DV and Honesdale match up in barn-burner basketball

Photos and story by Kenneth Hubeny Sr.
MILFORD — Delaware Valley's junior varsity and varsity basketball teams had home games and played Honesdale. How do I start telling you about these games? Maybe by just saying, wow!
Both the junior varsity and varsity games were absolute barn burners. They were action packed, fast paced, and highly spirited games, from the opening moments till the final seconds.
First the JV game: Defence was the order of the day for both teams. Although both teams spent the evening sprinting up and down the court the scoring was held low due to stifling defences.
Both teams had difficulty getting the ball to fall through the hoop, and a lot of time was lost for both teams trying to get an open shot. The result was a low-scoring game that was very close all the way — that is, until the final four minutes, when Honesdale pulled away and had a seven-point lead. Then they thought it was a good time to hold onto the ball and burn up the clock. It turned out to be a poor decision as DV scored the last 8 points and won by a score of 38-37.
Wow.
I thought that was the excitement for the night, but no way. The varsity was up next, and wow again.
Honesdale and DV players were comparable in height, but the Honesdale players look like football players or wrestlers. They scored the first 5 points and it looked like it would be a long night for DV. But wait, DV battled back and finished the first period on top with the score of 9-7.
DV continued to sizzle in the second period and held a strong lead at 23-16. I thought that this was turning into an easy breezy time for the team.
Something must have happened in the Honesdale locker room at half-time because they came out and ran the third period like a team possessed. And it was all tied up at 30-30 at the close of the third period.
The fourth period was a ping pong match. The lead went back and forth by a margin of 1 point each. It looked like who ever happened to have the lucky 1 point lead when the buzzer sounded would be the winner of this game.
I give great credit to both teams. They both wanted to win this game tremendously, and they both left everything on the floor.
DV managed to pull ahead, but in the closing minutes both teams pulled off beautiful blocked shots and several steals apiece.
With DV having a four-point lead and 20 seconds to go, Blake Gearhart took possession of the ball and dribbled circles around the gym to kill the clock and secure the victory at 46-42.
Again the Delaware Valley scoring was well balanced, with Blake leading the way with 14 points.
Final comment here: These games were so spirited that, at one point, with one minute to play, the Honesdale cheerleaders did a jumping and leaping cheer that had the DV crowd oooh-ing and aah-ing. And when they finished, they got a good round of applause from the DV side.
Everyone showed great spirit and wonderful sportsmanship.
This was just a real fun night.