CHESTER--The Chester Hambletonians varsity girls basketball team didn't have an easy time Monday night in winning the OCIAA Division V title as they hung on to edge defending league champion Tri-Valley 48-46.
The dominating full-court press and defense used by the Bears in their 70-48 win over Chester last week at Grahamsville was easily broken by Chester as they wasted no time in taking a 14-6 first quarter lead off the 8 point scoring efforts of their outstanding forward Simone Ayers.
Simone, one of the best players in Section IX easily showed her scoring ability as she swished the nets for a game high 20 points.
Tri-Valley chipped away at the Chester lead in the second quarter outscoring the Hambletonians 11-6 to go into the locker room at halftime trailing by three 20-17.
Kayla Butler came off the bench in the second quarter to lead the Bears with seven points off of three two-pointers and a foul shot.
Chester responded to Tri-Valley's second quarter scoring by taking a 12-point lead at 4:06 of the third quarter off the scoring of eight points by Ayers. Chester outscored the Bears 18-14 in the third quarter for a 38-31 lead entering the final eight minutes of play.
At the 7:25 mark of the fourth quarter Tri-Valley's ace senior guard Caroline Martin was tagged with her fourth personal foul and sophomore forward Sandra Alemany shortly after received her third foul giving Chester the advantage as they upped their lead to 44-33 at the 4:42 mark.
With 3:57 left on the clock Tri-Valley mounted a comeback attempt with clutch scoring of two three pointers by Martin, four points off two pointers by Danielle Shafarsky, three points by Sara Dertinger and two points by Alemany.
Trailing 48-43 with 8.1 seconds left on the clock Martin sank a clutch three-pointer putting the Bears down by two, 48-46, but as errant Tri-Valley pass ended the Bears hope of a tie score that would have forced overtime play.
Martin led Tri-Valley scoring with 14 points followed by Shafarsky with 12 and 7 by Butler.
Ayers led the Hambletonians with 20, Kathryn Jankelunas had 15 and Amanda Almodovar contributed with 10 assists and six steals for Chester 12-6, 7-1 OCIAA.
The loss dropped Tri-Valley to 6-2 in OCIAA league play.
Tri-Valley committed 18 turnovers to Chester's 20.
Chester coach Peter Rickard acknowledged in the post-game interview that his team "broke the press the greatest we we have done all year against anybody."
"But give them (Tri-Valley) credit," Rickard said when asked about leading the Bears by 12 and 9 points at several junctions of the game."
Rickard said his team took Tri-Valley " way out of rhythm and we stayed in our diamond and one defense and we'll take the win and the division."
Chester won the division two years ago but have never won a Section IX championship.
Tri-Valley coach Jason Closs when asked about this defeat said, "the first half we got into foul trouble with three starters with two but I was fairly pleased going into the half only down by three."
"In the second half we slowly battled back but you just can't spot that team 11 or 12 points that late in the game and we let girls get behind us at times but still had a chance to win at the end," Closs added.
The sectional playoff schedule with this loss was yet determined for Tri-Valley who had one league game to play against Tuxedo Wednesday and a non-league game Thursday against Eldred attached photos
PHOTO FROM MONDAY'S GAME
Tri-Valley senior point guard Caroline Martin (32) goes to the hoop to score two of her game high 14 points in the Bears 48-46 loss to Chester Monday night.
Tri-Valley's Danielle Shafarsky (20) shoots over Chester's Maura Benedict (15) in the Bears 48-46 loss Monday at Chester.
OTHER PHOTOS
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