By Ted Waddell
ROSCOE — March 2, 2004 – In their last hurrah of 2003-2004 regular season boys’ varsity hoops, the Blue Devils of Roscoe held a slim 28-25 lead at halftime of last Thursday’s OCIAA Division VI contest versus the visiting Chapel Field Lions.
But the Blue Devils were outscored by 17 points in the second half (by a 19-9 margin in the third quarter and a 21-14 margin in the fourth) on their way to falling to the Lions by a final score of 65-51.
Roscoe finished the season 5-15 overall and 3-7 in OCIAA Division VI play. Chapel Field ended its season with an overall record of 6-14 and 4-6 in Division VI.
“I thought Chapel Field did a good job in the second half controlling the boards, and that was probably the difference,” said always classy Roscoe Coach Fred Ahart.
He credited outgoing seniors Justin Bowers, Rob Eggleton and Brendan Hendrickson (who was sidelined with a knee injury) and junior Vincent Carpinone with being part of a team “that did the best they could, and that’s all you can ask.”
“We would have liked to have had more wins, but they worked hard all year,” Ahart said.
Double digit hoopsters for the Blue Devils included Dustin “Dusty” Sullivan, who scored a team-high 14 points, Bowers (10 points) and Carpinone (10).
For Chapel Field, Eric Lloyd netted a game-high 18 points. Justin Chariot and Jacob Miller added 14 and 13 points, respectively.
Roscoe was 5-of-13 (38 percent) at the free-throw line, while Chapel Field went 6-of-9 (67 percent).
Looking ahead to the 2004-2005 basketball season, Ahart said he’s expecting back a lot of players from this year’s relatively young squad. Those players include sophomores Kristopher Mershon, Dan DeVantier and Troy Kirchner as well as juniors Joseph Bowers and Sullivan.