It was not pretty, but Chatham High School (N.J,) Boy’s basketball team used a balanced offensive attack with three players scoring in double digits to outlast Delaware Valley, 57-49, Saturday night at home in their first game (Day 2) of the Cougar Classic Hoops Tournament.
Sophomore Milo Semioli paced the Cougars with 13 points, while seniors Marco Mannino and Michael MacAniff contributed 10 points apiece to help the team stay undefeated at 4-0.
Longtime head coach Todd Irvin said the victory was not exactly pretty, but they will take it anyway.
“We were not very good offensively,” Ervin said. “Our half court defensive wasn’t very good, though the press was very good. We kind of figured it out at the end. It’s a good win. You’re going to have ugly wins; you might as well win them.”
The Cougars jumped out to a 14-7 advantage, with Mannino dropping in six points in the first period.
Chatham kept its seven-point lead in the second quarter, going into the locker room ahead 28-21.
But the Terries (3-2) chipped away at the lead, pulling ahead 32-31 with 2:47 remaining in the third period.
Senior Lochlan Mahoney connected on two from the charity stripe to tie the game at 33-33 with 1:47 to go in the third quarter. Then, senior point guard Ryan Leach, a Kenyon College commit, put the Cougars ahead, 35-33, with less than 35 seconds left in the third before Delaware Valley knotted the affair at 35 by period’s end.
The Terries banged one home from beyond the arc to take a three-point advantage early in the fourth quarter.
But Chatham went on a 9-0 run, with MacAniff dropping a bucket to help his team surge ahead by nine points with 5:54 left in the game.
With Delaware Valley working its way back into the tilt and trailing by two points, MacaNiff scored back-to-back baskets to give the Cougars a six-point lead with 3:22 to go in the affair.
Semioli ended any hopes of a Terrie comeback with seven points down the stretch to seal the deal for Chatham.
The Cougars return to action versus Cranford Monday night at 8:00 p.m. in Day Three of the Cougar Classic.
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