By Rob Potter
HANCOCK — December 20, 2002 – There was plenty of excitement Wednesday night at “The Falcons’ Nest”.
The nest, otherwise known as The Family School Foundation’s gymnasium, featured plenty of action as the host Falcons and Chapel Field Lions battled through regulation and into overtime.
At the end of the frenzied overtime period, Chapel Field emerged with a 61-59 victory in the OCIAA Division V boys’ basketball game.
Family School’s John Fischer launced a desparation halfcourt shot with two seconds left in the extra session but much to the chagrin of Fischer, his teammates and the vociferious home crowd, the ball hit the side of the rim and bounced away from the hoop.
“This is an extremely tough place to play,” said Chapel Field Coach Mike Bonagura, whose team improved to 2-2 overall and 2-0 in OCIAA play with the victory.
Although Bonagura noted that The Family School (1-3, 1-1 OCIAA) “outrebounded us by a two-to-one margin,” he was happy with his team’s performance at the foul line.
“We made them when we had to,” he said.
Chapel Field’s Rob Lewis forced the overtime period by scoring a basket to knot the score at 56-56 with 36 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Fifteen seconds into overtime, Family’s Miles Farkas hit a jump shot to give the Falcons a 58-56 lead.
But a minute later, Chapel Field’s Luke Zylstra knocked down a 3-point shot to give the Lions a 59-58 lead. Lewis and John Bast each added a free throw in the remaining time to provide the Chapel Field with its two-point margin of victory.
Bast and Lewis, each scored 21 points on the evening and Zylstra added 12 points for Chapel Field.
Three Family School players – Luke Droserus, Miles Farkas and Ryan McCarthy – reached double figures. Droserus scored a team-high 19 points, while McCarthy and Farkas added 15 and 14 points, respectively.
The Falcons, however, missed five of six foul shots in overtime. For the game, the team converted just 10 of 17 free throws.
Despite that performance, Family Coach Larry Patrisso pointed to another moment in the game as the difference.
“I think the turning point was when [Luke] Zylstra hit those three 3-pointers in a row,” said Patrisso, referring to a 45-second span in the second quarter when Zylstra converted three shots from beyond the arc to pull the Lions, who had trailed by as many as 16 points in the first half, to within 10 points of the Falcons. “He had open shots, we didn’t get our arms up to defend him.”
Patrisso also felt that his team rushed its possession in the last minute of play when “we had the shot clock in our favor.”
“I told the kids to slow it up,” he explained.
“But overall, the kids played great. Because of the recent weather, we just had a quick practice last night. But these guys kept hustling tonight and showed that they have a lot of heart.”