No. 5 Clovers open season with big win

Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Madison Shoemaker makes a pass from the post to a teammate on Tuesday night.
Banner Graphic/Joey Bennett

MECCA — Cloverdale didn’t quite live up to its No. 5 preseason ranking in the first quarter against Riverton Parke on Tuesday night, but the Clovers got things together quickly and went on to record a 68-35 win over the young Panthers.

The Panthers only have one senior on their roster, while the Clovers featured nine upperclassmen in winning their season opener.

“We knew Riverton Parke was going to try to slow it down a little bit, and would get in a zone to limit their turnovers,” Clover coach Matthew Langdon said. “Early in the season, it’s hard to knock down a lot of threes. The first five possessions were not how we wanted them to go.”

The upstart Panthers, who won only two games last year, had the upper hand early and led 9-5 on a trey by impressive sophomore Caeden Bennett midway through the period.

The Clovers scored the final five points of the period, on a pair of Hailey Thomas baskets sandwiched around an Arianna McCracken trey, for a 12-9 lead at the first stop.

Sammie Shrum had a slow first quarter as did many of her teammates, but started raining in treys in the second period -- hitting 4 of 6 to help the Clovers dominate the period by a 23-9 margin for a 35-18 halftime lead.

“Shooting quickly puts a lot of pressure on your offense,” Langdon said. “The girls responded well with this pre-season ranking. If teams get up on you early, they are going to be pumped. Riverton Parke is much improved from last year, and we just made too many mistakes in the first quarter.

The Clovers had six of their 18 turnovers in the opening period, while forcing Riverton Parke into 10 during that stretch.

Kassie Wade got her shot untracked in the second half, hitting back-to-back treys for the Clovers for a 41-22 lead after the Panthers scored the first two baskets of the half.

Lakkain Price had a pair of putback baskets, while Thomas added a basket and a free throw and Shrum had a basket for a 50-28 lead at the final stop.

Langdon began substituting even more at that point, getting several players some valuable experience that will prove beneficial down the road.

Shrum led the Clovers with 20 points, while Wade had 12 (adding another trey in the final period) and McCracken had 10. Madison Shoemaker added nine points for the balanced Clovers, while Price had seven points and 10 rebounds.

Freshman guard Bailey Duke led Riverton Parke with 17 points, and was the only Panther in double figures. Bennett added nine.

“At the key moment, late in the first quarter, we did what we had to do to come together,” Langdon said. “I didn’t have to call timeout, but we have enough experience that they figured out what they needed to do. That’s the thing about this senior group is that I want them to solve their problems on the court.

“They started finding the gaps and driving, and realized that threes coming from inside-out have much better success.”

The Clovers now have a couple of days to prepare for their first county rival matchup of the season, when they host South Putnam on Friday night.

Langdon knows his team will have to play much better to be successful on Friday night.

“We had too many turnovers [18],” Langdon said. “Having that many turnovers in a game you win by 30 points is just too many. I think against South Putnam we have had 25 turnovers a game against them the last three years.

“It’s just something that they put us in the position where we’re speeding up when we don’t need to be speeding up,” he added. “We need to get to the foul line and then hit them when we do instead of settling at time. South Putnam is really going to make you pay for mistakes.”

Langdon admitted being surprised at his team being ranked to start the season, despite having so many seniors back from last year.

He said the designation has its good and bad points.

“We are trying to take the positive of it,” he said. “You can go out with the mentality that you should play like a No. 5-ranked team. We need to take the mentality that we should play at the level other people see us. At times we saw that, but we need to ramp it up.

“The girls are excited, and it’s a new group despite having so many players back.”

CLOVERDALE (68) -- Shrum 8-17 0-2 20, Thomas 2-9 1-2 5, Wade 4-9 1-2 12, Price 3-5 1-4 7, Shoemaker 3-4 3-7 9, McCracken 4-12 1-2 10, Lewellen 0-2 2-5 2, Bernard 0-0 1-2 1, Carter 1-3 0-4 2. Totals 25-62 FG< 10-21 FT, 68 TP

RIVERTON PARKE (35) -- Barnes 2-9 1-8 5, Ingram 0-3 0-0 0, Fellows 1-4 2-5 4, Bennett 4-7 0-0 9, Duke 7-11 3-7 17, Pharr 0-0 0-0 0, Nowicki 0-0 0-0 0, Mathas 0-2 0-1 0, Miller 0-0 0-0 0, Sutton 0-1 0-0 0, Myers 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-36, 6-21, 35 TP

Cloverdale12231518--68
Riverton Parke99107--35

3-point shooting -- Cloverdale 8-24 (Shrum 4-12, Thomas 0-2, Wade 3-4, McCracken 1-5), Riverton Parke 1-6 (Barnes 0-1, Ingram 0-1, Bennett 1-2, Mathas 0-1, Sutton 0-1). Turnovers -- Cloverdale 18, Riverton Parke 28.