Clare knocks off Shepherd in JPC action
At this point in the season it’s about building momentum, positive forward flow heading into next week’s playoffs.
Both Clare and Shepherd did a little of that Tuesday night in a Jack Pine Conference contest from Shepherd High School.
As it was the Pioneers pretty much dominated the entirety of the first three stanzas before the host Blue Jays came flying back in the fourth to make it interesting.
In the end though Clare’s first three quarters proved to be just enough to hold off the Jays on ‘Senior Night’ by a final of 40-37.
With the win Clare improves to 5-7 overall while Shepherd evens its record at 7-7.
Trailing 28-20 at the end of three Shepherd put together it’s best quarter of the night as it went 7-for-18 from the field and hit its only two 3-pointers of the night. An Elijah Williams triple cut the Jays’ deficit to five at 3530 with 3:10 left in regulation
while a Zach Bendele trey with 48 ticks left cut it to two at 39-37.
Shepherd had a couple legitimate shots to tie it in the final 30 seconds, yet couldn’t find the bottom of the net which was a recurring theme all night.
In the first half alone the host went 4-for-15 from the floor while turning it over eight times.
While Clare wasn’t exactly smoldering from the field, it did enough to claim a 12-2 lead at the end of one quarter and held on from there.
Jacob Recker and Manmit Singh both led Clare with 13 points while Miles Haggart had seven. Bendele paced the Jays with 15 while Williams had 13.
Clare is at Sanford-meridian Thursday while Shepherd travels to Hemlock Friday.