by Ryan Mosher
It was a tale of two halves in Berlin on Tuesday night where the boy’s basketball team was hosting Central Hudson Valley League foe Waterford. After a 22 point victory in their first meeting of the year, the Fordians may not have gotten what they expected from the opening tip-off.
The Mountaineers jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first two minutes and more importantly seemed to grab every rebound. Waterford seemed shocked when Berlin was scoring on second chances and grabbing defensive rebounds and scoring on their trips down the floor. The Mountaineers led 16-10 after the first quarter.
In the second quarter, they stretched out their lead to as much as 11 points behind the play of Greg DePaolis. DePaolis scored 8 points in the second quarter, including a pair of three-pointers. Cullen O’Brien hit a free throw with two seconds left in the half to give Berlin a 32-22 lead at the break.
After halftime it was almost like a new Fordian team emerged from the locker room. They kicked off the third quarter with a 12-2 run to tie the game at 34-34. At this point Waterford had still not led at all in the game, and Jeff Curtis kept it that way, knocking down a three-pointer to put Berlin up 37-34. After some back and forth scoring, Waterford scored with eleven seconds left to go up 46-44.
DePaolis kicked off the fourth quarter by tying the score at 46-46. For the next three minutes of the game, it remained tied until Waterford’s Josh Orton connected on both ends of his free throws, putting the Fordians up 48-46. DePaolis responded again thirty seconds later with basket to tie the score again. The Fordians again hit a free throw, and then twenty seconds later scored again, giving them the 51-48 lead. After Waterford rebounded a Berlin miss, the Mountaineers tried to foul to stop the clock and were called for a flagrant foul, sending the Fordians to the line and giving them the ball back with under twenty seconds to go. That would be all they needed as they scored one more time to lock up the win, 53-48.
Leading Berlin was DePaolis with 23 points, and Cullen O’Brien with 8 points. The Mountaineers play again on Friday at New Lebanon.