Spartans Fall Short in Bid for League Title
Germantown, OH (January 27, 2005)— In a game with major league implications, the Valley View Spartans made a thrilling, come-from-behind attempt, before falling 45-48 to cross-county rivals, Bellbrook Eagles.
"That's why you play basketball. That was an exciting game," noted head coach Steve Dickson, just moments after his team almost upset the reigning SWBL champs.
The Spartans spotted the Eagles to an 11 point first-quarter lead before outscoring their opponents in each of the next three periods (1-8, 13-12, 15-11). But it was too little, too late, dropping Valley View's overall record to 11-6, and second place in the SWBL Southwestern Division.
"We knew that we couldn't start out slow or we would be playing catch-up. noted head coach Steve Dickson. Those three-pointers killed us," Dickson said, refering to the first quarter.
It wasn't just the first period that hurt the Spartans chances for a league title. Despite a low, 10 turnovers, the Spartans could only manage to hit 16 of 51 from the field. The did hit 11 of 13 from the free-throw line. The Eagles just didn't give them much of a chance to go to the line.
"There were a couple of shots that just didn't fall. It came down to we had to score at the end."
"It's not the end of the season. There's still three more games to go and then tournament time," noted the always optimistic Dickson.
| Valley View | 6 | 17 | 30 | 45 |
| Bellbrook | 17 | 25 | 37 | 48 |
Scoring: Rowland 11, Powers 8, Kerns 8, Hasty 6, Hanahan 5, Ritze 3, Tipton 2, S. Smith 2
