GRAHAMSVILLE — The Tri-Valley Bears hosted the O’Neill Raiders in what became a tight matchup. This was TV’s penultimate regular season game before the playoffs. The Bears came into the game with a 12-6 regular season record while the Raiders entered with a 3-16 record. 

Tri-Valley was looking to secure one last home division win to end their season, but O’Neill wasn’t going to roll over. The teams were evenly matched throughout the entire game, but O’Neill was able to pull out a 49-43 win over the Bears in the final two minutes of the game. 

The match started with Tri-Valley seeming slightly more dominant. They were able to score first and seemed to have possession of the ball for a majority of the first quarter. The Bears were showing excellent passing and team chemistry and led O’Neill by multiple baskets throughout the quarter. O’Neill was able to go on a short run at the end of the quarter to shorten TV’s lead and end the quarter 15-12 with the Bears in front. 

In the second quarter the Raiders picked up the pace and were able to shorten the lead to within one point. Both teams seemed to be evenly matched with their shooters and their defenses picking off passes left and right. 

However, neither team seemed to be able to stop their opponents’ drives or cuts into the paint with most of the points in this quarter coming from the players down low. It was a one-basket game for almost the entire quarter with Tri-Valley leading O’Neill 24-23 going into halftime.

The third quarter saw the momentum really begin to shift in O’Neill’s favor. It started with back and forth scoring but rather quickly the Raiders were able to force a few crucial turnovers and convert those into easy fast break layups. O’Neill was also dominating the boards, giving them multiple attempts at the basket each possession. This allowed O’Neill to start pulling ahead for the first time and they ended the quarter 37-33 over Tri-Valley. 

At the start of the final quarter, Tri-Valley proved that they would not go down without a fight as they were able to score two critical layups to tie the score. It became a back-and-forth game with neither team getting more than a 2-basket lead at any point. 

Both teams were relying heavily on their down-low men for rebounds and to fight for layups. Tri-Valley’s Austin Swett scored three times in the last few minutes and had most of his team’s points in the last quarter. 

However, in the final two minutes, the Bears gave up a few crucial turnovers in a row and that gave the Raiders the opportunity they needed to pull ahead. TV tried to salvage the game with a full court press with a minute left, but it wasn’t enough, and O’Neill managed to secure a 49-43 win over the Bears.

“It’s always a tough game when we don’t have school and the kids don’t have their normal routine,” commented Tri-Valley Coach Kevin Delaney. “We were playing a young team in O’Neill, but they clearly have learned a lot throughout this season. Unfortunately, we got down on ourselves in the second half. We were only giving 75% on both sides of the court and that lack of hustle cost us the game. We’re looking forward to the sectional game and hopefully we can bring home a win.”