SULLIVAN TWP. — With 1:04 remaining Friday, freshman Brennan Scheck grabbed an offensive rebound, took a baseline power dribble and was fouled in the act of shooting, causing Black River boys basketball teammates Allan Benson, Brandon Heath, Mike Hazlett, Derek Hawley and Curtis Roupe to catapult out of their seats in excitement.
Scheck missed the free throws, drawing audible groans from the giddy five, but that’s not the point. The Pirates were having a blast in what ended up a 66-46 Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division win over winless Brookside.
Think about that: “Fun,” “blowout” and “Black River” haven’t been in the same sentence in a long time.
“It’s a freshman thing,” a laughing Hazlett said. “They all miss them, so we were already giving him (a hard time).”
“I can’t tell you the last time we won by 20 points, so we’re just were excited and pumped,” the equally entertained Roupe added.
The answer to that question for the Pirates (2-4, 1-3) was beating Open Door by 26 on Dec. 2, 2011. Interestingly enough, that kick-started the program’s infamous 49-game losing streak.
Roupe (23 points, 10 rebounds) starred in the game that broke the streak — a 51-44 win at Mapleton on Dec. 21, 2013 — and all but guaranteed history won’t repeat.
“We were confident,” Roupe said. “We were the better team and knew it, so we expected (to win). We hadn’t played in a week and we were mad about the four-game losing streak, so we just wanted to get back on track.”
Against the Cardinals (0-7, 0-4), Black River didn’t panic when it saw a box-and-one defense against PAC leading scorer Benson (16 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 7 steals).
The Pirates used good ball movement to find the 6-foot-3, 245-pound Roupe in the high post for easy points.
Brookside pulled the box-and-one in the second quarter, but Black River led 17-4 behind its full-court 1-2-2 zone designed to create havoc and increase pace. Hazlett (13 points), who was making his first career start in place of the injured Zach Hawley (ankle), then went off and scored 10 points to push the ante to 38-17 at halftime.
The Pirates, who also got 12 points, nine rebounds and two assists from forward Derek Hawley, led 50-21 when Hazlett found Benson for a wide-open 3-pointer in transition.
They then got sloppy with 19 second-half turnovers — they also had 30 fouls overall — but even that couldn’t put a damper on cheerful mood.
“That was a lot of fun,” Hazlett said. “We just went out, we were intense and we played our hardest.”
Brookside never had a realistic chance, but played free and loose in the second half to keep the final score from getting embarrassing. Point guard Norman Elias was steady and made 6-of-6 free throws en route to 12 points.
The bigger issue moving forward was losing leading scorer Christian Carrion (11 points, 4 rebounds, 5 steals) to a wrist injury on a fluke scrum after he was fouled on a driving layup attempt with 6:02 to go.
That’s not good news for a team that has lost by an average of 26.7 points this season.
“First quarter they made shots, we didn’t,” said coach Tom Moyer, whose team was 2-for-14 in the initial period and 14-for-57 overall. “Our goal was to hold Benson under 15 points. We didn’t do a very good job of that. Roupe dominated us inside. The kid’s a big kid and he has good post moves. We didn’t have anyone to stop him.”
Notes
- Brookside was 12-for-30 (.400) at the foul line, while Black River was 17-for-25 (.680). The Pirates also held a big edge in rebounding (46-26).
- Caleb Poldruhi had 12 points as Black River’s junior varsity won 47-38. The Pirates are 4-2, 3-1.
Black River 66, Brookside 46
BROOKSIDE 4 13 17 12 — 46
BLACK RIVER 17 21 17 11 — 66
Brookside — Christian Carrion 5-1-11, Devin Houdeshell 1-0-2, Travis Fortney 2-0-5, Alex Koltas 1-1-4, Norman Elias 2-6-12, Manny McNeill 0-1-1, Owen Rozanc 0-0-0, Tyler Alam 1-0-2, Dillon James 1-1-4, Logan Hartzell 0-2-2, Jules Gray 1-0-3. TOTALS: 14-12-46.
Black River — Derek Hawley 5-0-12, Mike Hazlett 4-3-13, Curtis Roupe 5-13-23, Matthew Potter 1-0-2, Allan Benson 7-1-16, Brandon Heath 0-0-0, Garrett Hord 0-0-0, Seth Pluta 0-0-0, River Wheeler 0-0-0, Brennan Scheck 0-0-0. TOTALS: 22-17-66.
3-point goals — Elias 2, Koltas, Fortney, James, Gray, Hawley 2, Hazlett 2, Benson. Rebounds — Brookside 26 (Elias, Carrion, Hartzell, McNeill 4), Black River 46 (Roupe 10). Assists — Brookside 6 (Koltas 2), Black River 15 (Benson 6). Records — Brookside (0-7, 0-4), Black River (2-4, 1-3). Junior varsity — Brookside 66, Black River 46.