by Ben Gaines
The Boys Varsity Basketball team took to the floor looking up at a tall team from Hoosic Valley, coached by Dan Calhoun. Ethan Ross, #21, a senior at 6’6” easily tapped the game opener to his team over Levi Brewster of Falls. The paint area would be owned by the daunting Valley Team that retained nearly every rebounding effort of the first and third quarters. “We need to work on our rebounding to eliminate second chances [for our opponent)] and put up more of our own,” said Coach Mike Lilac.
The second quarter was the highlight of the game for the Panthers who outscored Valley 16 to 9. The senior crew of Josh Brogue #22, Cody Gaines #50,
Chris LaCroix #3, Evan Phillips #33 and Randy Tutunjian #12 took the floor for the Panthers with nearly 7 minutes left in the quarter, to try and stop the Indians that had scored several unanswered points in the first minute. “It was great that our seniors helped and led the team,” said Chris LaCroix when asked about the quarter.
It was a bitter sweet game for Chris, whose shoulder dislocated when it was entangled with his opponent near the end of the half. “I tried to pull free when entangled, and my shoulder just popped out,” said Chris, who gathered himself and jogged nearly the length of the floor to the locker room, forcing the refs to stop play.
Play was intense on both ends of the court, but the Panthers prevailed at the half, going to the locker room 29 – 23. The second half saw Valley take charge against the Panthers’ five of Levi Brewster, Randy Tutunjian, Taylor Baker, Austin Pitt and Andrew Hoag in for LaCroix. “In the fourth [quarter] we threw all we had at them,” said Lilac, but it was too little too late for the Panthers, who only converted once, scoring 1, but held fast defensively only allowing Valley 8 in the last quarter. Scorers for the Panthers were Taylor Baker, 14, Evan Phillips, 7, Austin Pitt, 5, Randy Tutunjian, 4, Chris LaCroix, 3, Cody Gaines, 2, and Levi Brewster, 2. Valley advanced their record to 4-0 with the 44-37 win while Falls is 0-2 headed to Greenwich on the 12th.