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Sophomores carry Clearwater past Neelyville
By BRAD HURT ~ Sports Writer
PIEDMONT -- The wait is over for Clearwater.
The Tigers rode the shoulders of sophomores Ethan Scott and Luke Hillis to their first win of the season as they downed visiting Neelyville 64-55 on Tuesday.
Scott and Hillis tied for the game high with 21 points each, with Scott scoring seven key points in the fourth quarter to help Clearwater pull away.
"We're 1-0 in 2008," said Clearwater coach Louis Bell. "It's nice to finally get one."
The Tigers (1-8) are also 1-0 in the Ozark Foothills Conference while Neelyville (5-4) falls to 1-3.
"(Scott) did a good job inside," said Neelyville assistant coach Jerry Rich, who directed the Tigers in place of head coach James Patty. "He's hard to stop. He's a big kid on the boards."
The quarter began with the home team holding a 46-40 edge, but Neelyville pulled even with a quick run.
After missing a pair of free throws, Scott scored following a teammate's offensive rebound with 5:16 remaining. He later made a layup to push the Clearwater lead to five before completing a 3-point play with 2:06 remaining to stretch the lead to 60-53.
"Ethan is more athletic than people think he is," Bell said. "He's been working hard and been more aggressive lately. He's hard to stop in there."
Hillis also came up big in the fourth quarter for Clearwater, scoring five of his 21 points in the final 3 minutes. His 3-point play followed a Scott layup with 3:53 remaining, and he added a stickback off an offensive rebound with 1:03 remaining to help put the finishing touches on the win.
"He hit a bunch of big ones for us," Bell said.
Trey Hill initiated the game-winning 11-2 run with a go-ahead layup with just under 7 minutes left. He also earned his coach's praise with his hard work on the boards.
"Trey grabbed a big defensive rebounds for us," Bell said.
Facing a 33-25 deficit as they entered the second half, the Neelyville Tigers successfully used cunning plays to try to catch Clearwater off-guard.
They repeatedly threw high lob passes into the post, where cutters caught them for easy looks at the basket. Jeremy Patty and Jeremy Young each scored a layup in that fashion before the Clearwater defense realized where the ball was.
"We worked at halftime on some different zone plays. It worked well for a while, but Coach Bell is a good coach and they shut that down in the fourth quarter," Rich said.
Young led Neelyville with 17 points while Nathan Pringle scored 13 and Jeremy Patty added 12.
Said Bell, "I saw some good things tonight, but there's still a lot we have to do to get better."
Clearwater won the junior varsity game 47-29.