By Rob Potter
ROSCOE — December 9, 2005 – The Family School outscored host Roscoe by a 10-4 margin in overtime Wednesday night to record a 76-70 victory in the championship game of the the third annual Roscoe Central School “Blue Devils Basketball Tournament.”
In addition to forcing the four-minute extra session, the Falcons came back from a 16-point deficit in the first half on their way to capturing the tournament title.
Tom Gould of The Family School forced the championship contest into overtime by swishing a 3-point shot with four seconds left in the fourth quarter. Gould’s basket knotted the score at 66-66.
After a timeout, Roscoe had 2.6 seconds to attempt a game-winning shot. A long inbounds pass was deflected out of bounds by a Falcon defender and the clock stopped with just four-tenths of a second remaining. The Blue Devils then tried to inbound the ball in their half of the court, but the ball bounced off the leg of a Family School player and the clock ran out.
Both teams missed shots on their first two possessions of overtime. But with 2:44 left in the extra session, Chris Berra swished a 3-point shot to give the Falcons a 69-66 advantage.
With 27 seconds remaining, the Blue Devils pulled to within two points at 72-70 when Dan DeVantier grabbed an offensive rebound and immediately scored.
Twelve seconds later, The Family School’s Will Gahan put back an errant free throw to give his team a four-point lead.
Gahan sealed the Falcons’ victory by swishing a pair of free throws with eight seconds remaining.
“I’m very happy. It’s great to get a win against a good team like Roscoe and a great coach like Fred Ahart,” Family School Coach Ted Towsley said. “Defeating Livingston Manor and Roscoe, which are two teams we will face two, maybe three times each later this season gives us a boost.”
When he mentioned Manor, Towsley was referring to the Falcons’ 82-78 win over the Manor Wildcats in Tuesday night’s opening round. (Roscoe defeated Eldred, 61-59, in Tuesday night’s other opening round game.)
Towsley said that during a timeout with 8.9 seconds remaining in regulation, he gave all of his players permission to take a 3-pointer. Gould then made his long-range shot to send the contest into overtime.
“All of our guys played with heart and left everything they had out on the court,” Towsley said. “I know that sounds like a cliche, but they really left it all on the court tonight. They did a great job.”
Leading the Falcons to victory were Gahan, who scored a team-high 22 points, and Gould, who recorded 16 points. Berra and Jason Peck added 13 and 11 points, respectively, for The Family School.
“Both teams played a good ball game,” Ahart said.
The veteran Roscoe coach noted that a defensive switch by the Falcons was the key factor in the contest.
“We had prepared for their zone [defense] and they came out in a man-to-man,” he said. “We were doing well against it, but give credit to Ted [Towsley] for going back to the zone defense. Once they did that, it took us out of our offensive rhythm.”
That change in defensive strategy allowed the Falcons to reduce the Blue Devils’ 16-point lead midway through the second quarter to just a five-point (34-29) advantage at halftime.
“You have to give credit to The Family School and especially to Tom Gould for his 3-point shot,” Ahart commented. “We had our best defender on him and Tom stepped up and made that shot.”
Another key in the game was free throw shooting. The Family School was 17-of-22 (77 percent) at the line, while Roscoe was 7-of-15 (47 percent).
DeVantier led the Blue Devils with 22 points. Troy Kirchner added 15 points and John Clancy had 14 points.
Manor Wins Consolation
The Livingston Wildcats took a 14-point halftime lead and then held off a late rally by Eldred in the tournament’s consolation game.
The Yellowjackets closed their deficit to six at 63-57 with 42 seconds remaining. But Manor’s Ethan McCann sank a pair of free throws shortly thereafter to help the Wildcats record a 69-57 victory.
Manor improved to 1-2 on the season, while Eldred fell to 0-2.
“We rebounded well and played good defense,” Manor Coach Charlie Hicks said. “I was very happy with the our defense. But offensively, we could not find a good rhythm.”
While the Wildcats had scoring surges and droughts throughout the evening, the team managed a balanced scoring attack as four players finished in double figures. Rob Baker led the way with 19 points, Mike Hendrickson had 13 points, Mike Perry netted 12 points and Ethan McCann recorded 10 points.
James Baker added nine points for Manor.
Eldred’s Patrick Kean scored a team-high 18 points.
Eldred Coach Joe O’Connor noted that Manor “did a great job getting offensive and defensive rebounds.”
Although the Yellowjackets lost their first two games, O’Connor is very optimistic about the rest of the season.
“None of these players have had myself or Assistant Coach Charlie Donnelly coaching them before,” he said. “We’re still working together and trying to improve. I think by the end of the season people will know who we are.”