Minor Division
Pizza Chef beat Duffner & Voight, 41-31. It was a very exciting contest and a well-played game by both teams. High scorers of the night for Pizza Chef were Joey Depperman and Joe Schade. John Montoya, Mike Kern and Chris Franceschini helped out on offense and defense with assists from Coppolino and Romanelli. Glenn Barker and Martinez had great games for Duffner.
In other action, Pizza Chef was in command most of the game as the team beat Optometrics Eye Wear, 40-25. It was a well-played game by both teams. Montoya had a team high with 19 points, and Kern chipped in with a respectable 10 points. Depperman and Franceschini had strong games on offense and defense. With Coppolino and Schade playing great defense, Optometrics wasn’t able to get its offense going. Romanelli and Chou did a great job getting the rebounds for Pizza Chef. Great job by Jordan Chateau, Chris Kekovski and Mike Giaccio of Optometrics.
In a thriller, VFW Post defeated Optometrics Eye Wear, 49-45. VFW was led by Anthony Sciffo, 18; Dave Marsala, 12; and Nick Katekeledis, 11.
Tenacious defense and rebounding by Ari Santis, Joe Ahmadza and Kevin Kuhnle also aided in the victory.
Bantam Division
Tenacious team defense was the key for JAM Service Company as it overcame Blue Ribbon Travel, 23-21. It was a close game in the first half until JAM opened up a nine-point lead early in the second half.
Blue Ribbon, however, fought back and took a three-point lead in the fourth quarter until Kenny Lehr hit a 10-foot jumper to tie the game at 21 with just over one minute on the clock. Blue Ribbon had several winning chances but it came down to the last three seconds and Patrick Berndt on the line. He calmly hit both ends of the one-and-one to give JAM the hard-fought victory.
For JAM, big baskets in the first half came from Sal DiMaria, David Hazim and Jose Hasng, while Mike Gallagher’s speed and ball-hawking defense led to numerous turnovers and steals.
Lehr’s offense was kept in check by Blue Ribbon players, but his defensive intensity kept Blue Ribbon’s big scorers under control. Berndt was outstanding on both ends, with 15 points and tremendous defensive pressure on Blue Ribbon’s guards. Blue Ribbon played a great game with key players Tony Zorilla, George Zorilla and Blake Brown making major contributions.
The Stitches Bantam division team has won six games in a row. This weekend the team won three games, two of which were regularly scheduled games and one was a makeup game.
Coach Frankel has seen the maturing of Steve Foley and George Tsiklidis as basketball players. Dave Legaz and Vinay Chodha have been consistent in their guard play. Derek Capponi and Logan Frankel have contributed greatly all year. In Sunday’s game in Coach Frankel’s absence, Jim Tsiklidis, George’s dad, coached the team to victory over a tough JAM Services team led by Berndt and Lehr.
Major Division
In an exciting late-night Majors game, Marble Mode defeated the luckless Cherry Valley team by two points in a tightly played game which went down to the wire. Marble Mode was led by the outstanding play of Dave Martin and “Smokin” Joe Montgomery.
Nicky Vigorito was strong off the glass and Ralph Glavan’s hustle added to this victory. Zach Frankel played his usual consistent game by scoring 13 points and playing good defense. Coach Jay Vigorito played a huge part in Marble Mode’s game.
Having only five players, Vigorito carefully chose his time-outs and continued drawing up innovative X’s and O’s for his team. Trailing by two, James Tierney was awarded two foul shots as time expired for Cherry Valley. The game concluded when he missed the first shot. Ed Johnston and Adam Breidbart played valiantly for the Cherry Valley team.
Varsi Deli overcame a determined Cherry Valley team, 53-44. Varsi jumped out to a big early advantage only to have Cherry Valley come back from a 15-point deficit to take a fourth-quarter lead.
Varsi was able to regain the lead in the final four minutes with aggressive rebounding and clutch shooting. Varsi’s balanced attack was led by Keith Caparelli, 20 points; John Keily, 9 points; Andrew Lehr and Jose Barcena, 7 points each; Michael Berndt, 6 points; and Amit Chada, 4 points.
Cherry Valley was led by Joe Monte, 21 points, and Adam Breidbart, whose long-range bombs rallied Cherry Valley and enabled the team to take the lead.
