Transit Authority
Fallsburg Rides Its Fiery Defense and Speed To Marshal An Authoritative League Win Over Visiting Tri-Valley; Rakkir Watson Excels At Both Ends Of The Floor With Game-High16 points and Commanding Defense
Fallsburg 61, Tri-Valley 39
By RICHARD A. ROSS
Two trains running trying to reach the sectional roundhouse as Fallsburg's express bypasses Tri-Valley (Clockwise): Tri-Valley's James Pugh gets a layup after stealing the ball. T-V's Rodney Jester scores over Fallsburg's Jarrett Madison, Michael Robinson elevates for two of his 15 points on the night. Comet cheerleaders soar in spirit and style. Tri-Valley's Conor Walsh is surrounded by Fallsburg's Rakkir Watson and Dustin Foertsch. Dustin Foertsch scores two of his eventual ten points in the game. Rakkir Watson posts two as he rises above Greg Swarthout. Watson led all scorers with 16 points and played great pressure defense.
FALLSBURG, NY—All aboard for the Fallsburg express which bypasses teams as it races through the season. Tougher than tough on their home floor, the Fallsburg Comets streaked by Tri-Valley on January 12, another Division V opponent that entered their station seeking to derail them.
Like the Eldred Yellow Jackets a few days prior, the Bears were unsuccessful in slowing down the hurtling Comets who, when they get up to full speed, are a blazing juggernaut.
Fallsburg's Braiden DeGraw looms large as he looks to block a shot by Tri-Valley's James Pugh. He was successful on several such attempts and scored eight points including a pair of treys. Pugh did his share of damage too as he led the Bears with 11 points.
Newton’s first law of motion applies to the current Fallsburg phenomena:
“Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.”
To date, out of the eight games they’ve played, Fallsburg has denied opponents’ successful application of force to stop its forward motion. The exception being an overtime loss to S.S. Seward and a prior early season loss to Walton.
The Seward defeat was a wakeup call for the Comets who would love to end this season as the Number One train in Division V. But after their heart-rending overtime loss down at Seward, they currently display the Number Two light as they rumble along towards Grand Central Station also known as the Section Nine Playoffs.
Intent on staying on track, Fallsburg was respectful and wary of gritty Tri-Valley.
Two years ago the Bears nearly knocked Fallsburg off its sectional-bound track when Dean Winters hit a last second trey on the Comets home floor. Scouting Tri-Valley as it dispensed with Tuxedo, Fallsburg Coach Pete Dworetsky saw the Bears perimeter lethality against the Tornadoes’ zone.
Man-to-man it was going to be for the Comets. But to maintain that agenda they’d have to be quick and get good rotating help. Fueling that, they’d need good rebounding, shot blocking and players who could pick pockets to set up easy transition buckets at the other end of the floor.
Tri-VAlley senior Greg Swarthout had great success early on including this slash to the rim. He scored six of his ten points in the first quarter affording the Bears the early lead.
Fallsburg, at least in this encounter with the Bears, proved they had all of the above going as they did against Eldred a few days prior. On the offensive end, they feature an arsenal of weaponry with great depth. Mention Fallsburg and it’s Michael Robinson that is the first player everyone mentions and rightfully so.
Robinson is the heart of Fallsburg’s engine but there are other cylinders clicking too and when those pistons are firing in synch, it’s poetry in motion.
Rakkir Watson, Braiden DeGraw, Dustin Foertsch, Sam Didinsky, Russell Corley and Jim Bertholf are integral parts of the Fallsburg machine, abetted at times by the insertion of Jarrett Madison and Austin Halchak who can keep things running.
Tri-Valley is talented too and before all is said and done, the Bears look to pick up speed and catapult themselves into the sectional roundhouse.
A coming fray at Eldred will be key to that agenda as will rematches with Tuxedo. The Bears will also look to pay Fallsburg back when they visit them later this season but for Coach Brian Tingley, it’s one game at a time and getting five Division V wins onboard by the end of the regular season line means a green light for admission to the big dance, something the Bears missed out on a year ago.
They’ve got the shooters to do it in James Pugh, Greg Swarthout, Shatik Smith, Jesus Lozada, Conor Walsh, Cody Exner, Dave Donovan and Rodney Jester. With size from Alex Brown, Steve McInerney and Devin Donnelley, they have the potential for a tough inside presence as well.
