Boys Basketball: Haverford downs great Valley at buzzer in overtime

EAST WHITELAND- It was a game fit for two undefeated teams Saturday afternoon at Great Valley High School. The teams battled each other tooth and nail for the entire game and the result was not determined until Haverford’s Nick Colucci hit a driving layup at the buzzer in overtime as the Fords downed a game Great Valley team 63-62. Colucci led all scorers with 27 points and the Great Valley defenders could not stay in front of him the entire game.

“We really battled for the entire 36 minutes we played today,” Great Valley coach CJ Savage said.”We were without two key guys today. Our starting point guard and our sixth man was out but the kids really showed they have fight in them and showed they were very resilient. We just came up a little short today against a real good Haverford team. Colucci is a great player and we had trouble staying in front of him and he did the job for them.”

The teams were tied after three periods and the game swayed back and fourth in the fourth period. Cam Wallace, the impressive Patriots freshman scored in tight to make it 54-53 Patriots lead with 1:04 to play.Wallace had 17 points for Great Valley in spite of getting into foul trouble in the first half.

But, Colucci sent the game to overtime when he scored on a driving layup to make it 55-55 with eight seconds to play in the fourth period. Colucci was fouled on the play but he missed the free throw and the Patriots (3-1) last second shot fell short to send the game into overtime.

The overtime period started with Haverford’s Brian Wiener hitting two long three-balls and the Fords went ahead 61-57 with 2:25 left in the overtime period.

The Fords sank nine there-balls for the game.The second Wiener three-ball came after Max DiMedio scored in tight fore the patriots. Di Medio had 14 points for the game trailing just teammate Connor Gal who led the Patriots with 22 points.

Haverford came down the floor and turned the ball over and the Patriots had life with 1:45 left in overtime. Gal hit a long three-ball to pull Great Valley to within 61-60 with just 1:20 left in overtime.

The Fords (3-0) came down the floor and looked for their main man, Colucci who drove to the basket and got fouled with 21 seconds to play in overtime. Colucci missed the front end of the 1 and 1 and Great Valley grabbed the rebound and came up court. Savage called timeout with 15.5 seconds to play in overtime with the Fords holding a 61-60 advantage.

The Patriots in bounded the ball to Gal who found Cam Wallace on the left elbow. Wallace drove the hoop and got fouled and gave the patriots a 62-61 lead with 6.3 seconds to play when he drained both free throws. But, Haverford got the ball into Colucci’s hands and like he did all day, he drove the hoop strongly and scored a layup just as the buzzer sounded and the game Patriots went down to a tough 63-62 defeat, their first of the young season.

“He had a really good game and we had trouble staying down on him,” Gal said. “He had a real good up and under move and we did a good job staying down at times but he got us a lot  of times. And missing two of our key guys showed a lot about our team today. We showed a lot fo fight and resilience and we know we are a good team. This was a tough one to lose.”

Haverford 63, Great Valley 62, overtime.

HAVERFORD (63) Colucci 12 2-4 27, Wiener 4 0-0 11, Gannon 2 0-0 5, Seidman 4 0-0 14, Wright 2 0-0 6, Reynolds 0 0-00, Raech 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 2-4 63.

GREAT VALLEY (62) Gal 7 5-6 22, DiMedio 5 4-4 14, Wallace 3 11-13 17, McDaniel 0 0-0 0, Otterbein 1 0-0 2, Markowski 3 1-2 7. Totals 19 21-24 62.

Haverford         14 13 11 17 8-63
Great Valley      17 12 9 17 7-62
3-point goals: Gannon, Wiener 3, Seidman 2, Wright 2, Colucci, Gal 3.
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