Comets rally past Storm
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| Bureau Valley’s Brian Lange and Hunter Klemme bottle up Newman’s A.J. Sharp in Tuesday’s TRAC contest at the Storm Cellar. (BCR photo/Brent Jamison) |
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MANLIUS – The Bureau Valley boys’ basketball team know they let one slip away.
The Storm led for the first 12 minutes of the second half against the Newman Comets, but were outscored 13-2 to close out the game, and fell 47-39 in Three Rivers Conference action at the Storm Cellar on Tuesday night.
Two things the Storm did well the entire game, rebounding and limiting turnovers, were the things that ended up costing them their lead in the fourth quarter.
“We gave up a lot of offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter and turned the ball over on consecutive possessions two different times,” said Storm coach Jason Marquis. “You don’t do those things in the fourth quarter against a good team. Regardless if you’re on your home floor or their floor, you can’t do that and expect to win.”
The fourth quarter started positively for the Storm. Two free throws from Hunter Klemme and one of two free throws from Tommy Johnston gave BV their biggest lead of the night at 35-29.
However, the momentum started to change on Newman’s next possession after Kyle Moore got open inside and converted a three-point play, forcing Storm senior forward Jordan Monier to the bench with his fifth foul.
Monier, along with the help of his teammates, did a good job limiting Moore for the first three quarters. However, Newman’s 6-5 center scored seven of his team-high 14 points in the fourth quarter and was key in starting the comeback. Moore’s quick score on an inbounds play with 4:28 left in the game cut the Storm lead down to one, 37-36.
The Comets then took the lead for good when Lucas Terveer banked in a shot following an offensive rebound from Moore, giving his team a second shot opportunity. Moore had three offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter alone after Newman had just one total as a team in the first three quarters
The Storm had a couple of opportunities to re-gain the lead after Newman missed the front end of two one-in-one’s, but consecutive turnovers from BV resulted in two free throws from A.J. Sharp and a lay-up for Nate Terveer to put the game away.
“When our legs get tired and our mind tells us we are tired, we have to persevere,” said Marquis, whose team is now 8-6 overall and 3-2 in conference play. “Until we do that, we are going to win half of our close games and lose half of our close games. To be a good team you have to find a way to win a game like tonight.”
“Coming here I thought it was important for us to get a road victory,” said Newman coach Ray Sharp. “Anytime you win on the road in the conference it is a good victory. Our conference is really even this year. There are a lot of teams that can beat each other.”
Parker Neuhalfen led three Storm players in double figures with 14 points. Johnston added 11 and Brian Lange chipped in 10 points. Lange scored eight points in the first half, including two-three pointers. His trey with 10 seconds left in the second quarter gave the Storm a 19-17 lead going into halftime.
Notes: The Storm won’t resume Three-Rivers Conference play until Jan. 4 at home against Kewanee. After Christmas, they will compete in the Warkins Classic in Erie, Dec. 26-29 … Newman also won the sophomore contest, 39-34. Josh Mead had 11 points and Gage Smith tallied 10 to lead the Storm.
