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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.
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