By Rob Potter
LIVINGSTON MANOR — February 27, 2004 – At times, Tuesday night’s non-league boys’ basketball game between the visiting Tri-Valley Bears and the Livingston Manor Wildcats looked more like a three-point shooting contest.
In the 32 minutes of action, T-V players made a total of seven shots from beyond the 19’9” arc and Manor shooters connected on six such long- range shots.
T-V also managed to make a few more of the traditional two-point baskets, which helped the Bears to record a 50-34 victory.
Leading T-V (10-9) to the win was guard Travis Wolfe, who scored a game-high 15 points by swishing five three-point shots. Wolfe made four of those three-pointers in the second quarter, when the Bears turned a slim 13-11 lead at the beginning of the stanza into a 28-20 advantage at halftime.
Wolfe’s fifth three-pointer came at the 3:43 mark in the fourth period and T-V a 46-31 lead. It was part of an 11-0 run as the Bears transformed a six-point lead at the beginning of the final quarter into a 17-point advantage with 1:31 remaining.
In the fourth quarter, T-V outscored Manor by a 13-3 margin.
Eli Felder and Martin Henry-Lester each netted 11 points for the Bears.
“We had some balanced scoring tonight,” T-V Coach Jason Semo said. “I think we’re a little deeper than Manor is and that helped us as well.”
Semo noted that Manor played well.
“[Coach] Charlie [Hicks] has done a great job with those guys,” Semo commented. “We saw them at the beginning of the year and they have improved a great deal since then. I’ve talked to some other coaches and they said that Manor is definitely one of the most improved teams in the area. Charlie has been doing some good things and deserves a lot of credit. Of course, the players deserve credit as well.”
Timmy Bryant led Manor (9-10) with 14 points. Anthony Larry added five points for the Wildcats.
Despite the defeat, Hicks was pleased with his team’s effort.
“I’m happy,” he said. “I’m pleased with the way our guys competed and hustled.
“Tri-Valley is very good team and they are well-coached. I’m proud that our guys stayed right with them for three quarters.”
Note: Both Manor and T-V will be among the teams participating in next week’s Section IX boys’ basketball tournament. The Wildcats will play in the Class D bracket and the Bears will compete in the Class C bracket.
A meeting was scheduled to be held last night by Section IX officials to determine the exact dates, times and locations for all of the tournament games.