By Ted Waddell
ROSCOE — December 9, 2003 – In last Thursday’s consolation game of the 1st Annual Roscoe Blue Devils Basketball Tournament, the Livingston Manor Wildcats defeated Eldred, 69-55, despite a late surge by the Yellowjackets.
With about three minutes left on the game clock, the Yellowjackets started to score several baskets and narrowed the Wildcat lead.
However, it was a case of too little, too late.
Manor (1-1) opened up quickly on offense. The Wildcats were running and shooting like grease in a hot skillet under the steaming southern Louisiana sun, grabbing a 39-21 lead at the half.
The Wildcats shot a respectable 71 percent at the foul line in the game, which had Coach Charlie Hicks grinning on the sidelines. But Eldred’s miserly 19 percent shooting percentage at the foul line had Coach Doug Reiser holding his head.
Reiser summed up the game in one word.
“Better,” he said. “The kids showed a lot of character coming back from being down a lot.
Hicks was also a man of few words.
“It was a good game,” he said. “We played well for 90 percent of the time, but for three or four minutes, we shot ourselves in the foot.”
“If we can cut down on our turnovers, I think we’ve got a good team,” he added.
Double digit scorers for the Wildcats were Marvin Bonilla (12), George Thomas (12) and Anthony Larry (11).
For Eldred (0-2), Chris Ryman scored a game-high 18 points and Todd Walter netted 14 points.