By Rob Potter
ROSCOE — February 5, 2008 — The Tri-Valley Bears rallied from a double-digit deficit in the first half of Thursday night’s non-league basketball game against the host Roscoe Blue Devils.
T-V closed the Blue
Devils’ advantage to single point (35-34) at halftime.
The Bears then took a 47-44 lead at the end of the third quarter and went on to post a 64-59 victory.
With 54 seconds remaining in the fourth period, Bo Murphy scored inside the lane to give T-V (8-7) a 61-56 lead. Twenty-four seconds later, teammate Tim Martin converted both ends of a 1-and-1 at the foul line to push the Bears’ advantage to seven points.
But Roscoe’s Joe Ladenhauf quickly made a 3-point shot to make it a 63-59 game with 23 seconds left.
After each team failed to score on its next possession, T-V’s Andrew Yager made the front end of a 1-and-1 with 10.3 seconds remaining to seal his team’s five-point win.
Roscoe (7-7) took its biggest lead when Adam Hendrix swished a 3-pointer with 4:10 left in the second quarter to make it a 31-20 game.
But the Bears went on a 14-4 run to close out the stanza as Sean Drown, Martin and David McDonald each knocked down a 3-point shot.
“We knew it would be tough to play Roscoe here,” T-V Coach Brian Tingley said. “[S.S.] Seward had a tough time here and Seward’s a good team.”
Tingley noted that rebounding was a key factor in his team’s ability to rally from the aforementioned second-quarter deficit.
“We were able to get some [offensive] rebounds and then get second shots,” he said. “And when we had open looks, we were able to put them in.”
Murphy scored 19 points to lead the Bears’ offense. Drown netted 16 points, Yager finished with 14 points and McDonald added seven points.
Roscoe’s Jayson Harris and Cody DeRosia each recorded a double-double. Harris had a game-high 21 points and 10 rebounds, while DeRosia recorded 10 points and 12 rebounds.
Harris also had six assists.
Ladenhauf and Seth Darbee also scored in double figures for the Blue Devils. Ladenhauf registered 14 points and Darbee had 11 points.
“We opened with a zone defense to try and slow down Bo Murphy,” Roscoe Coach Fred Ahart said. “But we went back to a man-to-man defense after Tri-Valley made some shots. Tri-Valley deserves credit; they made the shots when they needed to.
“I’m proud of how our team played,” he added. “They worked hard and worked together the whole game.”