LIVINGSTON MANOR – Livingston Manor hosted the Annual Audra Sipple Spath Memorial Scholarship Tournament this week with the opening series taking place this past Saturday afternoon. The tournament is in honor of Livingston Manor teacher Audra Sipple Spath and the scholarship is funded through multiple events throughout the year and given to two Livingston Manor seniors. 

The second and final day of the tournament will be held on February 15 due to winter weather cancellations. Tri-Valley took the first game of the day with a 58-17 win over Liberty and Manor/Roscoe grabbed a 39 win over Sullivan West. 

Game 1: 

Tri-Valley  58

Liberty 17

After Tri-Valley’s win over Liberty, TV Coach Jason Closs said, “I think we played well overall. We came out pretty fast and then had a lull in the middle, but we were able to come out front again at the end. Liberty is very scrappy and they played hard, they’re a young team, but they’re going to be a tough team as they develop.” 

The first quarter opened with the Lady Bears scoring a quick three baskets to put them up 6-0 over Liberty. Brynn Poley of Tri-Valley was pulling out some superb post moves to earn some of her team’s early points. The Redhawks were struggling to get past Tri-Valley’s excellent defense and couldn’t get offensive momentum going. Tri-Valley continued a 13-point run holding Liberty to one basket and were up 19-2 going into the second quarter. 

Then second quarter was much the same with Tri-Valley scoring 14 points this quarter. Liberty was able put up more on the offensive end with 6 points in the quarter. Tri-Valley held a 25-point lead over the Redhawks heading into the half.

Liberty found it tough to get into a rhythm after the break with multiple forced turnovers. Tri-Valley would go on another run to finish out the third quarter and had increased their lead to 47-11 going into the final eight minutes. 

The final quarter started rather slow with neither team scoring until about halfway through. Both teams were getting opportunities, but the shots just weren’t falling. Both teams started sinking shots in the final four minutes, but Tri-Valley had established too much of an early lead for Liberty to come back. The game ended in favor of Tri-Valley 58-17 over Liberty. 

Game 2: 

Livingston Manor 39

Sullivan West 35 

The second game of the series was significantly closer than the first with Manor squeaking by a 39-35 win over Sullivan West. Both teams played hard and with notable hustle on either side of the court. Manor Coach Joe Clarke commented this after the win, “That’s the best we’ve played this year and Sullivan West is a tough team so I’m very proud of them. We’ve been learning how to win and close out all year and they did just that tonight.” 

Both teams came out of the gate hot with a lot of hustle but Manor was first to break the ice. However, it wasn’t long before the Lady Bulldogs scored. The Lady Wildcats’ defense was in superb form forcing multiple turnovers and giving them plenty of chances on offense. Manor was up by just one to end the first quarter 5-4 over Sullivan West. 

Early in the second quarter Manor scored a quick two baskets to put them up 9-4. But the Lady Bulldogs’ Ella Herbert was able to respond with two quick baskets of her own to make it a one-point game again. Manor was able to turn up the heat with a short five point run to make the score 14-10 with only two minutes left until halftime. Both teams finished the second quarter strong with Manor leading Sullivan West 16-14 going into halftime.

Early in the third Sullivan West’s Ella Herbert hit a deep three to tie the score, but Manor quickly responded with an inside layup to take a two-point lead again. Anastasia Niforatos and Grace Darder of the Lady Wildcats were able to combo multiple forced turnovers into fast break layups to widen their lead to 23-17 with four minutes left in the quarter. With back-to-back baskets by Leah Ladenhauf, Livingston Manor was able to take an eight-point lead over Sullivan West. They finished the third quarter up 33-23 over the Lady Bulldogs. 

It looked good for Manor at the start of the final quarter, but Sullivan West still had an opportunity to steal the win with their offensive hustle. With five minutes left Manor still held a strong 35-27 lead over the Lady Bulldogs. Sullivan West started to close the lead after sinking multiple baskets with just under two minutes remaining, but Manor was able to close out the game with a 39-35 home win in the second game of the tournament.