Defensively, the Bears played admirably in this game. Rather it was their poor shooting that derailed them, in particular a horrendous four-for-18 from the charity stripe for a nightmarish 22 percent. When you lose by 22 points as the Bears did in this 61-39 affair, blanking on 14 freebies proves to be a toxic pill.
Fallsburg’s got off to a slow start after Robinson controlled the opening tip against Pugh. Robinson missed on his first two attempts, traveling on the second of these. Blanks by Watson and Corley preceded a Pugh bucket as the Bears drew first blood at 5:41.
Corley answered with an underhanded scoop to tie it up but Greg Swarthout took advantage of Fallsburg’s initial laxity on defense to slash the lane for two. Corley drew an offensive foul as the Comets continued to look more like a local than an express.
You've heard of the Reuben Sandwich, how about the Smith Sandwich? Here Shatik Smith is hemmed in by Rakkir Watson and Jim Bertholf as the ball is about to come loose into Watson's hands for an easy transition bucket the other way.
Swarthout cut through for another deuce before Watson answered to cut the Bears’ margin to 6-4. Tingley looked on with rapt attention as his team was executing the game plan to a ‘t’, while Dworetsky did not like what he was watching in these early minutes. Substitutions were imminent including a sit down for Robinson for reasons he chose not to share.
DeGraw got a block of Pugh but the Comets traveled. He blocked Pugh again on the next possession. Swarthout penetrated uncontested again for the 8-4 lead but the Comets soon proved they could withstand a few early jabs as they counterpunched with an 8-2 run to close the first quarter leading 12-10. In the quarter they got four each from Watson, Foertsch and Corley. The Comets assumed the lead at 1:39 of the first quarter.
Defensive pressure was working for the Bears as Bertholf and Watson sandwiched guard Shatik Smith causing the Watson steal and layup.
Once the Comets bypassed Tri-Valley, they never trailed again.
The Comets cheerleaders stepped to the floor to add their spirit. The largely home crowd was feeling the vibe.
Robinson returned to start the second quarter and quickly scored. McInerney hit one of two from the stripe before incurring the Bears’ fourth team foul as the score remained 14-11 with 5:11 to go. Watson hit a trey to make it 17-11. At times the Comets tried to a look a bit too fancy and it cost them. After a steal, Bertholf threw away a no-look pass when the Comets had numbers for an easy layup.
Other times players looked to ram through traffic instead of making the extra pass resulting in travelling violations. Simply put, Fallsburg still has plenty of work to do to tune up for the blistering pace of the sectionals. Two more league wins will get them a berth but merely getting there this year for this senior laden squad is far from the main agenda.
Robinson profited from another steal to take it to the rim as the Comets raced further ahead with a DeGraw trey that made it 22-13 with the throttle still not pushed all the way. Six more points would be forthcoming as Fallsburg used its 17-7 switchback to take a 29-17 lead into the half.
Tri-Valley's Cody Exner is a potentially lethal three-point shooter but on this night his trey's were off. He had some open looks like this one but found the Fallsburg rim unwelcoming. Look for him to light it up on the Bears' home floor in the rematch.
Here’s the second quarter summary: Fallsburg got six from Robinson and Watson, two from Foertsch and three from DeGraw. Tri-Valley got two each from Swarthout, Jester and Pugh and one from McInerney.
Tri-Valley had its best performance in the third quarter as they outscored Fallsburg 14-13 to cut the deficit to 11 at 42-31. In that stanza it was a balanced attack that abetted the Bears with four from Pugh, two each from Swarthout, Donovan and Walsh. Jesus Lozada hit one of two from the stripe.
Tri-Valley’s third quarter featured six points from Swarthout, a bucket from Pugh and two made free throws from Jester. The Comets countered with five from DeGraw that included his second trey, four from Watson, two from Foertsch and a pair of made free throws from Corley.
Fallsburg pushed the throttle all the way up in the fourth quarter as they created a T-V train wreck by outscoring them 19-8. The Bears showed signs of fatique with errant shots while Fallsburg looked fresh from substituting as incoming players fed right into the speedy mix.
Robinson scored eight of his eventual 15 in the final frame including a trio of made free throws.Buckets from Foertsch, Watson and Didinsky coupled with three points from Madison and one point from Halchak. Tri-Valley went 0-for-eight from the stripe in the stanza and managed only lone buckets from Exner, Lozada, Smith and Donnelley.
Pugh led the Bears with 11, while Swarthout had 10 by night’s end.
