Basketball

Calm before the storm

Tri-Valley wins a no-pressure game over Roscoe as teams gear for respective sectional openers

By RICHARD A. ROSS

GRAHAMSVILLE, NY — For Tri-Valley and Roscoe, the chance to play a pre-sectional game with no pressure on February 19 was a welcome boon.

Roscoe (9-11) returned to the postseason, following a six-year hiatus, but fell to Eldred in the opening round 72-48. (See riverreportersports.com.

Roscoe’s game against Tri-Valley was Ahart’s 801st game in his coaching career.

Tri-Valley (11-8), the reigning Class C champ, fared remarkably well this year despite its enormous losses to graduation. Last year, Tri-Valley posted Section Nine’s best record at 22-2 and beat Millbrook for the title.

This year’s team had to find a new identity and deal with the untimely loss of point guard Kevin Drown, who suffered a torn ACL in a game against Tuxedo.

Coach Brian Tingley regarded this game as a celebration of his team’s gritty season that saw them go 4-2 in Division V.

Roscoe’s Jayson Harris led the Blue Devils with 23 points, while recording four blocked shots and a spate of steals.

The Bears countered with great production from Andrew Yager’s team-leading 19 points.

Roscoe would yield 16 from Seth Darbee and 14 from Cody DeRosia by night’s end. Tri-Valley benefited from 16 from McDonald and 15 from low-post threat Bo Murphy.

The Blue Devils came out on fire, pulling out to a 9-0 lead after controlling the tip. Senior John Clancy hit a trio of free throws as the Bears committed the first of two fouls from beyond the arc. Free throw shooting wasn’t either teams’ strong suit. The Bears hit 13 of 22. Roscoe wasn’t much better. They hit only 16 of 26 from the line. Roscoe led 13-4 with only three minutes gone, but the Bears, who often get off to a slow start, plugged away.

Bo Murphy started the Bears on the comeback trail. Roscoe led 22-16 at the end of the first quarter. The teams upped the scoring in the second quarter.

Murphy tied the game at 26-all with 4:31 to go in the half and Brendan Moore hit a trey to put the Bears on top for good at 32-30. They led 40-32 at the half; the Bears led 63-47 at the end of the third quarter. By night’s end, the Blue Devils had turned it over 10 times to the Bears’ eight.

The game got a bit tighter in the fourth quarter as Harris grabbed a trio of steals. Roscoe trailed 71-61 and seemed poised for a final run, but things went south from there as Tri-Valley outscored the Blue Devils 14-4 in the game’s waning minutes.

Ahart credited Tri-Valley’s fine play and acknowledged that Murphy gave them problems. Ahart felt he got a good team effort from his squad. “They never gave up,” Tingley said his team was hitting its stride at just the right time. “Tonight we wanted to get everyone in for meaningful minutes against the other team’s starters. I thought the kids played well,” he said.

“ Hopefully, it continues,” he added.

Tri-Valley got set to host Millbrook at home for the Class C semifinal. The Bears hope to recapture the magic of last year’s sectional success. “We’ve played within five points of most teams all year. We’ve had four blowouts: two good ones and two bad ones,” observed Tingley, who would be delighted to get back to the finals.

Seward, coached by Rob Gravelle, who just won his 200th game, will probably be there waiting with his hungry Spartans, anxious to advance in Class C before returning to Class D again next year. It should be fun.