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Montrose Rally Falls Short In First-Half Playoff Game
By Tom Robinson

DIMOCK TOWNSHIP - Montrose’s defense took over in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Lackawanna League Division 3 boys’ basketball playoff game against Lackawanna Trail.

The Meteors shut down the Lions and often took the ball away to also make life easier on the Montrose offense.

All that work, however, was only able to cut a 17-point deficit to the final margin of 51-49 as Lackawanna Trail escaped with a win in the first of the games needed to break a three-way tie for the division’s first-half title.

Lackawanna Trail was scheduled to play Blue Ridge for the first-half title Monday night in a game that was not completed as of presstime.

The Lions managed just one field goal in the final 10 minutes Saturday, but they had done enough up to that point to be able to advance.

Complicating matters for Lackawanna Trail was that it hit just seven of 16 free throws in the fourth quarter. Matt Lochen went 4-for-7 , including making one of two with 20.6 seconds left after Bill Stranburg’s 3-pointer from the left corner had brought the Meteors within 50-47 with 24 seconds left.

The Lions held the Meteors to 25 points in the first three quarters before Cole Wheaton had a big fourth quarter to lead Montrose to 24 points over the final eight minutes.

Wheaton had 11 of his 14 points and four of his nine rebounds in the fourth quarter.

Montrose used its pressure to make five steals and force Lackawanna Trail into 10 of its 19 turnovers in the fourth quarter.

“We built ourselves a good enough cushion that in the end, when Montrose got a rhythm, we were able to hang on,” Lackawanna Trail coach Andrew Kettel said.

The physical game was stopped four times for injured players to be treated.

Colby Major, who had seven of Montrose’s 10 points in the second quarter, played less than a minute total the rest of the way after hitting his head 3:06 into the second half.

Steve Miller, Lackawanna Trail’s 7-foot-1 junior center, shook off early foul trouble and a minor injury to lead the Lions with 15 points, 17 rebounds and five blocked shots. Lyle Sweppenheiser hit his first three 3-pointers and also finished with 15 points.

Stranburg finished with 10 points and six rebounds for the Meteors, who will need to win the second-half championship to have a shot at successfully defending their title.

Tom Lewis had six of his eight points in the fourth-quarter comeback.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Montrose won the first-half Division 3 girls’ title after blowing two games open early on the way to a 7-0 finish.

The Lady Meteors led 26-2 after a quarter of its 72-23 rout of Susquehanna then led 15-3 after a quarter of a 59-34 victory over Lakeland.

Brooke Malloy had 14 points while Katelyn Spellman and Dallas Ely had 12 each against Susquehanna.

Ely had 17 points, Samantha Abbott had 11 and Mimi DiPhillips had 10 against Lakeland.

Montrose finished the half 7-0, followed by Forest City 6-1, Lackawanna Trail and Mountain View 4-3, Elk Lake and Lakeland 3-4, Blue Ridge 1-6 and Susquehanna 0-7.

In boys’ basketball, Lackawanna Trail was unbeaten in the half and within two games of the title when it was knocked off by Blue Ridge, 64-54.

Blue Ridge made six 3-pointers in the second quarter and 11 in the game.

The big second quarter stretched a 19-11 lead to 41-24 before Trail tried to mount a comeback in the second half.

Sawyer Dearborn hit three 3s in the second quarter while Matt Principe made two and Dylan Pruitt made one.

Pruitt had scored eight in the first quarter and finished with 18.

Principe had 12 of his 17 in the first half.

Dearborn scored all 12 of his points on 3-pointers.

Miller led Trail with 23 points while Matt Lochen had 15, including 10 in the third quarter when he made two 3-pointers.

Trail then reached 6-1 with a 72-48 victory over Susquehanna.

Sweppenheiser scored 22 points while Lochen and Miller had 15 each. Miller also had 16 rebounds and eight blocked shots.

Andrzej Tomczyk scored 17 points and Cole Mallery had 15 for the Sabers.

The Lions led 15-2 after one quarter and 39-14 at halftime.

Montrose made it to 6-1 with a 55-35 victory over Susquehanna and a 68-51 win over Lakeland.

Steve Squires had 13 points, Major 12 and Wheaton 10 against Susquehanna.

The Meteors led 14-7 after one quarter, 26-14 at halftime and 43-22 after three quarters.

Tomczyk had nine points for the Sabers.

Wheaton hit two 3-pointers and had eight of his 19 points in a 22-11 first quarter against Lakeland.

Lewis added 15 while Stranburg had 12 and Squires 10.

Major had three 3-pointers in the first half to help open a 35-20 lead.

Lakeland was led by Kyle Kiehart with 18 points.

Blue Ridge followed up its win over Lackawanna Trail by beating Forest City, 67-55.

The final division standings were: Lackawanna Trail 6-1, Blue Ridge 6-1, Montrose 6-1, Elk Lake 4-3, Lakeland 3-4, Susquehanna 2-5, Mountain View 1-6 and Forest City 0-7.

COLLEGE CORNER

The Western New England College women’s basketball team won its first four games and seven of its first eight under sixth-year coach Nicole Chaszar, a Montrose graduate who went on to play and serve as captain at Temple University.

Chaszar’s WNEC is 5-0 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference and 13-3 overall. The Golden Bears are 9-1 on their home floor.

The 2008-09 WNEC team went 12-13. Chaszar has had winning records in her other four full seasons as coach, including a 21-7 mark in her debut that set a school record for wins.

Chaszar served two seasons as a graduate assistant at Springfield College, one season as an assistant at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and two seasons as an assistant on the Division I level at the University of Rhode Island.

