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Show Falcons Get Revenge As They Get By West High By DAVE WIGHAM SALT LAKE CITY -- In a sport as unpredictable as high school basketball it's good to see one thing remain consistent consis-tent throughout the season and the tournament. THE ONE aspect of the sport that you can count on is the effort that the Clearfield Falcons will put forth on a court. Coach Roger Reid has an ability to put teams on the floor that will give more than would seem possible, to say they give 100 percent on the floor would be an understatement. under-statement. IN THE second round of the state encounter the Clearfield forces meet with the West High Panthers. Here is a team that is known as a state team, every tournament the Panthers are counted out and everytime they somehow figure into the picture. Then too the Clearfiek team was coming off a dramatic loss to Brighton in the first round. MANY teams would pack up after the Bengal loss, but not this group of athletes. They came out and played one of their best games of the year to down a very good West team 78-70. "Following that loss to Brighton, 1 took the club through a one hour workout the next day. We put the bail on the floor and played some hard nosed defense. That was lacking in the Brighton game and you don't win in this tournament without playing some tough defense," noted Coach Reid. Whatever that workout consisted of the Falcon Fal-con coach should bottle it for next year. CLEARFIELD came to prove a point in the West contest, actually if you could revenge they had a couple of points to prove, that being they had a better club than they showed in the opening round. West High got the point. Clearfield had great success suc-cess in going inside to their big people as they showed some good patience on offense and simply ran the plays and went with the game plan that had been laid out for them. BIGGEST difference in the two games though was the - defense the Falcons laid on the Panther big people. Never did the West team get an uncontested un-contested shot, the Clearfield forwards were very active, the guards were causing problems out front with their quickness. This was the Clearfield club that people around Region One had seen throughout the year. THE FALCONS came out burning the nets and even when they went to their bench they didn't break stride. Roger Vincent and Gary Dixon came on to show signs of brilliance for next year as they combined for ten points. Guard Darren Parry got into the scoring department with some great inside moves drawing the foul and hitting 9-10 foul pitches. Junior Russell Rus-sell Florence poured in 11 points finding himself alone near the foul line for a couple of easy jumpers. BIG name on the Falcon ledger though was Scott Wallace who ended with a game high 31 points, 22 of them in the first half. Wallace will admit his best shot is the 10-15 foot jump shots and time after time the Panthers were willing to give it to him. Clearfield won in every department as they played a well rounded ballgame at both ends. They controlled the tempo of the contest and held the big people of West well below their scoring average. THE WIN put Clearfield into in-to the consolation semifinals to meet Sky View while the loss put West out of the tourney. tour-ney. It was the first time in many years that West had exited after only two games. A great credit to the Clearfield Clear-field team for the way they bounced back after such a heartbreaking loss a couple of days earlier. |