Coming back from the break to face potential West Central Conference champ Cascade, coach Pat Rady's Clovers dropped their Friday night road game 54-50... but they bounced back Saturday to knock off Southmont, 68-55 in "Clover Country."
At Cascade, the Clovers, after trailing 24-19 at the half, came back with a strong third quarter. Using their strong shooting from outside the three point circle, they moved into the lead. They still led 45-40 well into the final period before their shooting accuracy came to a halt.
In the next few minutes Cascade outscored the Clovers 12-0 to take a 52-45 lead before Cloverdale senior Chase Haltom connected on a three-pointer to end the drought and lower the deficit to four at 52-48.
Haltom's basket came inside the 25 second mark and it was as close as the Clovers would get. In the closing second the Cadets' Kevin Pusateri connected on a pair of charity shots and Michael Neese connected for a two pointer for CHS to lock in the final score at 54-50.
Haltom, who is now solidly the CHS all-time scoring leader, led the Clovers offense with 18 despite a cold shooting night, Neese finished with 16, Kyle McCammon had nine, Ryan Dean three, Luke Lovins two, Craig Blair two, and Eli Trinkle one.
(For the record, Haltom surpassed the long standing school scoring record in late December. The old mark of 1,386 was held by Rick Ford since 1968. Haltom broke the record in the third quarter of Cloverdale's win at North Central on December 20. Ford, an Indiana All-Star in '68, posted a school record 53 points in a season opening win over Eminence in 1966 as a junior. Ford moved on to play for the Hoosiers at Indiana University in Bloomington.)
In getting the win, Cascade's Pusateri led his squad with 24 points, while Brad Suter also hit double figures with 10.
The Clovers led on the boards, 27-26.
Moving into Saturday night's hosting of Southmont, coach Rady's squad worked their way to a 39-35 lead at the intermission, then outscored SHS 15-5 in the third quarter to take charge and maintain control enroute to their 68-55 win.
Rady said the performance represented a "strong team win. I'm well pleased the way we came together after the Friday night loss. We played well against a team that had beaten both South Putnam and North Putnam... we were in charge the final period. Our defense looked good and we forced them into some bad shots. We were back in what I would call our game mode, pretty well controlling both ends of the floor the second half."
Haltom continued to add to his school record total with a 21 point game, McCammon was close behind with 16 and seven big assists, Lovins came back to drill 14, Blair had a solid eight point game, Neese five plus a team leading six rebounds, Dean had two, and Tyler Cooper two.
The leaders for Southmont included Welcher and Rhodes, each with 12, and Martin with 11.
The split left the Clovers with a 7-3 record as they face three games this week. Tuesday night they host arch-rival Greencastle in a rescheduled game due to a December weather postponement. Then they face another double-header this coming weekend, with both games on the road... at North Putnam Friday night, then a long 100+ mile trip north to Frontier in White County on Saturday.