During her time at Temple, Chaszar was a four-time Atlantic 10 Conference all-academic choice, a captain for two years and the team’s Most Valuable Player in her senior season.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Second-half play begins in Lackawanna League basketball.

Montrose is at Lackawanna Trail in a Thursday boys’ opener.

In professional hockey, the American Hockey League All-Star Classic features a Skills Competition at the Giant Center in Hershey Sunday and the game there Monday.

TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com.

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NASCAR Racing
By Gerald Hodges

Teams Near 200 Mph In Daytona Testing

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.- After two days of testing at a chilly and overcast Daytona International Speedway, drivers were ready to stick by each other’s sides on Saturday.

Literally.

Jamie McMurray, the defending Daytona champ had the fastest time on Friday.

“The track is really good and the racing is going to be closer to what Talladega has except for the fact the track is quite a bit narrower,” said McMurray. “I think when you see two cars get locked together, that if someone wants to pull up and block, he’s going to have the ability to do that. It can be good or bad. Talladega is just so wide that you can really only block one time and then the guys can go the other direction.

Jamie McMurray and Jeff Gordon during an interview session at Daytona.

“It will be interesting whenever you get all 43 cars out there. I did the tire test with Jeff (Gordon), and we really only got 20 cars on the track, and it's a lot different when you get everybody out there. So I'm curious to see Shootout practice. I think they've got 30 cars, so it'll be interesting to see what it's like with more cars.”

Two-car drafting was the theme of the day as the sun finally made an appearance. Teammates took to the track to test the pull, push and grip of the newly repaved 2.5-mile speedway during the third and final day of testing at Daytona - a three-day series test in preparation for the 53rd Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 20.

During the Saturday morning session, Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin swapped spots tailing each other and set the day’s top speeds with just over 197 mph.

“I feel like we’ve got a decent speed,” said Logano, who had the morning’s fastest lap (197.516 mph, 45.566 seconds). “Usually in single-car runs we were probably a 15th-place car, but I feel like we’re a top-five car in single-car runs right now. That’s exciting to know.”

Numerous teams opted for two-car drafting, including Tony Stewart and RyanNewman, Juan Montoya and Jamie McMurray, and Penske Racing’s Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski.

Keselowski recorded the fastest lap of the day at 197.746 miles per hour.

“I really think the racing is going to be great here,” said Keselowski. “We knew the track was going to be fast, but what we didn’t know is that you could draft so close together. I think the fans are going to love watching us race.”

NASCAR Managing Director of Competition John Darby wasn’t surprised that teams avoided multi-car drafting, instead relying on two- and three-car combinations.

“Obviously the guys are working on the tandem deal knowing that’s faster than the draft,” Darby said. “Everybody’s working on a little different agenda, and it’s all trying to find that edge to win the Daytona 500.”

Darby says it wasn’t about what teams and NASCAR learned during this week’s test, rather more about what fans can expect on Feb. 20.

“I think this test has done more in building confidence,” Darby said. “There’s always some anxiety around what happens when a track repaves.”

Last year’s repave - only the second at the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway and the first since 1978 - began after the NASCAR Sprint Cup event on July 3 and ended in early December. A Goodyear tire test on Dec. 15-16 was the first time teams drove on the repaved surface. This past week was the second time.

“All it has done is amplify the beautiful job they have done on resurfacing Daytona International Speedway,” Darby continued. “The grip is at an all-time high, the drivers are comfortable - that’s why you see a lot of the stuff on the race track, because they are comfortable in the cars. Sometimes there’s a fine line between comfortable and cocky but that’s what makes the race exciting. That’s one of the things that’ll make this Daytona 500, I think, different than any one I’ve been able to watch.”

During an interview session, Jeff Gordon was asked how the transition at Hendrick Motorsports had affected him.

“It really was a big move that was made at Hendrick Motorsports during the off season,” he said. “And I’d like to say the driver changes, not crew chief changes, because the drivers moved to different teams, so it's really driver changes. And I think that when a move that big is made, it sparks up a lot of conversation about why would that have happened and what caused that to happen.

“I think when you get here and you're parked next to one another, I think that it allows you to kind of analyze, or at least the media and the fans to analyze the vibes among the teams.

“And when you see me come in the garage area and me and Steve are laughing and talking about things, and same thing with the 48 and the 5 and everybody is happy and good and ready to go out and try to win the Daytona 500, I think that it maybe answers some of those questions.

“The only issue I had yesterday is I drove into the wrong garage. But it wasn't - I didn't drive into the old 24 garage, I drove into Mark Martin's garage thinking I'm the 5 team.

“Other than that, everything was pretty good. And we had a great day.”

MAYBE A CHANGE IN QUALIFYING

There may be a change from the qualifying order as teams have done in previous seasons, the qualifying order would at least in part be determined by speed in the practice prior to qualifying.

Teams in the Camping World Truck Series used the system a few times in 2010.

"It is a possibility,” NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby said. “We're throwing a bunch of ideas around in the meetings with the teams. We want to finish all the meetings, get everybody's input and then finalize some stuff.

“The idea is to have the faster drivers, the ones who will challenge for the pole, qualify near the end of the session and add drama to the qualifying show. It is possible that the drivers not locked in the field because their teams are outside the top-35 in owner points will still be grouped together at the end of the session.”

Racing Trivia Question: What year did the televised fight between Cale Yarborough and Bobby and Donnie Allison occur at Daytona?

Last Week’s Question: Which driver has the most Daytona 500 wins? Richard Petty’s seven wins tops all other drivers.

You may contact the Racing Reporter at: hodges@race500.com.

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