Strong second half propels Great Valley over Kennett

EAST WHITELAND>> This has been a trying season so far for the Great Valley boys basketball team. Numerous injuries and sickness has made multiple players miss a lot of practice and game time.

But Tuesday night the Patriots had all their parts back and the hosts rolled to a convincing 66-35 triumph over Kennett, in a Ches-Mont American Division game.

Great Valley (4-2 Ches-Mont, 8-7 overall) broke open a six point game at halftime and outscored the Blue Demons (1-6,1-15) 38-15 in the second half to roll to the win.

The Patriots shot 16 for 26 from the field in the second half and forced 14 Kennett turnovers for the game. Senior Jaxson Ray led the Patriots with 17 points and seven rebounds and fellow senior big man Lawron Short added nine points to go along with eight rebounds.

“We broke thing open in the second half and we played just like we practice things,” Ray said. “We have all our people back right now. Lawron is coming back and he played great for us tonight. We feel if we do what we do we can get into the district playoffs and hopefully make a run. We really ran our offense well in the second half tonight.”

Kennett played very well in the first half as the Blue Demons were led by senior Reagan Pelletier who led all scorers with 19 points, including three treys. The Blue Demons only trailed the Patriots by just 26-20 at halftime.

But Great Valley came out on fire to start the third period. After Pelletier drained a three-ball to make it a 26-23 Great Valley lead, Will Otterbien connected on a corner three-ball and it was a 29-23 game.

Pelletier tried to keep the Blue Demons in the game with another basket to cut the Patriots lead to 29-25. But the Patriots got a follow basket from Ray and a long three-ball from Jack Woodard to make it a 33-25 Patriots advantage. After a Kennett turnover, Pranav Hegde drove hard to the basket and scored for a 35-25 Great Valley lead.

The Great Valley lead grew to 41-27 when Woodard, who tallied 15 points for the Patriots, scored inside. When the third period ended, Great Valley had the game in hand with a 45-28 lead.

The Patriots shot a torrid seven for 12 from the field in the third period and outscored the Blue Demons, 19-8 to take the big lead into the fourth period. Kennett shot 14 fro 40 from the field for the contest.

“We came out in the second half and ran our offense,” Great Valley coach CJ Savage said. “We work on running our offense everyday in practice and we executed very well tonight. We know when we face difficult teams we are going to have to run our stuff and execute.”

The Great Valley lead climbed to 50-28 early in the fourth period when Short scored on a follow. After a Kennett miss, Gavin Maslowski scored in the lane for a 52-28 Patriots advantage and the suspense was over and Great Valley had a nice, tidy, win on their Senior Night.

“We are getting guys back and it has been tough having guys miss practices,” Savage said. “We are just getting getting Lawron back and he really helped us inside tonight. Hopefully we can get on a roll now.”

Great Valley 66, Kennett 35.

KENNETT (35) Pelletier 8 0-0 19, Talbert 1 0-0 2, Freeberry 2 2-2 6, Smith 1 0-0 2, lower 1 0-0 2, Guzzio 0 1-2 1, Schumaker 0 1-2 1, Heavens 1 0-0 2, Meehan 0 0-0 0, Halakos 0 0-0 0, Altman 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 4-6 35.

GREAT VALLEY (66) Stahl 2 0-0 6, Markowski 2 0-0 4, Otterbien 2 0-0 5, Woodard 5 2-2 15, Ray 7 3-7 17, Short 3 3-4 9, Maslowski 3 0-0 6, Hegde 2 0-0 4, Alexander 0 0-0 0, McDaniel 0 0-0 0, Metrick 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 8-13 66.

Kennett          12 8 8 7-35
Great Valley   13 13 19 19-66
3-point goals: Pelletier 3, Stahl 2, Otterbien, Woodard 3.