By Rob Potter
DOWNSVILLE — December 31, 2010 — Most sports fans have heard the term “iron man football,” referring to the same 11 members of a football team playing both offense and defense for an entire game.
On Tuesday night, the Roscoe Blue Devils played “ironman basketball” when they squared off against the host Downsville Eagles in the Downsville Central School Holiday Classic Tournament.
Roscoe, which has seven players on its roster this season, only had five of those players available for the game as one team member was sick and another was out of town for the holidays. Coach Fred Ahart was unable to call up a couple of players from the Blue Devils’ junior varsity team in time for the game.
Although the five Roscoe players – Brad Dreher, Mike Failla, Adam Hendrix, Jordan Tallman and Mike Taurino – gave a very valiant effort against Downsville, the Eagles prevailed by the final score of 67-29.
Roscoe (2-4) took a 2-0 lead with 5:50 left in the first quarter when Dreher scored a basket on a fast break.
But that turned out to be the Blue Devils’ only lead of the game.
Fifty seconds later, Downsville’s Joel Shaver put back a missed shot to even the score at 2-2.
The Eagles then went on a 15-3 scoring run to take a 17-5 advantage at the end of the quarter. Shaver and teammate Nick Baxter each had six points during the run.
The second period was a little more even, but Downsville (4-3) outscored Roscoe by a 20-13 margin to hold a 37-18 halftime advantage.
The Eagles continued to shoot well in the third quarter and extended their lead to 58-23 heading into the final eight minutes of play.
After competing for nearly 24 minutes without any substitutes to enter the game and give them a rest, things got more difficult for the Blue Devils late in the third quarter. With 1:05 to go in the stanza, Tallman fouled out. Roscoe then played the rest of the game with only four players.
Like Tallman did when he was on the court, those four Roscoe players continued to hustle and make some good defensive plays.
Baxter scored a game-high 21 points to lead the Eagles to victory. Shaver and Colin Norwood were also double-digit scorers for Downsville as they recorded 14 points and 12 points, respectively.
Josh Ahearn added eight points for the Eagles.
Downsville Coach Danny Haynes was pleased to see his team win its third straight game.
“In our four wins this season, we have been able to get off to a fast start,” he said. “In the three games we have lost, we have had slow starts. Tonight, we played well in the first quarter and took the lead, which set the tempo for the rest of the game.”
Haynes was very impressed with the Blue Devils.
“They deserve all the credit in the world,” he said. “Those guys played hard for the entire 32 minutes. Even when they were down to four guys, they made some steals and kept playing well. And Adam Hendrix is a great basketball player.”
Hendrix led Roscoe with 15 points, while Dreher netted 12 points. Failla scored the Blue Devils’ other two points in the game.
“Downsville certainly deserves credit tonight, they have a fine team,” Ahart said. “They opened their season with two losses in the Schenevus Tournament, but since then they have been doing a nice job.”
Ahart was very pleased by the effort his five players made on the court.
“I am very proud of my players,” he commented. “They played very hard tonight. They certainly didn’t quit and gave it all they had every minute of the game.”