NEW MILFORD – Rob Heft heated up offensively and the Elk Lake defense shut down Montrose in the fourth quarter and overtime Thursday night, combining to produce a rally that lifted the Warriors to the Lackawanna League Division 4 first-half boys’ basketball title with a 47-43 victory.
Elk Lake held Montrose scoreless for a stretch of 7:40 from late in regulation until the closing seconds of overtime.
“A lot of times our pressure gets to people right off the bat,” Elk Lake coach John Warnero said. “Montrose is a great team and they were handling it well.
“You never know what the outcome is going to be, but I was comfortable in knowing our guys were going to fight to the end.”
One of the reasons Warnero was able to count on the defense eventually coming through is that the Warriors are supremely conditioned and do not back off.
After being kept in check by Montrose’s defense most of the game, Heft led Elk Lake back from an eight-point deficit after three quarters.
Heft had nine of his 15 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, including twin drives that began on the left wing and finished with a reverse layup off the glass on the right side. The first forced overtime and the next put the Warriors ahead to stay at the start of overtime.
“I just challenged him,” Warnero said of a heated team huddle after the third quarter ended. “He’s such a great player and such a smart player that he has no trouble taking any kind of criticism.”
Heft came out and hit a 3-pointer nine seconds into the fourth quarter.
Tanner Reyan, who had Elk Lake’s only eight points in the third quarter, had five more on his way to a game-high 17. His 3-pointer cut the Montrose lead to 39-38 with 4:38 left.
Montrose’s Troy Ely fought for a defensive rebound and was fouled by Reyan with 3:47 left. Reyan came out of the play with a cut over his left eye, which sent him to the bench temporarily.
Ely hit both ends of the one-and-one, but Montrose did not score again in regulation.
Heft’s drive with 1:37 left forced the tie and Reyan’s 10-foot runner from the left baseline at the buzzer went in-and-out.
Elk Lake forced three straight turnovers and Montrose did not manage a shot for almost three minutes to start overtime.
Heft’s drive with 1:47 left put the Warriors ahead. He also made both ends of a one-and-one with 18.3 seconds left.
Troy Ely scored off a rebound with seven seconds left, but Nick Dudock locked up the win by making both ends of a one-and-one with 5.6 seconds remaining.
Erik Burgh led Montrose with 11 points. Cameron Dean grabbed 14 rebounds and also had eight points.
Burgh’s third 3-pointer, in the opening seconds of the second quarter, gave Montrose a 15-10 lead.
Joey Zuber scored on a breakway to beat the halftime buzzer and Troy Ely did the same to end the third, giving the Meteors their biggest lead.
In between, Lance Nealy drained a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter on his way to nine points.
Elk Lake did not lead from the first quarter until Heft’s reverse layup in overtime.
The playoff was needed after the teams finished tied for first place in the first half of the league schedule.
The final first-half division standings: Elk Lake 5-1, Montrose 5-1, Blue Ridge 4-2, Susquehanna 2-4, Lackawanna Trail 2-4, Mountain View 2-4, Forest City 1-5.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Montrose completed a 6-0 run through the schedule to win the first-half Lackawanna League Division 4 girls’ basketball title.
Myra Lattimore scored 16 points in a 55-34 win over Lackawanna Trail January 21 to clinch the title.
Final first-half standings: Montrose 6-0, Forest City 5-1, Elk Lake 3-3, Susquehanna 3-3, Mountain View 2-4, Lackawanna Trail 2-4, Blue Ridge 0-6.
The three wins by Susquehanna in the first half are more than the Lady Sabers produced in league play in the last three full seasons combined. Susquehanna was 1-41 in those seasons – 0-14 in 2009-10 and 2010-11 and 1-13 in 2011-12.
In high school wrestling, defending champion Western Wayne knocked Blue Ridge out of first place with a 55-16 romp in a meeting between Lackawanna League Division 2 unbeatens.
All of Blue Ridge’s points came in consecutive weight classes in the lower weights. David Austin (113), Dalton Hogle (120) and Troy Maby (126) won decisions and Zach Edwards (126) received a forfeit. Hogle’s win was a shutout for a major decision.
In professional hockey, rosters were revised for the American Hockey League All-Star Classic, which was scheduled to be played Monday night in Providence, R.I.
The Eastern Conference team includes goalie Robin Lehner and defenseman Eric Gryba from the Binghamton Senators.
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins will be represented by Chad Kolarik, who they obtained last week in a trade of AHL all-star forwards that sent Beau Bennett to the Connecticut Whale.
The Penguins made other changes just as the team was heating up.
Tom Kostopoulos, the leading scorer in franchise history and a veteran of 614 National Hockey League games, was signed to a tryout contract.
Kostopoulos joined a team that had allowed just four goals while winning five straight through January 23.
COLLEGE CORNER
Dallas Ely has slipped from the starting lineup, but the Montrose graduate is still the third-leading scorer on the Division II West Chester University women’s basketball team in her freshman season.
Ely is averaging 9.8 points and 22.5 minutes per game while appearing in 13 games and starting in 10 for West Chester.
Ely is second on the team in 3-pointers made with 23 and has hit 11 of 12 (91.7 percent) free throws. She averages 3.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game.
West Chester took a 6-6 record in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and a 9-7 overall mark into the weekend.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Northeastern Pennsylvania again will be represented in the Super Bowl.
Dunmore’s Vic Fangio is the defensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers who will meet the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans.
Fangio is in his 26th season as an NFL.
The 49ers were 6-10 before Fangio arrived from Stanford along with head coach Jim Harbaugh. San Francisco went 13-3 and 11-4-1 in the two seasons since and only missed going to the Super Bowl last year because of an overtime loss in the NFC Championship Game against the New York Giants, who were on their way to a second Super Bowl title with Montrose graduate Chris Snee at guard.
The 49ers established themselves as title contenders while Fangio was re-establishing that he is one of the best in the game at what he does. Fangio had been defensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers, Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans.
“When I came back to this role, it was like I never left,” he said.
The 49ers defense is thriving under his leadership. San Francisco allowed the second-fewest points in the National Football League both season. The 49ers led in turnovers forced and fewest rushing yards allowed last season and ranked third in fewest total yards allowed this season.
Fangio had spent 11 years as a defensive coordinator in the NFL, but after four years in lesser roles, including on John Harbaugh’s staff in Baltimore, he stepped back to the college game to return to being a coordinator.
“I really enjoyed the year I had at Stanford,” Fangio said. “I came to grow and like the differences between the college and pro games. The experience was real good. If I stayed, I would have been happy there.”
Fangio was assessing his career in a telephone interview late in last season’s eight-game, regular-season winning streak. At the time he said, “in this business you have to do something in the playoffs to be considered truly successful.”
After two previous trips to the NFC Championship game, including with Carolina after the 1996 season, Fangio broke through this year with his greatest playoff success to date.
The 49ers can try to improve on that Sunday.
My prediction is that they will be successful, but in a close game: San Francisco 27, Baltimore 24.
In high school wrestling, the District 2 Dual Meet Championships are scheduled for Friday and Saturday.
The Class AA quarterfinals and semifinals will be held Friday at Lake-Lehman High School. There will be quarterfinals at 5 and 6:30. The semifinals are at 8. The final will be held, along with the Class AAA final, Saturday at 7 at Pittston Area.
Blue Ridge is virtually assured of a spot in the field. Montrose also has a strong chance of being included.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com and followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
