-5, 0-2 WIC East) led by one entering the fourth quarter, but the Clovers (10-1, 2-0 WIC East) did enough in the fourth to pick up the one-point victory.

As impressive as the Clovers have been on some nights this year, coach Matthew Langdon was proud of his team’s ability to win on an off night.

“We’ve talked to the girls about how good teams find a way to win,” Langdon said. “It was definitely one of those cases where things did not go smoothly in the second half. We didn’t have any big runs, really. We were able to do some things occasionally, but we weren’t able to completely do what we wanted to do. I thought we just gritted it out.”

It wasn’t that way the entire night, as the Clovers raced out to a 14-4 lead after one quarter, paced by two buckets each from Tori Combs and Madison Shoemaker, as well as three-pointers from Sammie Shrum and Kassie Wade.

The rims got substantially tighter after that.

“We were able to start off the game pretty well, able to build up a 10-point lead in the first quarter,” Langdon said. “And then started to have some shots not fall. Indian Creek did a good job of increasing the pressure in the half court set and a good job of taking some things away.”

The Braves’ defensive pressure held the Clovers in check in the second and third quarters. Thomas scored five of the team’s seven points in the second and Combs scored four of the Clovers’ six in the third.

The lead was down to six at 21-15 by the half and the Braves actually led 28-27 heading into the final quarter.

Even with things not working offensively, Langdon was happy with what he saw at the other end of the court.

“The girls did a great job, defensively, of stepping up when things weren’t falling and we weren’t scoring as many as we normally score in a game,” the coach said. “I was just really proud of the girls understand what it takes to get to that next level. Whether it’s a good night or a bad night, you just find a way to win.”

Cloverdale started to find its shooting touch again in the fourth, with a pair of treys from Wade, two buckets from Combs and one from Shrum.

The Clovers also hit just enough free throws for the slim victory. They were 7-of-18 from the line for the night.

Combs led the Clovers with 13, followed by 10 from Wade. The Braves’ Caitlyn Snider led all scorers with 15.

“It doesn’t really matter how pretty they are, conference wins are always good to get, especially with our tough conference. It’s a good win for us. We’ll move on and started looking at another gritty team in Brown County next Friday.”

The Clovers host the Eagles at 6 p.m. on Dec. 14, the first half of a more traditional conference doubleheader.

INDIAN CREEK (43) – Hart 5 5-10 15, Grider 4 2-3 10, Harris 3 2-2 8, Maddox 2 0-2 4, K. Todor 0 2-2 2, Simon 1 0-0 2, E. Todor 1 0-0 2. Totals: 15 FG, 10-19 FT, 43 TP.

CLOVERDALE (44) – Combs 6 1-4 13, Wade 3 1-2 10, Thomas 2 3-8 8, Shoemaker 3 2-4 8, Thomas 2 0-0 5. Totals: 16 FG 7-18 FT 44 TP.

3-point shooting – IC 1 (Snyder 1), CHS 5 (Wade 3, Shrum 1, Thomas 1).

Boys’ game

The Clover and Brave boys had an extra-late matchup as the third game of the Hoosier Invitational at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Tipoff was pushed even later when the Wapahani-Lapel matchup went to triple overtime.

Indian Creek (4-1, 2-0 WIC East) wasn’t much worse for the delay, taking a first-quarter lead and maintaining it on the way to the 62-49 win.

The Clovers had three players reach double-figure scoring but it wasn’t enough for the victory. Kyle Thomas led the way with 16 points, followed by 13 from Parker Watts and 12 from Jake Wilkes.

The Braves’ Zach Pugh led all scorers with 22 points.

The Clovers (1-3, 0-2 WIC East) take the floor again Saturday, hosting Monrovia in a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.

INDIAN CREEK (62) – Pugh 9 1-2 22, Lacey 7 0-0 14, Ferris 3 2-2 9, C. Britt 4 0-0 8, Day 2 0-0 4, M. Britt 1 0-0 3, Russell 1 0-0 2. Totals: 27 FG, 3-4 FT, 49 TP.

CLOVERDALE (49) – Thomas 7 1-1 16, Watts 5 0-0 13, Wilkes 5 2-3 12, Kelley 2 0-1 4, Kelly 2 0-0 4, Helterbrand 0 0-0 0, Ashcraft 0 0-0 0, Corneilus 0 0-0 0, Sims 0 0-0 0, Hall 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21 FG, 3-5 FT, 49 TP.

3-point goals – IC 5 (Pugh 3, Ferris 1, M. Britt 1), CHS 4 (Watts 3, Thomas 1).