Trojans Upset

Top Seeds Fall to Coleman, Not J-Y

By Rob Potter
JEFFERSONVILLE — March 3, 2000 -- For the second consecutive year, the Jeffersonville-Youngsville Trojans saw their basketball end much sooner then they wanted — or expected.
Visiting John A. Coleman (5–16), the eighth-seeded team in the Section IX—Class D Tournament, shocked top-seeded J-Y 56-48 in an opening round game Tuesday night.
Last season, the Trojans (15–6) were defeated on their home court by Western Sullivan League rival Delaware Valley in the Class D quarterfinals. DV tied the game with five seconds remaining in regulation and went on to a thrilling 61-56 overtime victory in the game 12 months ago.
Things started out well enough for J-Y versus Coleman, however. The Trojans grabbed a 11-10 lead at the end of the first quarter and took a 27-21 advantage into halftime.
But the second half was a different story as Coleman turned up its defensive intensity and made key shots to battle back from a deficit of as many as seven points and take a 35-32 lead at the end the third quarter.
A 3-point shot by J-Y forward Gregg Semenetz with 7:10 left in the fourth quarter knotted the score at 35-35. Unfortunately for the Trojans and their spirited fans, that was as close as they could get to Coleman in the game’s final moments.
Coleman continued to hold a small lead over the next few minutes. The advantage ballooned to 11 points when Dave Matturro nailed a pair of free throws with 2:30 showing on the clock.
Although a traditional three-point play by Semenetz with 24 seconds left cut the Coleman lead to only 51-48 and brought the hometown fans to their feet, the visitors calmly made five-of-six free throws in the time remaining as the Trojans had to foul to preserve precious seconds on the clock.
Coleman coach Corey Chambers credited his team’s growing confidence for the win.
“They were nervous in the first half,” he said of his team, which features many underclassmen. “But they stepped it up in the second half. Once they took the lead, they knew they were capable of winning the game.”
Other factors were key to the Coleman win.
“We really executed our plays better in the second half,” Chambers explained. “We were able to get the ball inside more. And (making) the foul shots were key at the end.”
For the game, Coleman went 17-for-23 at the charity stripe while J-Y was six-for 14 at the line.
J-Y coach Rick Ellison credited Coleman for making their shots and said that his team “missed a lot of easy shots, more so in the first half than the second.”
“In the second half, they went to a quicker lineup and pressed us,” he said. “We didn’t get as many good shots in the second half.”
Semenetz led all scorers with 19 points. Chris Rodriguez netted nine points and Alex Van Loon added eight for the Trojans.
Mike Pittner and Jonathan Pascoe paced the Coleman offense. Pittner finished with 14 points and Pascoe scored 11. Robert DuBois chipped in with nine points.
While the loss was devastating for J-Y coaches and fans, it was an especially disappointing for the senior Trojans — many of whom also endured last year’s sectional loss to DV. Those who played in their final high school game were Tom Abplanalp, Kyle Corigliano, Adam Hauser, Rodriguez, Scott Ruppert, Jed Saul, Rob Sikorski, Brett Tyler and Matt Welsh.
“I didn’t want it to end like this,” said a very somber Ellison. “I had a wonderful time coaching this team. They were the most unselfish team I’ve had in ten years of coaching here. We were just hoping to advance.”