Delaware Valley JV basketball take on Port Jervis

There are a lot of fierce rivalry in the world of sports. Yankees vs Red Sox. White Sox vs Cubs. Celtics vs Lakers. Cowboys um every team hates the Cowboys so forget that.

College and high school teams have fierce rivalry too. There is a famous PA-NJ rivalry between Philipsburg and Easton in football that is even covered nationally. Folks, we have one here. It is between Port Jervis and Delaware Valley.

I don’t think that Port Jervis wants to play Delaware Valley in football but I can assure you that basketball is a hotly contested rivalry. Last year a member of the Port Jervis staffers I will not name so as to not embarrass any one, but we had a conversation and he was quite sure the Port Jervis had an exceptional team and he told me that when they beat Delaware Valley, it will put them on the map. Well the map went blank because Delaware Valley beat them convincingly last year in the Port Jervis home gym.

This year the game was played at Delaware Valley. The Port people were very well represented by their fans who were loud and boisterous. The obligatory taunting was in full swing. At one point in the varsity game, which had been nip and tuck, Port took a 6-point lead. They seemed to be taking over control and their side, the staff, the team and the fans were euphoric to say the least. More on that later.

Ok. I have already mentioned in previous articles that the Delaware Valley freshman and JVs are fabulous. The freshman didn’t play tonight but the JVs did. The JVs. started the ball rolling that would spoil the evening for Port. On Monday evening, Port Jervis scored first and looked good doing it so it seemed like we were going to have a fierce game. Um nope. Delaware Valley took over. The first period ended with Delaware Valley up 17-5.

Delaware Valley was doing it all — shooting, stealing and rebounding. They were in total charge and the half ended with Delaware Valley up 34-9.

Delaware Valley is strong all around. Even with some missed shots the defense was so fierce that it didn’t matter. The third period saw Delaware Valley up 47-15.

Delaware Valley seemed to relax a little bit in the fourth and final period, so the game ended with Delaware Valley running away with it by a score of 56-27.

Top scorers for Delaware Valley were Colin McGarvey with 16 points, Jaxon Barbilach had 9 and James Dabney had 7. The rest of the team is not to be underestimated. This was a complete and total team effort. Any school that wants to get the best of Delaware Valley had better get it soon because the freshman and JVs are going to make Delaware Valley very special for several years to come.

I felt that these young men, the junior varsity, earned an article of their own and that they should not be lumped in with the varsity coverage so my coverage of the Varsity will be in a separate article.

Stay tuned because it was exciting.