Story by Ed Townsend
Two Sullivan County teams, Sullivan West and Tri-Valley will square off against each other tonight in the Walton Basketball Tip-Off Tournament championship game scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Walton high school gym.
Four schools entered the tournament, Tri-Valley, Sullivan West, Unatego and host Walton with Sullivan West defeating Unatego 67-58 and Tri-Valley defeating Walton 66-48 in semifinal play Wednesday night.
Sullivan West broke open a tie game at halftime with a 22-6 third quarter blitz, taking a 16-point 48-32 lead into the fourth quarter. Unatego, which led 12-6 after the first quarter, mounted a late comeback closing to within eight points with a minute and eight seconds left on the clock.
Matt Cardona led Sullivan West (1-0) with 29 points followed by Patrick Pierce with 19. Sawyer Erlwein added 12 points.
Tom Butler had 17 for Unatego.
Tri-Valley's tenacious pressing defense and fast break speed combined with control of the boards proved to be too much for Walton as the Bears took leads of 10-9 in the first quarter, 33-19 at the half and 51-28 at the end of the third quarter.
Alex Brown led Tri-Valley (1-0) in scoring with 13 points followed by James Pugh with 10, Rodney "Taylor" Jester with 9 and Cody Exner with 8.
Colin Adam had 15 for Walton.