LIVINGSTON MANOR – Livingston Manor hosted Tri-Valley, Sullivan West, and Liberty for the final rounds of their annual Sipple Spath Scholarship Fundraising Tournament. The first game was the championship between Livingston Manor and Tri-Valley followed by the consolation game between Sullivan West and Liberty.

Game 1 (Championship): Tri-Valley- 62

Manor Roscoe- 22

The first quarter was tough for Manor with Tri-Valley coming out of the gate hot. The Bears were able to go on a 17-point run that was only interrupted by a single foul shot from the Wildcats. By the two-minute mark Tri-Valley had a definitive early 17-1 lead over Manor. The quarter ended with Tri-Valley scoring once more to put them up 19-1 going into the second quarter.

The Wildcats’ Grace Darder was the first to break the ice in the second quarter with a steal into a fast break layup. This was followed up with a layup from her teammate Kelsey Ryder. The Bears’ Avery Carrier sunk a 3-pointer from the corner to make the score 26-5 with four minutes left. Tri-Valley turned on a full-court press to try and earn some defensive stops.

What followed was a back-and-forth scoring battle from both teams. The scoring going into the half was 36-11 with Tri-Valley holding a solid lead.

Tri-Valley started the third quarter with multiple steals and went on a 17-point run before Manor was able to score at the two-minute mark. Tri-Valley was up 53-16 heading into the final eight minutes.

The final quarter looked good for Tri-Valley.  Livingston Manor is usually a second-half team but was unable to stage a comeback in the final quarter. For the first four minutes, neither team was able to find the basket. Tri-Valley was able to score first which was followed closely by a few more baskets by the Bears. The quarter wrapped up with Tri-Valley taking a 62-22 championship win over Livingston Manor.

Tri-Valley coach Jason Closs told the Democrat, “I’d like to thank Livingston Manor for inviting us to the tournament. It’s for a great cause. We’re an aggressive team and we got after it each quarter. But the Manor girls always play hard from the opening tip until the end so I always tell my girls to be mindful. They’ll be a very good team next year and in the years to come.

Game 2 (Consolation):

Sullivan West- 40

Liberty- 26

Sullivan West was able to earn a close win 40-26 win over Liberty. The game was within five points the entire time until the final quarter when Sullivan West began to pull away. Ella Herbert and Roz Passante led the Bulldogs in scoring. Herbert had 16 and Passante contributed 15 points to their win over the Redhawks. Giselle Payton and Haylee Gomez both had nine for Liberty. Sullivan West is set to play O’Neill, Wednesday, February 19 at 6:30 pm on their home court and the Redhawks will square off against Beacon City for the second time in less than two weeks on Wednesday at 4:30 pm. The Redhawks took a tough loss from the Beacon City Bulldogs earlier this month.