By SPENCER BATES
FRANKLINVILLE — It’s not the start to the season the Portville boys basketball team was hoping for.
And its 51-43 loss in the first round of Franklinville’s 2024 Rick Hughes Memorial Basketball Tournament saw the culmination of a number of problems that have plagued the team albeit just four games into the season.
“It’s not the start we wanted for this season, we’re young, we’re inexperienced, it really hurts not having Aidan DeFazio, he’s our real leader,” Portville coach Tom Yanetsko said. “But the kids are working hard, so I can’t take that away. We’ll get there. It’s only our fourth game of the year.”
The growing pains are still there for the Panthers as they struggled early on against the pressure the Wildcats brought in the form of a full-court press. The interior defense the Panthers were also confronted with forced them to settle for deep shots more often than not and stifled any creativity that would have generated from driving to the basket.
This also made life much harder for Portville’s big man and go-to player so far this season in Chase Armstrong, who finished with 14 points on the night.
“He has a huge impact, I can put him anywhere I need him, as you saw tonight,” Yanetsko said. “I had him starting inside in a triangle against that zone, and when I needed to, I’d pull him out front and he could shoot his three. Chase has a big impact on our team, and it really will help when Aidan comes back to get that cohesion back again.”
But, at the moment, that lack of cohesion within the Panthers’ ranks has led to a heavy helping of traveling violations, passes going awry and turnovers coming more often than they would hope to see. Part of that comes from the fact that their main ball-handlers are still finding their legs.
“I’ve got one guard and it’s Peyton Carter, he’s a sophomore, his brother Braeden is a senior (guard), but Braeden hasn’t played in two years,” Yanetsko said. “That’s where Aidan comes in. He’s my ball handler. I don’t have that right now. These guys are just learning where to throw it, how to throw it along with the other guys. Zach Green is a junior, he’s coming along. I put a lot of pressure on Chase Armstrong to pull everything through, but it’s tough. Credit to Sherman, they put a good press on and they knew what we couldn’t do.”
Portville’s Braeden Carter (3) gets around a Sherman defender and looks to drive into the lane. (Spencer Bates)
But as much as Portville struggled offensively, they were able to keep within a reasonable distance of Sherman for the majority of the fixture. Entering the halftime interval, the sides were knotted up at 24 apiece. At its lowest point, the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Panthers found themselves 12 points down, but luckily a streak of fortune went their way soon after in the form of a 10-2 run, spurred on by the Carter brothers, that brought the scores within four in the dying moments.
“Braeden, the senior, like I said, hasn’t played in two years,” Yanetsko said of the duo. “He’s come a long way for not playing. And Peyton, he just saw very limited playing time last year. The two, they’re working well together. You can tell they go to the (YMCA) all the time to play with each other, and they step in big.”
Braeden Carter finished with a team-high 15 points for Portville with Peyton tallying seven.
Portville’s Peyton Carter (2) speeds looks to break ahead of the recovering Sherman defense. (Spencer Bates)
Unfortunately for Portville, they were unable to complete the comeback after giving up a 6-2 run to round out the affair. But win or loss, what Yanetsko saw during his team’s late scoring run gave him hope and reassured some knowledge he already had.
“My guys have heart,” Yanetsko said. “They’ll always fight. They’ll always keep working hard. I think they just got tired. I don’t have a very deep bench. They have heart, they have desire, they’ll never give up on me or the team.”
“I’m proud, I’ll go in the locker room and go over some good things, and I’ll go over some things that we’re going to need to work on. … we’ll come back battling.”
Portville will play Brocton in the tournament’s consolation game on Dec. 14 with tip-off set for 11:30 a.m.
Portville’s Chase Armstrong (23) dishes a pass out to the wing. (Spencer Bates)
AT FRANKLINVILLE
Sherman (51)
Ferranto 6 4-4 17, Chambers 3 4-4 10, Pinzok 5 0-0 10, DeKoning 2 0-0 6, Swan 3 0-0 6, Kopta 1 0-0 2. Totals: 20 8-8 51
Portville (43)
B. Carter 6 1-2 15, Armstrong 6 1-2 14, P. Carter 2 1-2 7, Fowler 2 0-1 4, Green 1 0-0 3. Totals: 17 3-7 43
Sherm. 13 24 41 51
Port. 16 24 31 12Three-point goals: Sherm. 3 ( DeKoning 2, Ferranto), Port. 6 (C. Carter 2, B. Carter 2, Armstrong, Green); Total Fouls: Sherm. 19, Port. 15; Fouled out: B. Carter (Port.).
