Pleasant Valley falls to Hurricanes
Depth and length.
Coaches whose teams possess both those qualities are often found with a smile on their face — and wins under their belt.
Liberty’s Chad Landis watched his club use both to perfection Friday night to help pull away from Pleasant Valley for a 56-38 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference victory.
“Those are two of our strengths,” said Landis. “Anytime we can use them to our benefit, it usually works out pretty well for us.
“Tonight, we wanted to try and do both of those things. We tried to use our depth and our length, extend that into the full court and see if we couldn’t just get the speed of the game going ... We knew they had good guards and it wouldn’t be perfect, but we thought even if we’re scoring some, the pace would be up higher and we’d like our chances.”
The Bears, to their credit, kept the tempo in their favor early on, spreading the ball out and being patient on offense.
While turnovers hurt them in the opening quarter, the pace kept them in the contest, trailing by just a 9-4 margin.
The Hurricanes (9-4; 6-2) managed to stretch the lead to nine at the start of the second frame, but a couple of three-pointers by Kory Kearns helped pull Pleasant Valley within 17-13.
“We wanted to slow the ball down ... give ourselves options, and make them come out on us,” said PV mentor Bobby Hahn. “But Liberty’s a fantastic team. They’re a very big team with very good pressure defense, which is why we tried to spread it out. Once they started hitting some shots and they got into their press, we kind of struggled seeing the floor a little bit.”
The Bears (4-6; 3-4) were hit with a double whammy after cutting the gap to four points. Liberty hit five treys — three by Rahmad Ali — in a span of seven possessions. That not only upped the lead, but it also allowed the Hurricanes to set up its defense and use its length in their trap.
The combination of threes, PV miscues, and the Hurricanes’ ability to rotate players in and out to pressure led to a 19-3 run that pushed the halftime advantage to 36-16.
“I knew (their coaches) would have a plan to try and put their guys in a position to win the game,” said Landis. “We knew that they’d try and control the tempo. Once we saw that, we were going to try and speed things up. It was kind of a battle of two wills, and in the second and third quarters I thought we got the better of it.”
Hahn’s strategy might have worked, but the perimeter shooting ruined those plans.
“They moved the ball, they found (Ali), and he hit the shots,” said Hahn. “They busted through the zone that way ... Unfortunately, in the zone you’re always giving something up and that’s what it was, and they took advantage of it.”
Liberty didn’t hit any threes in the third frame, but it got to the rim more often. Joe Barnes accounted for two of the Hurricanes’ four driving baskets as the lead swelled to 48-24.
The Bears’ Noah Mitchell managed to score seven of his team-high 12 points in the final period, but the final 18-point spread was the closest PV would get.
SCORERS ... Ali led all scorers with 19 points, while Barnes ended with 12. Will Harper added 10. PV also received nine points from Marcus Arce.
TOUGH STRETCH ... In the first half, the Bears had as many turnovers (16) as shots taken.
THE BRIGHT SIDE ... Despite the defeat, Hahn continues to be upbeat. “They never give up and have a great attitude,” he said. “They work hard; they want to win ... Not many times have I, in my life, after a loss been more proud of guys than I’ve been the last two games. They listen, they’re respectful and they play hard. It’s a very fun group to coach and be around because of the amount of effort they’ve put in.”
LIBERTY
Calloway 0-0-0-0, Gonzalez 0-0-0-0, Farrell 0-0-0-0, Barnes 5-1-2-12, McNeil 0-0-0-0, Holmes 2-0-0-4, Ruiz 0-0-0-0, Nunez 0-0-0-0, Wellington 0-0-0-0, Harper 4-2-3-10, Ali 7-0-1-19, Johnson 1-0-0-2, Montgomery 3-1-2-9. TOTALS: 22-4-8-56.
PLEASANT VALLEY
M. Kearns 1-1-2-3, K. Kearns 3-0-0-8, Rommel 0-0-0-0, Wynn 0-1-2-1, Arce 4-1-2-9, Piszczatowski 0-2-4-2, Mitchell 5-1-4-12, Keesler 0-2-3-2, Moore 0-1-2-1, Francois 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 13-9-19-38.
Liberty 9 27 12 8 - 56
Pleasant Valley 4 12 8 14 - 38
Three-pointers: Liberty - Ali 5, Montgomery 2, Barnes 1; Pleasant Valley - K. Kearns 2, Mitchell 1.