The buzzer that sounded the 61-39 Comets’ win advanced Fallsburg’s record to 6-2 (3-1 OCIAA), while Tri-valley fell to 4-5 (2-2 OCIAA). The Bears won the turnover battle, committing 15 to Fallsburg’s 20, 11 of which came in the second half. The Comets were an impressive 12-for-15 from the line for a lofty 80 percent. That accuracy would have propelled them to a win at Seward but that night they had a dreadful time from the line.
Tingley summed things up this way in terms of his team’s early success. “We did well with Michael in there as we got out to an 8-4 lead. Oddly when he went to the bench, that’s when they tied it up. I suspect we’ll have a different game the next time we play them. We had only one three point shot for the many we took. We don’t usually shoot that poorly,” he averred.
Loud and proud: Fallsburg cheerleaders let you know how they adore their team.
“In addition I was telling the boys we were four-from-18 from the line. Even if had 70 percent of those it’s kind of a different game. Fallsburg never took their foot off the pedal at the end and we had our subs in there and were still kind of staying with them. I think Steve did a good job on Michael. Our defense played okay. Sometimes when they drove through we tried not to let the usual suspects hurt us and we played them tough.”
He went on to say, “We talked about this game being a measuring stick at about halfway through the season. We’re putting this 61-39 score on the board and we’ll try to improve that the next time we see them at our place. Rebound-wise in the first quarter we were a machine. We didn’t give up the second and third shots just to keep it close.
Our Eldred game is big since that would get us back to .500 overall and 3-2 in the league. Then you’d need two more wins in five more games,” he posited.
Needless to say Dworetsky was pleased with the with the victory. “We didn’t pick up full court pressure right away and that contributed to Tri-Valley’s early run. Once we picked up our full court pressure game our intensity takes over. Braiden and Rakkir played great defense tonight and Dustin had another great game. They bring more and more defensive pressure. Tonight we only gave up one three. That was a huge focus in practice yesterday, not giving up the open look.”
He went on to say that he felt that the Bears weren’t comfortable even when they had open looks. “Defense is our focus. We can shoot the ball all day but if we can’t stop people…..like I said we’ll go as far as our defense will take us.
I thought Rakkir brought great pressure up top and he didn’t allow shooters to get any time. Pugh lit us up last year but we made them work very hard.”
Fallsburg travels to Tuxedo and then hosts Chester on January 20. “We can’t sleep on anybody,” said Dworetsky.
Sleeping will have to be reserved for late at night as each of these fine teams looks to stay bright-eyed and fresh for the coming challenges of the ensuing weeks. I fully expect both to be in the sectionals when all is said and done and we all know that once you’re in, anything can happen and it usually does.
For an album of photos, visit www.sportsinsights.smugmug.com
Give And Take
Tri-Valley Lets Its First Half Lead Dissipate But Takes Game Back In Final 30-Second Heroics; Bears Improve To 2-0 As Family’s Late Mistakes Prove Fatal; Lady Bears Garner Season-Opening Win With Dominance of Lady Falcons
Girls: Tri-Valley 62, Family Foundation School 16
Boys-Tri-Valey 49, Family Foundation School 45
By RICHARD A. ROSS
Scenes from Tri-Valley's boys and girls wins over Family Foundation School (Clockwise) Tri-Valley junior Cody Exner scores after receiving a floor-length pass to give the Bears a 45-43 lead in the game's waning minutes. The Falcons would soon tie it up again but the Bears would have the last word. The Bears celebrate and show some love after the dramatic win. For a team that never reached .500 a year ago, being 2-0 is new and exciting territory. Family's Max Wilkey is guarded by T-V's James Pugh. Both would have key roles in the game. Wilkey scored a game-high 17 points; Pugh had 11 but also had a key steal of an inbounds pass which helped to seal the win. T-V senior Erin Smith scores two of her nine points in the Lady Bears' season opening win. They begin their quest to defend their Section Nine title. Greg Swarthout was questionable to play in this game but when he did it was huge , especially with this go-ahead shot to give his team the lead they would never again relinquish. Sabrena Smith fires away as part of her game-high 11 point output for the 1-0 Lady Bears.
GRAHAMSVILLE, NY—In the fast and furious world of basketball it’s a matter of give and take. You give everything you have in the way of offensive execution by running your sets, making the extra pass and working for the best shot.
Likewise, you try to use hustle, focus and smarts on defense to take away the other team’s best chances to score… and better yet, to force turnovers which can lead to fast transition buckets the other way. Teams that execute well in these phases of the game win more often than not, while those that falter in vital aspects minimize their chances for victory.
