Sabers upset Eagles on Phillips three, Blue Ridge upends division leading Trail

Mother Nature played havoc with league schedule forcing both the boys

and girls schedule to be played Saturday.

But Susquehanna’s Matt Phillips didn’t let the two days off bother him as he nailed a three pointer with 1.8 seconds as Susquehanna shocked division leading Mountain View 52-51.

Hoping to take sole possession of first place after co-leader Lackawanna Trail fell to Blue Ridge, Mountain View led 51-49 when Garrett Decker found Phillips coming off a screen at the top of the key, and Phillips got the shot off as two Eagle defenders converged.

“When it left my hand I felt like it was going to be a little long,” explained Phillips. “I had two defenders closing out on me, and I knew I didn’t have a lot of time to get the shot off.”

Susquehanna got off to a slow start as Garrett Decker scored all five Saber points and Mountain View took a 10-5 lead behind Michael Fanelli’s four points and a three from both Ryan Henke and Jalique Gillyard.

The rest of the Susquehanna offense woke up in the second quarter as Decker and Gavin Baker each scored two buckets while Phillips and Jakub Tomcyzk buried three balls and the Sabers cut the lead to 25-21 at the half. Fanelli kept Mountain View ahead with seven points and super sub Preston Petts came off the pine to score five.

After halftime Susquehanna cut the lead to two as five different Sabers scored in the quarter. Mountain View maintained a 36-34 lead as Fanelli tacked on eight more points.

The teams traded blows for most of the fourth quarter as Baker began to establish himself down low with six points. Petts was four for six from the line to pace Mountain View in the quarter while Henke added a pair of field goals from downtown before Phillips’ heroics.

“A win like this is a huge confidence builder going into our last two regular season games,” said Phillips. “Also beating a team like Mountain View with only one (league) loss helps our power ranking.”

Mountain View Coach complimented Susquehanna on their execution throughout the day along with the game ending play.

“We would have been hard pressed to defend it any better,” said Gibbons of Phillips’ shot. “(They) executed their game plan better and made more plays.”

Mountain View was able to stay tied with Trail as Blue Ridge used a second-quarter push and survived woeful fourth quarter foul shooting to upset Trail 59-52 on the road.

Blue Ridge opened with a slight advantage after a back and forth opening quarter to lead 14-12 as Ben Bleck and Gavin Rosa combined for nine points to offset a pair of threes from Trail’s Nico Berrios.

The Raiders extended the lead before halftime as Bleck scored nine points in quarter two and Rosa nailed two shots from behind the arc and added another field goal as Blue Ridge led 34-25.

After halftime the Lions held Blue Ridge to 10 points and Richard Helbing and Josh Rzcidulo combined for 11 points to cut the lead to 44-38 heading into the fourth.

Despite shooting 5-11 from the charity stripe and Helbing adding nine more of his game-high 25 points, Blue Ridge got 11 more points from the Bleck and Rosa combination to hold on for the win.

Bleck finished with 22 points while Rosa complemented with 21 to lead Blue Ridge. Calvin Scheideler added 10.

Elk Lake erupted for 44 first-half points to ruin the Saturday matinee for Forest City chopping the Foresters down 76-27.

Matt Mowry led the charge scoring all 17 of his points in the first half as the Warriors built a 44-14 lead before a packed crowd as Elk Lake held their Coaches vs. Cancer game.

Brant Marshall led Elk Lake with 22 points while Trever Graham chipped in with 10 and Pierce Forkal ignited the crowd with three field goals from deep to finish with nine.