Class struggle: Trinity finds balance, holds off Fort Cherry
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry's Owen Norman (25) goes up against Trinity's Tim Hodges.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Trinity’s Tim Hodges (12) breaks past from Fort Cherry defender Derek Errett (22) in first-half action Friday night.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Trinity's Jason Dunkle (11) meets stiff resistance from Shane Cornali, left.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Trinity defenders Tim Hodges (12) and Kaden Hathaway (35) combine to defend Fort Cherry’s Matt Sieg.
Mark Marietta
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Trinity’s Owen Wayman is closely guarded by Fort Cherry’s Owen Norman as the Hillers work to preserve their lead late in the game.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Veteran head coaches Tim Tessmer, left, of Trinity and Fort Cherry's Eugene Briggs watch as their teams warm up before the game Friday night.
At first glance, a matchup between a Class 2A and a Class 5A school teams would be a mismatch.
Friday night’s non-section boys basketball contest between host Trinity and Fort Cherry, however, was anything but a blowout.
The Rangers, last season’s Class 2A WPIAL runner-up, gave the more robust Hillers all they could handle before falling 68-61 at Hiller Hall. Four Trinity players scored in double digits to lead the way.
“That’s how we are going to have to do it this year, with balance,” Hillers coach Tim Tessmer said. “We don’t have anyone that can just go out and score 25 on a nightly basis. We’ll have to score by committee.”
Drew Collins paced Trinity (2-1) with 17 points, all of which came in the second half. Tim Hodges chipped in with 15 while Owen Wayman and Jacob Dunkle scored 14 and 12 points, respectively.
Owen Norman led all scorers with 24 points for the Rangers (2-2) while his running mate, Shane Cornali, scored 20.
“We expected to win this game tonight,” Rangers coach Eugene Briggs said. “We didn’t look at it like we were Double-A going up against 5A. We felt we could win. They just had a bit too much for us tonight.”
Fort Cherry stayed close in the first quarter thanks to Norman’s seven points. The Rangers also outworked the taller Hillers on the glass to the tune of 8-5 in rebounds. Kaden Hathaway’s mid-range shot at the buzzer gave the Hillers a 17-14 lead at the end of the opening quarter.
A Wayman three extended the Hillers’ lead to 22-14 early in the second. Trinity’s lead ballooned to 10 when Hodges crashed the glass and scored a put-back layup, making the score 26-16 midway through the second.
But the Rangers responded by going on an 11-4 run to close the half. The push was keyed by bac- to-back buckets by Matt Sieg and Cornali to cut the Hillers’ lead to 28-27. But a Dante DeRubbo basket at the buzzer extended the Hillers’ advantage to 30-27 at the half.
Fort Cherry took a 35-33 lead early in the third quarter when Cornali scored a layup off a pretty feed from Sieg. But a 6-0 run, capped by a Hodges bucket, gave the Hillers a 39-35 lead later in the period.
A Collins three-pointer extended Trinity’s lead to 44-37. A 15-6 Hiller run led to a seven-point advantage for the Hillers as the third quarter melted into the fourth.
But the Rangers refused to quit. Four Rangers possessions netted four three-point shots from Norman, Cornali and Evan Pond to help keep Fort Cherry close, cutting the Hillers’ lead to 55-52 midway through the final quarter. But a Collins triple from the corner gave then Hillers a 60-52 lead and enough momentum to send the hosts home a winner.
“He was huge for us tonight,” Tessmer said in reference to Collins. “We needed that spark, for sure.”
Norman tried to lug the Rangers back into the contest when he drained three free throws in a row to cut the Trinity lead to 61-57 with three minutes remaining, but a Hodges layup pushed the lead to six with a little more than a minute left and eventually sealed the game for Trinity.