Photo by Richard A. Ross, sportsinsightsny.com Monticello’s boys basketball team proudly displays the championship trophy from the 12th Annual Hawley Rotary Tip Off Basketball Tournament, which they won by defeating two-time defending champion Wallenpaupack Buckhorns 54-50.

As the temperature drops, things heat up on the court and track

By RICHARD A. ROSS

SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY—Snow, sleet, slick roads and bone-chilling temperatures inform us that winter is now business as usual. As a counterweight to the shivering cold, the inferno of high school basketball and indoor track offers up steamy competitive fire. With daylight at a premium, December compensates with the incandescent glow in gyms and field houses as area teams look to get an early foothold in the steep uphill climb of the season.

Some gain instant traction on that slippery slope; others proceed more tentatively. A few slip and slide backward, as they eye the distant heights of sectionals, the lofty peaks of state rounds and the summit of a state title, invisible somewhere in the lofty clouds.

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