Bears down Dieruff

Greg Duff wasn’t phased one bit.

In fact, he took the unexpected news and embraced it.

The Pleasant Valley assistant boys basketball coach received a text message from head coach Matt Gould Friday morning, telling him he would have to be in charge of the Bears in their Eastern Pennsylvania Conference game that night against Dieruff.

With Gould sick at home, Duff helped guide PV to a key 51-43 victory.

“I found out at 9 a.m. this morning,” said Duff. “I got the text on my phone and I said, ‘Alright, let’s go.’

“I’ve been the JV coach the last few years and it felt good to be back out there. I just tried to keep them motivated. I was pumped. I just wanted to get them going. And we did that and got the win for Coach Gould.”

Duff had to deal with plenty in his varsity coaching debut. He watched his team give up a 14-point lead, and also had to work around foul trouble to his starters.

But in the end, the result was what he and the Bears wanted.

“We really needed this win,” said Duff. “This is the turning point of the season. We came in 5-5, and we want to make that playoff push toward districts. So it was a really important night for us.

“Basketball is a roller coaster with its ups and downs. This is definitely an up for us and we’re going to try and ride that wave into the playoffs.”

The Bears (6-5; 2-4) got off to great start, as Deshawn Scarboro hit four three-pointers in leading his team to a 25-11 advantage.

But the visiting Huskies battled back behind the inside game of CJ Richardson, who netted five during a 10-0 run that trimmed the halftime margin to four.

“We got out to the good start, but we knew they were going to answer,” said Duff. “It’s basketball, so we knew they’d make a run. I just told the guys at halftime that we made a run and they made a run. We just needed to get back out in the third quarter and get that energy back.”

After Dieruff eventually tied the score, Mike Duviella and Isaiah Howard both hit two free throws and inside buckets to spark a 9-3 Bears spurt. Duviella, held scoreless in the first half, continued to produce in the fourth and finished with 10 points and eight boards.

“I just tried to come out with more energy, tried to be stronger,” said Duviella. “I felt like if we just stuck together and played like a team, we’d come out with a win.”

Pleasant Valley was able to keep the Huskies (4-6; 1-6) at arms length the rest of the way, and a thunderous dunk from Andrius Harrison-Gaddist off a feed from Collin Stivala with 2:28 to play sealed the deal.

“We can compete with anyone if we come out and play hard and play the right game,” said Duff.

JV GAME ... Dieruff captured the opening contest, winning by a 54-48 score.

BENCH SHOUTOUT ... While PV’s reserves didn’t score, Duff was pleased with their play. “Foul trouble hurt us early, so we were able to use our bench to our advantage. We had to sit some guys for a long stretch .... so I’m really proud of our bench and how they responded.”

SCORERS ... Scarboro finished with a game-high 17 points, while Howard netted 13. Richardson paced the Huskies with 16.

DIERUFF

Huff 4-2-3-14, Rockmore 1-1-2-3, Franklin 0-0-0-0, Melson 2-0-0-5, White 0-1-2-1, Catalan 2-0-0-4, Richardson 5-6-9-16, Perkins 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 14-10-16-43.

PLEASANT VALLEY

Stivala 2-0-0-5, Howard 5-3-4-13, Harrison-Gaddist 3-0-0-6, Neubert 0-0-0-0, Scarboro 6-0-1-17, Piszczatowski 0-0-0-0, V. Rosario 0-0-0-0, Duviella 3-4-4-10, Burks 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 19-7-9-51.

Dieruff 6 15 12 10 - 43

Pleasant Vy. 17 8 14 12 - 51

Three-pointers: D - Huff 4, Melson 1; PV - Scarboro 5, Stivala 1.