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| Wildcats get a scare from the Clippers |
By: Pat Beck
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Posted: Thursday, January 29, 2009 11:57 am
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Photo by David Ykema
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LE CENTER — The rematch between the Le Center Wildcats and the Cleveland Clippers was a real border battle Thursday night. The Wildcats jumped out to an early 15 point lead, then survived a determined comeback by the Clippers before escaping with a 42-35 victory.
The Wildcats were on fire in the early going. Mitch Lang scored twice in the paint, Danny Perez drained a pair of three point baskets and Matt Traxler added a put-back score and a pair of free throws to help the Wildcats build a 17-2 lead in the first seven minutes of the game.
The Clippers battled back, led by 6 points from Andy Eppmeyer, to cut the Wildcat lead to 22-10 at the half.
“It’s always a close game when we play Cleveland,” said senior co-captain Josh Farm. “Everybody is a little more intense. We really had it going in the first half with some good shooting and good defense.”
The Clippers started the second half with a 12-4 run to get within four points midway through the stanza. Eppmeyer and Garett Rohlfing each scored six points and Ian Robertson added five more to keep the Clippers close until the final two minutes of the game, when the Wildcats sealed the win from the free throw line.
“We lost our focus a little in the second half and they really made a good run at us,” said Farm. We regrouped a little at the end and held them off.”
The Wildcats’ Josh Farm led all scorers with 14 points. Matt Collins pulled down 7 boards for the Cats.
Andy Eppmeyer paced the Clippers with 12 points and Ian Robertson snagged a game high 13 rebounds in the loss.
“We knew what to do against them, but we weren’t having much success on the offensive end in the first half,” said Cleveland coach George Schoenborn. “We rebounded OK, but we didn’t convert them into points on the other end. To their credit, the team came out in the second half, dug deep and really played hard. I’m very proud of the guys.”
Le Center beat Cleveland 55-28 in their first meeting.
“I think we earned a little respect this time compared to the last time we played them,” Schoenborn said. “I was proud of the guys as we overcame a slow start and made a game of it. The guys showed a lot of guts against a deeper team.”
1st 2nd Final
Le Center: 22 20 42
Cleveland: 10 25 35
Le Center Scoring-Rebounds: Collins, M. – 5-7, Farm, J. – 14-2, Hertaus, J. – 0-2, Lang, M. – 9-5, Paulsen, J. – 0-1, Perez, D. – 7-5, Perkins, J. – 3-5, Struckman, D. – 0-1, Traxler, L. – 0-2, Traxler, Matt – 4-4.
Cleveland Scoring-Rebounds-assists-steals-blocks: Eppmeyer, A. – 12-4-2-2-0, Omtvedt, B. – 4-1-0-1-0, Rohlfing, G. – 6-6-0-0-0, Robertson, I. – 5-13-1-2-2, Schmitz, M. – 4-4-5-3-2, Blaschko, M. – 4-4-0-1-0.
2 FG: 13-34 (38%)
3 FG: 2-12 (17%)
FT: 3-6 (50%)
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