In the season-opening game, the Houston High School boys basketball team fell 65-42 to Clever Tuesday in Tiger Fieldhouse.
The visiting Blue Jays got off to a fast start and never looked back, jumping out to an 11-2 lead at the outset of the contest and holding a commanding 21-4 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
After trailing 35-16 at halftime, the Tigers made some noise after the break and closed the gap to 43-30 on a basket by senior guard DJ Riley late in the third quarter. But the Blue Jays took over again and rolled to the lopsided victory.
Clever applied an effective mix of speed, ball handling and active defense during the contest. The Tigers committed 13 turnovers and recorded only 4 assists, while the Blue Jays had 5 turnovers and 18 assists.
“We started out slow during the first half, and we didn’t know really what to do with that type of pressure,” said HHS head coach Dan Narancich. “Coming out in the second half, we did a better job with the pressure.”
Clever scored a whopping 40 points in the paint, while Houston scored 10.
Senior guard Lucas Peebles was red hot during the Blue Jays’ early outburst, sinking three 3-pointers and scoring 16 points in the first half on the way to finishing with a game-high 23.
Senior guard Caden Guerra led the Tigers in scoring with 12 points, while senior center Gavyn Daily had 11, Riley had 9 and freshman forward Karson McCain added 8.
The Clever’s roster featured 12 upperclassmen, including five seniors. Meanwhile, Houston had only eight players in uniform for the game, including three freshmen.
“We need to work on some things,” Narancich said, “the biggest one is communication. We will need to adjust the way we play just a little so we can finish the game strong.
These are things that having a young team and smaller numbers is going to take us time to adjust from, and shape our game around the players we have and their strengths.”
Houston (0-1) travels to Koshkonong on Monday (Dec. 1) and hosts Eminence on Tuesday.