Everything was running smoothly until after intermission. During the first half, the Indians were controlling the pace and getting easy shots around the rim. The Onderdonks were hitting from the outside while Schneider and Seymour controlled the paint. Above all, their defense completely took Bergenfield out of what they wanted to do.
Pascack Valley was able to do all of those thing and earn a 26-12 lead going into intermission because of it. The problem was that Pascack Valley forgot that there was still a second half to play and it sure did show.
The Indians came out lethargic, committing turnovers and giving Bergenfield shooters good looks. The layups they were making in the first half weren't going down. The barrage of three pointers began to fall short.
Bergenfield recognized Valley's struggles and immediately took advantage of it. They went on an 8-0 run before Sean Hynekamp scored for Pascack Valley with 2:37 to play. Despite the sloppy quarter, Pascack Valley was still in control with a 34-30 lead. Surely they would come out in the fourth as they did in the first half and silence the Bears. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
In fact, Bergenfield took its first lead (35-34) less than a minute into the final period. The next few minutes were back and forth with both teams trading baskets.
Throughout the game, the officials had been very suspect about their officiating. This caused Pascack Valley Head Coach Al Coleman to become impatient with the calls. With the score 41-39 Bergenfield with 5 minutes left in the game, the officials made yet another wrong call. Coach Coleman said something and the head official gave him a technical foul. (Note: At this point in the game, a technical foul should never be called unless a horrible thing was said or done) Bergenfield would go on to make both foul shots and also received the ball. On that possession, they nailed a three and all of the sudden, the Bears were up 7. At that point, the game had changed hands and Bergenfield held the momentum.
It was an uphill battle for Pascack Valley for the rest of the game. They were able to fight and keep the game close until the final buzzer. In fact, after Kyle Schneider hit a three, the Indians were only down 3 with 15 seconds left. After 2 misses by Bergenfield at the charity strike, Ryan Onderdonk took a three that would have put Valley ahead. Like most of the shots in the half, the ball rimmed out and Valley was forced to foul again. Bergenfield split a pair at the line, taking a 56-53 lead with a few seconds left. The Indians were forced to take a seriously deep three pointer that fell short, giving Bergenfield the close win.
Jamie Seymour had 15 points to lead a Pascack Valley team that is now .500 (3-3) on the season. Ryan Onderdonk (14 points) was the only other Indian to score in double figures. After scoring 62.4 points in their first 5 games, Valley simply couldn't score enough to win.
When looking at what went wrong from the first half to the second, all signs point to rebounding. In the first half, Valley controlled the boards and allowed Bergenfield shooters one shot per possession. In the second half, the Bergenfield big men gave their team multiple extra possessions. From these possessions led to wide open kick outs and made three pointers because of the Indians being out of position.
Despite the disappointing loss, Pascack Valley must not hang their heads. They knew this was a game they should have won and hopefully they will use this to motivate them for the rest of the season.
In any high school basketball game, there are 32 minutes.
On Saturday afternoon, Pascack Valley only played 16.
And that needs to change.
@Feartheindian
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