ELDRED – On Friday night Eldred saw the  renewal of the good-natured rivalry with the visiting Rockland Wolves boys’ basketball team. The home team achieved a hard-fought victory in a closely contested game, finishing with a score of 35-30.

Though there is an obvious respect for each other’s programs, both teams came to win, and that desire translated into a competitive, defensive minded battle.

Each side brought intensity and energy to the match, especially on the defensive end. At the end of the first period Eldred held a narrow 9-8 lead. 

A relentless pressing defense has been the key to the (9–3) Rockland Wolves’ success. But the defensive press had little effect against Eldred’s height advantage. The Yellowjackets effectively passed over Rockland defenders in double and triple teams, avoiding traps.

Eldred’s height was also a challenge for Rockland on the offensive end and the Wolves had a hard time to scoring points in the paint Yellowjackets’ big men. 

The score at half time was 15–14, with Eldred clinging to a one-point lead. What kept the Wolves close, was the outside shooting of Ben Johnston, who finished with 12 points, and Kaleb Maldonado, who finished the game with 8.

In the second half, there were two main factors propelling Eldred to their win; their success getting the ball down to their big man James Deyermond, who scored 15 points in the game. The second factor was clutch shots from Trai Kaufmann down the stretch. Kaufmann finished the night with 10 points.

In the second half, the Rockland Wolves lost their earlier success from outside shooting and were unable to score from inside, allowing Eldred to gradually pull away for the win.

Rockland Coach Hicks said, “It was a battle, just shows how evenly matched we are, especially defensively. We usually score a lot more points, but their size is a challenge. We went ice cold there in the 3rd, I don’t think we got a basket for over four minutes, and when we got close again, Trai made that tough shot. We fought hard and we’re looking forward to the rematch down the road.” 

Eldred’s Coach Furler said of his (5–3) team, “Size was the difference tonight. We practiced passing over their press, and it worked. Rockland is one of my favorite teams to play, I love Coach Hicks. He’s one of the nicest guys out there. It’s always a good game. We’ve lost games that were close, lost them at the end, but we held on for this one. We’ve switched to zone, that’s helped a lot, since we don’t have many guys.”