By HUNTER O. LYLE
DUKE CENTER, PA – As the Otto-Eldred and Coudersport boy’s basketball teams entered the Terror Dome, one fact was inevitable: someone would be tallying their first North Tier League loss.
Up until then, both teams had spotless resumes, with O-E boasting a 7-0 record and Coudy a notch back at 5-0. However, there are no ties in basketball, another undeniable fact. Fueled by their tenacity in crunch time, the Terrors kept their flawless streak alive, beating the Falcons 45-36.
“Honestly, we just wanted to come out and compete. I think that’s the biggest thing for us, being ready to play from the jump,” said Otto-Eldred head coach Rob Wight. “We knew (Coudy) was a big team, we knew they were going to be physical, so we just wanted to be ready and compete.”
Staying true to their run-and-gun style, the Terrors jumped out front early. Looking to spark fastbreaks, O-E quickly utilized long outlet passes that landed in the hands of Wyatt Blendinger unguarded under the hoop. With two baskets from him and another from Jack Sherry, the Terrors swiftly amassed a 6-2 advantage through the opening minutes.
Meanwhile, Coudy’s own gameplan, to find their star center Lawson Wetzel on the low block, failed to pay off. Despite finding avenues to pull the ball in his hands, and despite his ability to create looks at the basket with an array of post moves, Wetzel’s shots wouldn’t fall. Finger rolls, post fades, drop step hooks all refused to sink as the Falcons watched O-E build upon their lead. Cashing in on a pair of triples from Michael Sheeler and a second chance score from Blendinger late in the quarter, the Terrors pulled away by 10 after the first eight minutes of play.
In the next eight, Coudy continued to pound the ball inside and although their shots still missed their mark, they found some headway by earning trips to the free throw line. However, while their offense was still yet to find a groove, their defense found production.
Switching from a zone to a high-pressure man-to-man scheme, the Falcons managed to clog O-E’s rapid-fire offense by creating several turnovers. The Terrors were not ones to hesitate in repaying the favor as they began swarming Wetzel, including sending double-teams at him on the block and forcing Coudy to rely on their outside shooters.
“We actually stayed in man-to-man all night but it looked like a zone because we were so heavily cheating over (towards Wetzel.) We knew he could really hurt us if we let him get going early so we wanted to make them knock down their outside shots, we were going to heavy double and we did a good job helping,” said Wight. “Wyatt (Blendinger) did a good job on him. He played behind him all night but he’s so lengthy and he works so hard so he did a good job.”
As both teams struggled with turnovers – they combined for 10 throughout the quarter – and clunky offensive possessions, the scoreboard remained largely unchanged, with O-E holding onto an eight-point lead as they entered halftime.
After a brief intermission, it seemed as if Coudy had found their spark. Out of the break and facing a spacious man-to-man defense, Wetzel put his team on his shoulders. Getting off quick releases from the post and coming away with several rebounds on both sides of the court, Wetzel opened the scorebooks with back-to-back baskets. However, from there, the Falcons’ engine seized again.
As Coudy’s offense quickly cooled off, the Terrors’ quickly heated up. Starting with a successful drive toward the rim from Blendinger, everything O-E put up seemed to fall. Pushing the pace once again, the Terrors found several points in transition while their efficient shooting from long range pulled defenders out of the paint, creating openings for agile cutters. With their opponents still looking for answers, the Terrors padded their lead with 13 unanswered points.
“I think where we’re growing as a team is learning how to finish teams off. That was a big talk in the locker room” said Wight. “We made a couple defensive adjustments on where we were going to help from and on offense we wanted to get the ball moving a little quicker against their pressure. Really, we were driving home that we needed to keep our foot on the gas.”
Despite looking up at a 15-point lead, the Falcons remained resilient. After nearly three empty minutes, Coudy ended the drought with back-to-back scores inside from Wetzel and although they were able to make some headway, ending the third quarter on a 10-2 run to bring the gap back down to single digits, their offense didn’t follow them into the fourth quarter.
Continued inconsistencies plagued their approach and, coupled with the Terrors intentionally burning clock for large swaths at a time, the Falcons’ shot at a comeback grew further and further out of reach. Eventually, the game settled into back-and-forth scattered scores with the Terrors keeping a nine-point advantage that would hold for the final buzzer.
Mason Rees, who hit three 3-pointers throughout the victory, ended with a team-high 14 points while Blendinger followed closely behind with 12 points and nine rebounds. Sherry finished with six points, 11 rebounds and four blocks while Sheeler tallied seven points.
Both playing on Saturday, the road ahead is rough for the Terrors and Falcons alike. While Coudy returns home, they face Cameron County, who is also unbeaten in league play. For the Terrors, they take to the road, traveling to Clarion for a showcase game against Clarion-Limestone. That game, played at Penn West University, is slated for a 2:30 p.m. start.
“We’re going to take it one game at a time. There’s no rush for us. We have our showcase against Clarion-Limestone, who’s really good, tomorrow and then it’s league play for the rest of the year for us,” said Wight. “So it’s one game at a time. We don’t have any back-to-backs really so we have time to prep and gameplan. We just want to be focused and ready to go. We’re growing every day as a team but we’re still inexperienced in these tight games so we’ll keep working in practice and see if we can bring it home.”
AT DUKE CENTER
Coudersport (36)
Wetzel 9 2-5 20, Wonderly 1 1-2 4, Taylor 1 0-0 3, Freeman 1 1-2 3, Wahlers 1 1-2 3, Fowler 0 2-2 2, Vanwhy 0 1-2 1. Totals: 13 8-14 36
Otto-Eldred (45)
Rees 5 0-2 14, Blendinger 4 4-6 12, Sheeler 2 1-4 7, Sherry 3 0-0 6, M. Schenfield 2 0-0 4, R. Schenfield 1 0-0 2. Totals: 17 5-12 45
Coudersport 4 13 27 36
Otto-Eldred 14 21 36 45
Three-point goals: CD (2) Taylor, Wonderly, O-E (6) Rees 3, Sheeler 2, Sherry; Total fouls: CD 18, O-E 14; Fouled out: Taylor (CD).
JV: Coudersport 40, Otto-Eldred 25
