OCR Text |
Show BrigEiton rJipG Gleac-fioSd Enk$pes On Clooo Encouneir By DAVE WIGHAM For the Clearfield Falcons their hopes of a 4A state title in basketball came to a halt on Monday as the Brighton . Bengals took a close ballgame right out of their hands. THE FINAL score, 73-66, is no indication of the closeness of this contest. The game wasn't actually decided until the final six seconds. The Falcons had the ball underneath the Brighton basket trailing by one, 67-66. The pass came inside to a Clearfield player who turned in an effort to shoot the ball, as he turned he was whistled with an offensive foul and the Brighton team had the ball. A frustrated Clearfield bench was then hit with a couple of technical fouls and the Bengals hit three of their charity shots to put the game on ice. Clearfield started the game as if they were going to set a state scoring record as they were able to break the Bengal press and get numerous easy shots in the first stanza. EFFECTIVELY breaking the press time after time was the Falcons guard Darren Parry who simply dribbled between the taller yet slower Brighton defenders, once down court he dished off to the big people. Scott Wallace, who finished the game with 27 points, was on the receiving end of many of those passes for the cripple shots. In the second stanza the Bengals pulled off the press and went with a sagging zone. Before the game the Brighton coach, Duke Reid, Indicated that they were concerned with the front line of Clearfield, their zone defense was built around that fear as all their players were sagging inside trying to prevent the pass to Wallace. IT WAS during this time that the Falcons tried too hard at times to get their big people the ball, the result was turnover after turnover. At the half the two teams left the floor with Brighton holding a slim one point advantage, ad-vantage, 40-39. THE THIRD quarter was one of the classic high school games, the type where it's basically the you make a basket, then we'll make a basket routine. Clearfield had a little more success in getting get-ting the big people the ball but this time the shots just weren't falling. Size-wise, In the height department, things were about even, but the Bengals looked more like an offensive line in football with their weight and they used it effectively effec-tively to control the boards. ENTERING the final quarter there were only two points separating the two gifted clubs. Going down the wire it looked as if the Bengals would win going away, leading by as many as seven at one point. But the gutty Falcons kept nipping away at the lead. DARREN Parry pulled them to within a point with a jump shot that was ruled goaltending, with 43 seconds to go. Then Parry stole the ball with about 16 seconds left and Clearfield could have the last shot. Scott Wallace tried a jump shot, which rolled off the rim, and the Bengals knocked the ball out of bounds with six seconds left. Clearfield had no timeouts left, as soon as the officials indicated that the ball belonged to Clearfield, Parry ran over to Coach Reid for instructions. The play was called then the offensive foul and that was the ballgame. FOR Coach Reid it was a bitter loss, the loss was bad enough but the opposing coach was his brother. The Falcons will now go on into the consolation bracket, and knowing the caliber of players and coaches they have, they will give it their all in that bracket just as if they were fighting for the title. |