02/24/05
UV meets match, loses in semi
SECTION FOUR CLASS C SEMIFINAL
Lloyd’s 22 points not enough as Union Springs wins, 68-61
By Rob Centorani
Contributing Writer
GRE
| | | Photo by Michael Chacanaca
Unadilla Valley’s Tyler Lloyd grabs a rebound between Union Springs’ Pat Crowley, left and Tim Paott during the second half of Wednesday’s Section Four Class C semifinal at Greene. |
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ENE — Unadilla Valley’s evil twin showed up at Greene High on Wednesday.
The Storm’s season ended with a 68-61 Section Four Class C semifinal loss to a Union Springs team that enjoyed the full-court game every bit as much as UV.
Led by a team-high 21 points from Bryan McClary, the defensive-minded Wolves built a 13-point lead early in the second period and stayed ahead by at least six the rest of the way.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]The No. 7 seed attached to Union Springs (17-5) was a meaningless number, as the Wolves were every bit as skilled and probably slightly more athletic than the third-seeded Storm.
"I guess we took them a little lightly and came out weak," said UV standout Tyler Lloyd, who scored a game-high 22 points despite constant pressure from numerous Union Springs defenders. "Their defenders were really strong."
One of the keys to the Storm’s 19-5 record this season was the ability of mobile players such as Lloyd, Zack Thomsen, Bryan Parks and Josh Crawford to beat defenders off the dribble and score layups.
But against an agile Union Springs squad, almost every time UV put the ball on the floor there was Wolves defender in front of them.
"They had a little more height and were a little more athletic," UV coach Matt Osborne said of Springs, which will face top-seeded Seton Catholic Central in the title game at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the Broome County Arena.
"We couldn’t get the ball to the basket as well as we wanted to and were settling for a lot of jumpshots," Osborne continued. "They had a hand on us all the time and we didn’t get too many good looks."
Making matters worse for UV was the Wolves’ ability to break the Storm’s full-court pressure and get layups. Eight of McClary’s nine baskets from the field came on layups and many of those were in transition after US beat the Storm’s pressure.
"We like to run the floor," McClary said. "That’s what we do."
"Anytime you can get layups, that’s big," US coach Tim Darnell said. "We’ve worked hard on press-breakers and we knew they were going to press."
The Wolves’ ability to answer UV baskets with quick points on the other end kept the Storm from putting together big runs. UV never scored more than six consecutive points.
And all the running UV did seemed to catch up it in the fourth period. Lloyd hit a jumper off the dribble and then made a spinning 15-footer from the wing to pull the Storm within 57-51 with four minutes, 45 seconds left in the game.
UV had several chances to get closer, but Lloyd misfired twice from three-point range, and Thomsen and Crawford each missed once from behind the arc.
"Fatigue played a big part toward the end. We had some open looks at threes and they came up short," Osborne said.
With 2 1/2 minutes left, McClary made a layup off a pass from Pat Crowley (13 points), who then drove the baseline for a layup with 1:52 left that made it 62-53.
Lloyd and Thomsen, perhaps the best 1-2 punch in the area, combined for 42 points. Thomsen had 20, including two threes in the fourth quarter that kept UV within shouting distance.
But none of those points came easily.
"Twelve (Thomsen) and 15 (Lloyd) are college players," Darnell said. "We tried to do whatever we could to limit them. We just didn’t want to give both of them 25 points. We wanted to make them work for everything they got."
Lloyd said of UV’s season, "It’s our best season ever, so I guess we’ll be proud of that."
UNION SPRINGS 68, UV 61
3-UNADILLA VALLEY (19-5): Zack Thomsen 8 1-1 20, Tyler Lloyd 7 7-8 22, Bryan Parks 5 1-2 11, Josh Crawford 1 0-0 2, Garrett Eiholzer 1 2-2 4, Dave Brillinger 1 0-0 2, Peter Brooks 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 23 11-13 61.
Three-point field goals: US (Noonan 2, Tratt 3); UV (Thomsen 3, Lloyd).
