S.S. Seward 48

Sullivan West 37

FLORIDA -- Throughout the drama of the regular season with its momentous wins, individual milestones, upsets, tough losses and inevitable surprises, the goal is to get better with each game and to hopefully be one of the teams that makes it to Sectionals.

For the Sullivan West Bulldogs that hope became a reality by virtue of its two league wins over Tri-Valley. The pair of losses to S.S. Seward showed those two league rivals to be very closely matched. In fact, all three of the OCIAA teams which would be inscribed into the Section 9 Class C Sectional brackets showed amazing parity with one another, each compiling a 2-2 league record.

So, when the No. 5-seeded Bulldogs drew the No. 4-seeded Spartans down in Florida on Saturday, they hoped that the unlikelihood of a team beating another three times in a season would augur a road victory and a chance to advance to the semifinals. Back in 2015 Sullivan West did just that with an electrifying 70-64 upset win at Seward paced by Jiron Kevii and Noah Bauer, a game Seward coach Rob Gravelle remembers all too well.

Unfortunately this time the Bulldogs could not pull off the upset, as the Spartans won 48-37.

Entering the game, Gravelle was quite aware of Sullivan West's principal asset, its physical play in the paint and its capacity to garner offensive rebounds that could lead to second chance buckets and free throws.

Seward plays a very different style of basketball, fast-paced with quick trips up the floor, deft, rapid passing and an outside three-point shooter in Shawn Behrent who surprisingly canned more threes than the late superstar John Guerra did in his junior year. Other than that, there is no comparison to Guerra's play. He was in a class by himself.

Seward's big man Daryll Walker was deathly ill but his rebounding proved to be monstrous, taking away a valuable Sullivan West asset. Behrent hit two of his eventual four treys in the first quarter helping to spark the Spartans to a 10-0 lead, close to the eventual margin of victory.

Sullivan West missed a lot of close in shots until finally with 1:48 remaining in the first quarter Gabe Campanelli broke the drought with a bucket. Seward led 16-2 at the end of the first quarter. Sullivan West's best shooter is Cody Powell who would net 16 points in the game including a trio of treys. But without another sharpshooter, the Bulldogs are not really built to come from behind when the margin expands to double digits.

The ten-point lead burgeoned to 15 points in the second quarter before the Bulldogs went on a 6-2 run to close it back to ten by the half wherein, they trailed 22-12. Both coaches knew that the first five minutes of the third quarter would be crucial.

Defenses intensified and neither team scored until Walker's free throw with 5:02 left in the stanza followed by a Behrent trey. Sullivan West missed its chances and Seward pulled ahead to 38-19 at the end of the period outscoring SW 16-7.

The Bulldogs played much better basketball down the stretch outscoring Seward 18-10 in the fourth quarter, but it was too little, too late. Behrent led Seward with 16 points, Chris Beattie and Walker had nine apiece. Seward's free throw shooting bordered on horrendous as they managed to hit nine of 26 for a ghastly 38 percent. A ledger like that against powerful Millbrook will certainly spell doom. With several days to go prior to that road matchup, Gravelle will have his troops at the line with stunning regularity.

Powell's 16 was the best Sullivan West had to offer. Campanelli had eight and Ryan Mace posted seven. The Dawgs were seven-for-14 from the stripe (50%).

Gravelle talked about the victory starting with the free throw shooting: “We get a little hot or cold. I give Darryl Walker a lot of credit. He was a little off. He is usually one of our top foul shooters but he was so sick tonight. But he owned the boards. We need to do better at the foul line if we're going to try and go upset Millbrook. I will honestly say I've had a lot of great teams, as you know. But out of all of my teams these guys play defense really well. They get their hands in the defensive passing lanes, hands on the dribble and they rebound. It's what's gotten them to where they are. It's blue collar basketball. We've been preparing for a week and a half. We know we're going to be out-sized and out-muscled but you've got to bring what you've got.”

Sullivan West Coach John Meyer didn't downplay the early deficit saying, “We played hard but we didn't finish. They made shots and we don't have that kind of team to come back from a big deficit. We have to play out in front. We came out strong in the third quarter and got five straight stops but we didn't score.”

Sullivan West ended up at 7-14.

“I feel bad for the seniors [Gabe Campanelli, Nick Dworetsky and Matt Peters],” Meyer said. “It was one of my most enjoyable years of being around kids, not my most in terms of my coaching. I thought we'd do better so I have to do better. It begins with me and it ends with me. I have to put them in positions to do well. It was a good game by both teams and I wish them a lot of luck.”