DVHS picked up their pace to beat Wallenpaupack in JV boys basketball

Before I get started about Friday night’s game played on Jan. 6, let me point out that I missed the prior 3 games due to personal surgery. So I spoke to one of the coaches about how the JVs did in those 3 games. All 5 prior games that I saw, D.V. pounded every team that they played, so I was stunned to hear that they lost two of the three games.

That’s all I can report. I don’t know what happened nor if they were missing key players in those games or not.

In tonight’s game they indeed were missing some players, so I had some misgivings.

Wallenpaupack started out very strong and went up 6-0. D.V. eventually started to chip away at the lead, but they were relying on 3-point shots. The problem was that they just were not rebounding. So if you miss a shot, that’s it. No second or third chance to score. In past games, rebounding was a mainstay of their game, so the lack of rebounding was hurting them big time. Thus the first period ended with Wallenpaupack up 15-11.

The second period was more of the same, with D.V. missing shots and then not rebounding either on defense or offense.

Then suddenly Isaiah Berrios drove the length of the court and made a pretty lay up. Then he made a 3-point shot to tie the game up at 19 all.

But the team fell flat and fell behind by 6 again with the score at 25-19 to close out the half.

I have to mention that there was poor support by the faithful. I was disappointed to see that. Maybe the 2 out of 3 losses took something out of fan motivation.

Well, in the 3rd period Tyler Lombardo took charge. He started scoring and stealing the ball, following up with scores. The rest of the team seemed to take note and started stealing the ball too, so the 3rd ended with D.V. up 36-32.

All through the game D.V. looked lethargic for some reason. They just looked flat. They finally came alive toward mid 3rd period, but thankfully it was enough to turn the game around. They finally started rebounding and Mike Brown seemed to be leading the way on the boards. Nick Jorgenson made some nice plays too.

The result was that the D.V. JVs pulled out a 48-39 win. It was a little too close for comfort though, because in previous games that I saw, D.V. won by 20 to 30 points, so this tight game was a little nerve racking. We will see how the rest of the season goes. Let’s hope that they get some of that fire in their gut again.