By Frank Rizzo
LOCH SHELDRAKE— January 9, 2001 – Tri-Valley put another “up” in an up and down season by beating Fallsburg 60-41 in the championship final of the Sullivan County Community College Holiday Tournament on Saturday.
The Bears reached the final with a dramatic one-point win over Liberty the Friday before (see related story) in the opening round, avenging a loss to Liberty in the Tri-Valley Tournament final.
In between came a 63-38 loss to powerhouse S.S. Seward in an Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association (OCIAA) Division IV game on Thursday.
Fallsburg is also a Division IV opponent and Saturday’s game gave both teams a chance to learn about each other.
“Tonight, our offense finally came alive,” said T-V coach Jason Semo. “We did a great job playing as a team. Eight guys had at least one assist and we made them react to our offense.”
The Bears were in charge from the opening whistle, jumping out in front 7-0 and leading 18-13 after one quarter and 31-19 at the half.
The Comets mounted a comeback in the third, going on a 17-5 run to pull even. Darren Kenney’s second three-pointer of the stanza, with about 2:00 left, knotted the score at 36-36.
A three-point play by Billy Gorman and a lay-up off the inbound pass by tourney MVP Josh Lowitz closed out the scoring in T-V’s favor.
Tri-Valley quickly opened daylight in the fourth, and kept the Comets off the board until the 3:03 mark, when Charles Hinton scored past Zach Serrano.
By then, the Bears enjoyed a 52-36 lead.
“This is the worst game we’ve played this year,” declared Fallsburg coach Paul Marsden. “I bet we shot less than 20 percent from the field. (Tri-Valley) did a great job controlling the glass (but) we didn’t box out well.”
Durk Pearston led T-V (4–4) with 16 points and 15 rebounds. Lowitz added 15 points and five assists, and Gorman netted 10.
Kenney finished with 12 while Donald Frasier scored 10 for Fallsburg (4–2).
Semo could point to one glaring weakness on the night: his team shot just 12-for-31 (39 percent) from the free throw line.