With his electrifying sister Jakki now gone and playing at college, it's James Pugh's turn to light it up and carry on the family tradition. Here he rises to the occasion with two of his 11 points on the night. He had six in the first quarter including this layup.
And so it was that Tri-Valley and Family went all out to try and deploy their best offensive and defensive verve in a non-league clash in the Bears’ den on December 16. The season is quite young, but wins for both teams are preciously sought in the shortened world of an 18-game season, so this figured to be a battle to the finish.
It was that and more.
It’s remarkable how many games of basketball come down to the final seconds. Coaches of course realize this as they watch their teams miss shots, commit costly fouls or lose possession of the rock during the course of games.
They understand that while those events pass by in a New York minute, that such miscues can come back to haunt a team in a game that is apt to be decided by a single basket or late second free throws.
That’s what time outs are for as coaches like Tri-Valley wizard Brian Tingley and visiting Family Coach Larry Patrisso tried to hurriedly school their players on ways to handle the coming minutes based on their savvy observations of what had worked and what hadn’t.
For the Class C Tri-Valley Bears, a team that wasn’t able to muster a .500 record last year, this home clash against the Class D Family Falcons would prove to be an opportunity to both give and take as they gave Family a healthy dose of speed and steals and in the fourth quarter even gave them the lead,before finally taking away the Falcon’s most sought-after prize, namely a late upset win.
That victory was there for the taking for either squad as Family had whittled down Tri-Valley’s 32-22 halftime lead in the third quarter by outscoring the Bears 13-8 in that stanza to trail by a mere five at 40-35 entering the final frame.
In that final eight minutes, the home fans looked on with apprehension as they watched the pitched battle that seemed to hinge on each and every possession.
Tri-Valley has some big players this year but all but one of them are new to the varsity realm. That means that bigs like Family's Max Wilkey are a threat. Big red had 17 in this one.
Here’s a quick blow by blow description of the game’s dramatic concluding minutes.. With a little over five minutes to go Family scored to make it 43-39. The Bears turned it over with an errant pass in the middle before Family’s Max Wilkey and T-V’s Greg Swarthout took turns missing close-in shots.
Then Family’s Lucas Maas buried one to cut the lead to 43-41 with 4:16 remaining. Another errant T-V pass gave the Falcons a chance to tie but a foul by Family’s Jon Jziguiedo gave the Bears the ball back with 3:45. A missed three by the Bears and a Falcon rebound. As T-V’s Cody Exner closely guarded Family’s Bryan Lehrman, he slipped and Lehrman went by him to score the tying bucket with 3:17 to go. The teams were now knotted at 43-all.
The Bears had a chance to go ahead from the stripe as Dave Donovan was fouled but he missed both and Family came down with the rebound. The clock now read 2:58 as Tingley called a time out to dial up a play.
Exner received a floor-length pass and scored easily to make it 45-43. Wilkey fired up a three that missed at the other end. Exner was nearly tied up on the floor and Tingley alertly called a time out to avoid the possession arrow which was pointed in the Falcons’ favor.
Family committed another foul to give the Bears the ball back but a quick steal of T-V’s inbounds pass led to a bucket by Maas as the Falcons tied it up again at 45-all with 1:34 to go.
In the crucible of moments like this, experience is a vital resource, something Family lacks with only two returning players, one of which hardly saw any time a year ago. To steal this win, Family was going to need to avoid any costly mistakes.
Hustle, flow and dive for a loose ball. That's the modus operandi for T-V's speedy and gritty Shatik Smith (left) and James Pugh as they tie up Family's Bryan Lehrman.
Family had fouls to give and Wilkey used one of them as the Bears then got set to inbound it again at 45-all. Greg Swarthout drove right through the lane for an electrifying bucket which gave the Bears a 47-45 lead with..
At the other end of the floor, the Falcons needed to deploy patience but a hurried Family trey missed the mark.
After the Bears missed a layup, Patrisso called a time out and the Falcons got set to inbound the ball with 42.9 seconds. Once again, inexperience proved costly as they committed a backcourt violation for the deadly turnover.
Swarthout was fouled and went to the line for a one-and-one. He missed , T-V got the rebound but promptly turned it right back to Family with 17.7 seconds to go. Family needed to come the length of the floor but Pugh stole the ball right out of the hands of Lehrman as he got set to inbound the rock.
A pair of free throws by James Pugh would ice the game at 49-45.
