by Ryan Mosher
To Berlin senior Chris Zema, knowing that he may hit his 1,000th career point in Tuesday’s game against Heatly was just a thought on the back burner. Most important to him and his teammates was knocking off the first place Hornets. The Mountaineers have had success with the other top teams in the league thus far, knocking off both Waterford and Germantown.
Heatly started out the game aggressively, taking an early lead. Berlin finally snapped to and did not let the Hornets get too far out in front. After one quarter Heatly led 8-6. In the second quarter, the Hornets did what they do better than any other team in the CHVL, shoot three-pointers. Heatly buried four three-pointers in the second quarter, including three of them by Alex Heffern, all within a few minutes of each other. Berlin tried to respond as Zema and Shawn Willis both hit three-pointers, but they could not catch the Hornets. At halftime Heatly led 27-20.
In the third quarter Berlin continued to struggle as the other Heffern on the Heatly team, Peter, buried a couple of three-pointers of his own. Zema came alive in the third, scoring eight points to help keep the Mountaineers in the game, but the Hornets kept Berlin at bay, holding a 46-39 lead heading into the final quarter.
In the fourth quarter Berlin finally seemed to really go after the Hornet lead. Casey Gilbert scored six points in the quarter and got several big steals to help Berlin. Zema scored 8 points in the quarter, including his 1,000th career point with three minutes to play. As the Mountaineers closed in on the lead, Heatly managed to hit a few big shots to keep them out in front. In the end, the Hornets hit several foul shots to stretch the lead to ten points, and won 61-51.
Zema led the Mountaineers with 23 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Brent Demick chipped in 8 points and 10 rebounds. The Mountaineers are now 7-4 in the CHVL and 7-8 overall. Berlin still has games at home against Waterford and Hawthorne as well as a game on the road at Germantown.