By Ted Waddell
FALLSBURG — The Fallsburg Comets kept up their winning ways on Monday night with a 53-25 victory over the Eldred Yellowjackets in a non-league basketball game.
After a winless 2008-2009 season, the Comets improved their record to 6-0 this season.
Fallsburg’s Dustin Foertsch posted the first basket of the game with a successful shot from beyond the 19-foot, 9-inch arc. He then went on to add seven more points to give the Comets a quick 10-0 advantage.
Eldred (2-1) scored its first basket at about the three-minute mark in the first period.
The Yellowjackets started to find their range late in the opening quarter.
But the Comets held a 30-13 lead at halftime.
Foertsch finished with a game-high 21 points, including a trio of 3-point shots. Danny Seletsky and Russell Corley added 14 points and three points, respectively, for the Comets.
“What a difference a year makes,” Fallsburg Coach Pete Dworetsky said. “I know we’re playing a Class C schedule this year, and we lost all our Class C games last year. I’m so proud of the way the guys have come out playing together.
“It’s not a one-man show, it’s guys playing as a team,” he added. “We keep believing in defense and playing together. That’s what I continually keep preaching, and they bought into it.”
Dworetsky noted that Foertsch “started out hot” and set the tone for the Comets.
With 2:58 remaining in the fourth quarter, Dworetsky sent in some substitutes as his team held a 48-23 advantage.
“When I put my last five [players] in there, they went out and executed because I have expectations, and they know it,” Dworetsky said.
Blair Flanagan led Eldred with five points. Steve Combs, Scott Hallock, Billy McKerrell and Patrick Reiser added four points apiece for the Yellowjackets.
“We came out a little flat, made a run to bring it back to within four points [in the second period], but we basically got dominated on the boards,” Eldred Coach J.J. Gass said. “When you’re dominated on the boards, you’re basically going to lose.”
Gass singled out Flanagan as “playing well tonight.
“He had a couple of steals,” Gass said.
The members of the Fallsburg Comets cheerleading squad, who were sporting fancy bright-red Santa caps, entertained the crowd with a spirited halftime show to the tune of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”