First half struggles doom Clovers against Eels

Tuesday, November 8, 2022

CLAY CITY — During Jason Sinders’ five-year tenure as Clay City’s girls’ basketball head coach, the month of November has been a bugaboo for the program.

Sporting a combined 3-18 record in the penultimate month of the calendar year during Sinders’ reign as the leader of the team, the Lady Eels entered Tuesday night’s home opener against visiting Cloverdale with something to prove.

With the vast majority of the roster filled with returners, Clay City imposed its will on both ends of the floor throughout the first half of action to catapult itself out to a 23-point halftime lead.

Cloverdale made a run in the third quarter to slightly cut into that, but Clay City’s finishing kick gave the team its first win of the season, downing the Clovers by a score of 56-28. It marked the earliest win of the year – beating the 2018-19 season by one day – for the program during the Sinders era and the first victory over Cloverdale since 2017.

“That was a good win, especially after the last few years where we haven’t gotten a lot of wins,” said Sinders. “We’ve ate a lot of mud the last few years, so it was good to get one tonight. We’ve got to keep building and getting better, but I’m proud of the kids.”

To get that jubilant feeling inside the locker room after grinding out four quarters of solid basketball to earn a well-deserved win, Clay City knew it needed to start the game strong against the Clovers.

On Tuesday, an 18-0 run that spanned from the 3:20 mark of the first quarter until the 5:52 mark of the second quarter saw numerous shots fall through the net, and ultimately changed the complexion of the game.

Cloverdale coach James Wade credited the Eels for making shots but admitted that the run also had a lot to do with the lack of defensive intensity his group showed throughout the first half.

“I didn’t think it was what they did offensively, I thought it was what we didn’t do defensively,” said Wade. “Our closeouts were terrible. Our help side was terrible. Anything that resembled fundamentally sound defense did not occur in the first half. That’s no disrespect to them. They’ve got some players. But I did not think we did our part at all.”

Taking a 27-4 lead into the halftime break, with 15 points coming from Kailyn Kirkling, who scored a game-high 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field and 4-of-8 shooting from the 3-point line, Sinders anticipated the Clovers making some changes for the second half.

He was right.

Cloverdale threw a pressing defense at the Eels throughout the third quarter, which sped up the hosts and forced them to turn the ball over six times, and ultimately led to the Clovers winning the period and inching ever-so-slightly closer to Clay City.

“The girls played the way we asked them to play in the first half. I saw girls that we had for very long periods of time not giving up and working hard to make sure they were trying to do the right thing. The effort was better,” said Wade of Cloverdale’s second half defense. “Effort will cover up a lot, even with the ball isn’t going in the hole. That’s something we’ll always have control of. We might not have control of whether or not we hit shots, but defensively and effort wise, we have full control over that. Unfortunately, we only played two quarters tonight.”

During the three-minute intermission in between the third and fourth quarters, Sinders challenged his group to find the ‘junkyard dog mentality’ inside themselves and bring the fight to the opposition in the final eight minutes to secure their first victory.

Clay City listened, closing out the win by putting up a 20-point quarter and sinking 9-of-10 from the free throw line down the stretch.

“As the pressure came, we started to fold a little bit. That’s when I told them, ‘You’ve got to get junkyard dog mean and take care of the ball and make them play defense so we can get to the bucket or the free throw line,’” said Sinders. “We got to the point where we were taking care of the ball and adapted to it. It was a great night.”

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CLOVERDALE (28) — Wade 0-7 2-2 2, Nees 1-5 0-0 3, Mann 2-11 6-8 12, Yoho 3-7 0-2 6, Nichols 3-5 0-0 7, Bell 0-0 0-0 0, Bernard 0-1 0-0 0, Ford 0-2 0-0 0, Maldonado 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 9-38 FG, 8-12 FT, 28 TP.

CLAY CITY (56) — Kirkling 8-16 2-2 22, Evans 3-6 1-2 8, Grupe 2-6 3-6 7, Koehler 2-8 2-2 6, Shearer 1-1 0-0 2, Schauwecker 2-4 0-0 5, Tucker 0-0 0-0 0, Sinders 0-1 0-0 0, Crabb 0-0 2-2 2, Jackson 1-1 0-0 2, Tieken 0-0 0-0 0, Shidler 0-0 0-0 0, Arnold 1-1 0-0 2, Rhodes 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS 20-44 FG, 10-14 FT, 56 TP.

3-point shooting — Cloverdale 4-10 (Wade 0-4, Nees 1-1, Mann 2-3, Yoho 0-1, Nichols 1-1), Clay City 6-16 (Kirkling 4-8, Evans 1-3, Koehler 0-2, Schauwecker 1-2, Sinders 0-1). Rebounds — Cloverdale 24 (Yoho 9, Wade 6), Clay City 26 (Kirkling 6, Koehler, Tucker 4). Turnovers — Cloverdale 22, Clay City 15. Total fouls — Cloverdale 15, Clay City 12. Fouled out — none.

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