The Catskill Chronicle

Queen of the Hive. Eldred senior Kelsey Ferguson.

Story and photos by Ted Waddell

Eldred’s Steven Combs.

ELDRED – If you’re easily intimidated by an in-your-face home team crowd, don’t even think of showing up at Eldred’s tiny basketball court where the fans are literally three feet from the edge of the paint.

It’s a long-standing tradition at the “Home of the Yellow Jackets” to hoop and holler at the opposition as they battle the homeboys on the glass, a factor that causes some teams to quake in their sneakers.

In Tuesday’s non-league crossover game of hoops between the home team Yellow Jackets and the Hambletonians of Chester Academy, Kelsey Ferguson, a senior of the girl’s basketball squad, took center stage in the hive as she sat in the front row wearing a yellow knit cap with a few fake bees and illuminated by a blinking light on top.

Eldred’s Nick Mehedin and Chester’s Josh Feldman battle for possession.

Eldred swarmed to a 16-8 lead at the end of the first period, but then lost it’s fire as the intensity of the game switched over to Chester, who outpaced the Yellow Jackets in the remaining three frames (18-8, 15-10, 20-17) on the to a 61-51 victory.

Eldred’s Scott Hallock posted double digits with 17 points, while Nick Mehedin, Patrick Reiser and Brian Henry each had a ‘three’.

Chester: Shawn Thomas (22 points including a ‘3’), Matt Balzano (17 points), Josh Feldman (11 points including two ‘3’s), and James Ognibene nailed one from outside the paint.

Stats from the free throw line: ECS 5/6 (83%), CA 6/7 (86%).

Bucket Bull. Eldred’s Scott Hallock.

At 5:28 in the second period, Eldred still had a two-point advantage (19-17), but then Chester went ahead with a ‘three’ from beyond the arch and never really looked back as the intensity of the game switched from the home team to the visitors.

The Hambletonians closed out the third period with a ‘three’, and late in the final frame Eldred’s Scott Hallock tried to keep his team in the running with a ‘three’ at 1:25, but it wasn’t enough gas in the tank.

The last bucket of the game was scored by the Yellow Jacket’s Brain Henry who grabbed his own rebound off the glass and put it through the mesh on a putback.

“It was a good game, a great crowd,” said J.J. Gass, coach of the Yellow Jackets (5-4 OCIAA overall, 3-0 division).

Lofty Goal. Chester’s Ryan Crowe reaches for the ball.

“We had the intensity, but beginning in the second quarter we lost it…they had open looks and started hitting their shots.”

“They were hitting tough shots, fade away’s and floaters, everything seemed to go in,” he added.

Jon Marsilio, coach of the Hambletonians (6-7 OCIAS overall, 1-3 division), said that when his hoopsters didn’t execute their game plan early on ”I ripped into ‘em to try to get it going again.”

“We went into the second period and changed up our defenses…we have some height but not a lot of muscle, and we knew if we played their game which is a physical game, they were going to ‘out physical’ us.

Eldred’s cheerleaders rooted for the home team.

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