Dialing it back to the outset of the game, Wilkey won the opening tip against Conor Walsh. Family’s Jon Izguideo scored the first points of the game which would be part of Family’s nine-point output in the first quarter. They got a three-pointer from Lehrman and two points apiece from Wilkey and Tarek Mhich.
While the focus of this story is on the boys game, the girls were busy taking care of business early on. Here Mareena DiMilia scores two of her seven points in the season-opening win as the Lady Bears look to defend their Section Nine crown. DiMilia and company figure to be right in the mix despite the graduation of standout Jakki Pugh.
That wasn’t enough to keep pace with the amped-up Bears who posted 17 in the stanza including a pair of treys from Exner, one from Jesus Lozada and six points from Pugh. Sophomore tall tree Alex Brown added a bucket to the mix as the Bears led 17-9 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter was far more even with the Bears outscoring Family 15-13 in the stanza. A trey by Pugh was added to buckets from Shatik Smith, Brown, Exner and Swarthout. Family profited from ten from Wilkey to go along with a bucket and a free throw from Mhich.
In the third quarter, it was Family’s turn to overpower their hosts as they outdistanced Tri-Valley 13-8 in the period to close within five at 40-35. To that end they got a trey from Wilkey and buckets from Mhich, Stepan Rudowicz and four points from Mdich.
Tri-Valley did not meet its pregame goal of committing ten turnovers or fewer. They had 15 on the night, including just four in the first half. They induced 24 on the part of Family. The Bears (2-0) were two-for-six from the stripe (33.3%), while Family was an impressive seven-for-eight (87.5%).
Wilkey led all scorers with 17. Mhich had 11 for Family. Exner led T-V with 16 points. He had four of T-V’s seven three-pointers on the night. Pugh posted 11 points including two from beyond the arc.
Patrisso knew his team had just given one away. “In the game’s situations, you’ve got to know what to do when the game is on the line.” This was the second game for the Family Foundation School. It lost its opener to Chapel Field.
“We played well but the end of the game situations like throwing the ball away with a few seconds left, or not knowing how to run a press breaker when they’re trying to trap you and not knowing what to do with a rebound right under the basket when the line is right open. Instead of dribbling it straight up the court, a pass is made instead. That’s unselfish, but unwise,” he noted.
Family has only one senior on the team and two players who return from a year ago, but neither of the two were starters. Consequently, there’s a lot of learning to do. We have no JV team and no summer league. We only get together as of November 14 and we have to put it all together as quickly as we can,” he added.
Tingley offered up his take on things thusly, “I thought the key to the game was the steals at the end,” thinking particularly about Pugh’s theft of the inbound pass right out of Lehrman’s hands. “We were trying to stop them and make them take some time off the clock. It helped having Greg (Swarthout) out there. A few days ago we didn’t know if he was going to be playing.”
A trio of weapons in the Bears' arsenal: If T-V is to keep up its winning ways and get to the sectionals, something they weren't able to do last year, they'll need James Pugh, Cody Exner and Conor Walsh to lead the charge. Thus far, they seem more than up to the task.
Tingley pointed to Swarthout’s court leadership which included allowing the team to score two but denying three when you’re up by three points without having to call a time out to do so.
Tingley noted that his team appeared a bit lethargic with its ten point halftime lead. That allowed Family to go ahead 34-33 in the third quarter before the Bears awoke and battled intensely. “It was anybody’s game. We do have big players this year but they’re all young,” he noted. “Alex Brown got a lot of big rebounds. We also have Devin Donnelly and Gavin DuBois. Gavin didn’t get in the game as much as he would have liked but in these nip and tuck games every possession is key,”he observed explaining why he would have to go with his more experienced players in crunch time.
“We lost the rebound wars but won the fast-break point battle. Our most experienced group has only one big man, he said referencing Conor Walsh.
Tri-Valley used a man defense in its win over Deposit but watched Chapel Field beat the Falcons using a zone, so Tingley decided to used a two-three zone this time out. With that season-opening 67-53 win over Deposit, it was the first time the Bears were over .500 in a year. That took some pressure off this game as the team couldn’t fall below .500 with a loss.
Tri-Valley hosts Chester, Chapel Field and Livingston Manor in the coming week. “I think we’re going to be fighting tooth and nail with everyone we play. Swarthout and Pugh are the captains this season.
The game followed a 62-16 win by the T-V girls over Family. It was the Lady Bears’ debut as they begin their quest to defend their Section Nine Class C title. Sabrena Smith led her team with 11. Erin Smith had nine.
For an album of photos, visit www.sportsinsights.smugmug.com
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