LADY BEARS GO UNDEFEATED

  A three fold story-line in the Tri-Valley Lady Bears 72-33 victory over Eldred Friday night brings with it an undefeated 16-0 (6-0 conference)  OCIAA Division V championship, two perfect back to back 16-0 undefeated seasons for Tri-Valley coach Jason Closs and closes the gap down to 19 points needed by Katlynn Greffrath to reach 1,000 points for her high school career.  

  Friday's non-league game saw a fast start by Tri-Valley with scores by Greffrath, Caroline Martin and Sara Dertinger and it wasn't until the clock reached 5:58 when Eldred's Kelsey Collins scored a two-pointer to make the score 10-2. 

  Eldred kept fighting back with a three-pointer by Jordan Lepes but the Bears closed the first quarter leading 19-13.

  Tri-Valley upped its half time lead to 33-23  outscoring Eldred 14-11 in the second quarter led by Greffrath's six points and Colleen Jones with five points.

  It was lights out for Eldred in the third quarter as the Bears totally  dominated play by outscoring the visitors 24-0 off individual scoring by Sabrena Smith with five, Greffrath with nine which included her first and only three-pointer, two points each by Danielle Shaforski, Dertinger and Jones and four points by Martin. 

  The fourth quarter pushed the Bears lead again as Tri-Valley outscored Eldred15-9.

  Eldred posted 38 turnovers to Tri-Valley's 25. 

  Senior night saw honors go to Ashley Exner, Smith, Jones and Greffrath. 

  Eldred coach Ryan Jasper called the Tri-Valley team, "so deep and well conditioned it's hard to keep up with them."

  "I tried to slow the tempo in the first half and it worked but they thrive off of turnovers," Jasper noted.

  He credited Tri-Valley with good coaching "by John the last few years and Jason this year."

  Eldred will represent Division D next week in the final four in Albany.

  Coach Closs discussed what was described by media members as a very physical game played by Eldred saying, "they are aggressive girls as that's their mentality...they work hard and they are going to give it their all and you just hope that you don't get caught in the crossfire and lose somebody because of injury."

 Regarding the first  half and the third quarter Closs indicated that " in the first  half at times we could have applied more pressure  since we haven't played in a litdtle bit and we kind of were pacing outselves." 

  Closs noted some first half foul trouble also contributed to the slower first half but "in the third quarter we came out with great defensive energy and when we play with that type of defense it just feeds out offense."

  Greffrath led with 22 points and seven steals, Smith had 12 points and five steals while Martin scored 12 points. Exner had eight rebounds.

  For Eldred (7-10) Collins  had 11 points.

  The Tri-Valley win along with an undefeated regular league season also shouts accolades for Coach Closs who now has  coached Tri-Valley teams through two consecutive 16-0 seasons for a combined 32-0 record. 

  Last year Closs coached the Junior Varsity boys team to their 16-0 undefeated season stating at that time that "this season we were a team in every aspect, we focused on being unselfish, doing the right things and putting the team above ourselves."

  When asked Friday night about this years undefeated record and the overall 32 straight wins Coach Closs noted, "I had  some pretty good players on both teams and I think this is a pretty special opportunity I had that I don't think happens very often with any coach."

  Closs added ," I appreciate this special opportunity and I realize that I may coach another 30 years and not get another one of these..... it was an honor to take on a varsity girls basketball team like this."

  His overall opinion of this years girls team was, "great personalities, great girls who all had great work ethics and values and they do the same in practice as they do at game time."

  Winning has indeed been a major part of coaching for Closs and at Chester, from 2003-2007 his boys varsity teams won two division championships, "and truthfully my last year at Chester boys varsity I thought that was going to be my last year coaching... period," Closs said.

  "I want to thank Coach Brian Tingley for bringing me on early when I first got here and he embraced me and I learned a lot under him and I look forward to both of us having a nice little run in sectionals, Closs added.

                                                                         

PHOTO IDENTIFICATION

                                                   

OTHER GAME AND SENIOR NIGHT PHOTOS

PHOTO IDENTIFICATION OF FIRST 4 PHOTOS

Tri-Valley's Colleen Jones (23) goes up for two points in the Bears  72-33 victory over Eldred. Attempting to block the shot is Eldred (33) Kelsey Collins.

Tri-Valley's Katlynn Greffrath (11) scores two of her game high 22 points in the Bears 72-33

win over Eldred. Attemping to blot the shot are Eldred's Rebecca Morgan (24) and Jess Schips (14).

Tri-Valley's Sara Dertinger ((22) goes up for two points in the Bears 72-33 victory over Eldred. The Bears Ashley Exner blocks out Eldred's Jess Schips.

Tri-Valley varsity girls coach Jason Closs has now coached two consecutive basketball programs to perfect 16-0 seasons for a combined 32 wins over the past two years.