The Return of a 30 Win Season

 

Posted by Dan Jensen

 

Once upon a time, 30 win seasons were common for Clear Creek basketball.  George Carlisle’s teams won 30 or more in seven of his last nine seasons and Bill Krueger’s teams did it five times in seven seasons.

 

There was a long drought until Buddy Carlisle’s team had a 30-4 record in 1999.  But now Wes Bryan has piloted the Wildcats through a  perilous playoff run that only ended in the regional finals.  The miracle wins are over but the 33-4 record is one of our all-time best.

 

The 1960 team led by the great Bennie Lenox had the most wins at 39-3 but it did not produce the thrills and chills of this year’s team.  We can be proud that this team has awakened the echoes of our wonderful past.

Comments

[Ed Davis]

Proud of those Wildcats and glad I was able to be a part of the great history of the basketball program under Coach George Carlisle from 1957-59. Go,Cats!!!!

[Dan Jensen]

Playoff scores:
Fort Bend Hightower 60-42
North Shore 68-65 overtime
Pearland Dawson 55-51
Cypress Lakes 75-73
Clear Lake 56-63 double overtime

Those last four were epic battles. Our junior high coach of long ago, Bobby Proctor, would have called them mawtappers. Indeed they were.

[Buddy Carlisle]

After being able to watch my dad's teams play during his career at Creek, as a player from 1968-70 and a coach from 1976-2006, I think I can evaluate this team's accomplishments better than anyone.

I not only saw many of their games and the entire playoff run, I also attended some of their athletic period practices. So, I became very close to this group of players and coaches. That made it even harder to see the journey end on Saturday but what a ride they took all of us on.

We dominated the district 24-6A race along with Clear Lake like many of the past Creek teams did, with a spread of 5 games between us and the 3rd and 4th place finishers, Friendswood and Brazoswood. There were not many close district games except the 2 classics vs Lake. In the first game, Carlisle Field House was rocking like it had not been since my last team in 2006 when we went undefeated in district play. The game was close all the way but Lake actually led by 9 in the second quarter before holding a 7 point halftime lead. We came back in the 3rd to get it close and it stayed that way the rest of the game. I stated after this game that it looked like Lake was going to win the game but we just refused to lose, nipping the Falcons 58-54 to take sole possession of first place in district. I repeated that saying in some tweets during the playoffs by using the #RefuseToLose and that slogan really described this team.

At Lake it was more of the same, a packed Krueger Field House saw once again a classic Creek-Lake game go down to the wire. Lake made 2 free throws with .5 seconds left to win 58-53 and those shots gave them the #1 seed in the playoffs since we beat them by 4 at our place.

We soundly defeated Fort Bend Hightower 60-42 in the first round of the playoffs. They had been a
nemesis to many 24-6A teams in the past so that was a great first step for this team.

That set up a tremendous challenge vs North Shore in the Area game played on Billy Carlisle Court at Deer Park. It was ironic that such a big game would be played on the court honoring my brother. North Shore was the defending state champs in class 5A, now 6A this season for the first time. The Mustangs were led by Kerwin Roach, a smooth 6'3" guard who was the MVP of the State Tourney last year and has signed with UT. He was surrounded by a group of talented and athletic players as well so it was quite a challenge. In another thriller we once again refused to lose, beating the Mustangs 68-65 in overtime.

That win put us against Pearland Dawson back at Manvel High School, the site of our first round victory over Hightower. Dawson was 30-5 and I discovered after the first few minutes, they were every bit as good as North Shore. In another nip and tuck game, we prevailed 56-51 to send us to the Regional tourney for the first time since my team in 1992 played at Hofheinz.

Our opponent in the semis was Cypress Lakes, who had one of the best guards I have seen in a while. His name is DeAaron Fox, a 6'4" junior being recruited by everyone in the country. His partner, Nick Garth, was a 5'10' sharp shooter bound for Lamar University. We got off to the best start I had seen all year, only missing 2 shots on our way to a 28-15 lead after 1 quarter. They rallied a bit but we still led 45-34 at half. They cut the lead in half going into the 4th quarter and then slowly took the lead back to go ahead 73-69 with less than a minute to play. We cut the lead to 73-70 and fouled Garth with 30 seconds to play. He surprisingly missed both free throws to give us a chance. Our Jared Evans drove to the hole and scored, completed the 3 pt play after getting fouled and it was 73 all with 15 seconds to play. They worked for a last shot but Karlin Humphrey stole the ball near mid court and, while falling down, passed to junior Xavier Farrell for the game winner with 1 second to play. Talk about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, we did it! #RefuseToLose!!!

So, now we advance to the regional finals for the first time since 1969 when I was a junior and we played the legendary Wheatley Wildcats. And our opponent, none other than our district rival, the Clear Lake Falcons. So after many dramatic and exciting games with them since the school split in 1972, we meet for the first time ever in the regional finals.

The game did not disappoint as we battled for 32 minutes but couldn't decide a winner. Our Tyquon Jordan hit a deep 3 pointer off an assist from AJ Sparks to send it to OT at the buzzer! We still couldn't decide it as we hit another shot to force a second OT with 2 seconds left. Finally, after tieing the game on a Payton Smith layup at 56 with 2 minutes to play, the Falcons took charge. They made a 3 pt play, we missed twice and they hit all 4 free throws to win a thriller 63-56.

The miracle run was over but I don't feel like we lost, we just ran out of time. Congrats to Coach Bryan, his staff and the players who made this Clear Creek ex player and coach feel so proud to be a Wildcat. I will never forget all the great memories this team gave me and many Wildcat fans past and present as they rekindled the flame that has burned so brightly through the years.

[Dan Jensen]

No one is better qualified than Buddy to evaluate our magical playoff run. He grew up with his legendary father who began our great dynasty in the fifties, then was a standout player with a miracle finish of his own when he "refused to lose" against Galveston Ball, then as a coach who won as many district championships as his father did. Now as a knowledgable fan, he sweats out our miracle wins and goes home as exhausted as if he had coached the game and has a hard time going to sleep. Thank you Buddy for this wonderful report.