Vikings advance; S-E beaten in Section 3 playoffs

Boys’ Basketball

Otselic Valley 72, Lyme 55

SOUTH OTSELIC – Otselic Valley (20-1) opened defense of its Section III Class D-2 title from 2007 beating the same team it met in last year’s final, Friday night.

It was a far cry from that contest as the Vikings blew out the visiting Indians over three quarters to construct a 30-point lead. “We played very well in the first half,” said OV coach Dave Loomis. “They like to shoot a lot of threes and had a dozen in their last game. We extended our zone and did nice job of defending. We were also able to score quite a bit in transition.

“Lyme is a good team, but they never really got going.”

Brad Wentworth stepped forward for the Vikings to score a career-high 20 points. Taylor Duell had a double-double with 13 points and 17 rebounds, David Cerasani tossed in 12 points, and Robert Guyer also snagged 17 boards.

OV plays the winner of Brookfield or Faith Heritage Friday night in the D-2 semifinals.

Lyme: Jenkins, 1 0-0-2; Putman, 4 4-5-12; Sutherland, 2 0-0-5; Backus, 0; Norman, 1 2-4-4; Allen, 2 4-4-10; Walker, 2 0-0-4; Lathrop, 1 1-2-4; Williams, 5 4-4-14. Totals: 18 15-19-55.

Otselic Valley: Chris Olin, 0 2-2-2; Taylor Duell, 5 3-4-13; Cerasani, 4 3-5-12; Tyler Davis, 0; Brad Wentworth, 9 2-5-20; Eric Wentworth, 2 0-0-4; Justin Shapley, 1 2-2-4 ; Adam Duell, 0; Dillon Brown, 4 0-0-8; Corey Williams, 0; Robert Guyer, 4 1-2-9; Garth Hubbard, 0; Jamin Selan, 0; Troy Rasmussen, 0; Ryan Meigs, 0. Totals: 29 13-20-72.

Lyme 7 11 14 23–55

OV 15 25 22 10–72

Fouled out: (L) Norman. Team fouls: (L) 15, (OV) 16. Three-pointers: (L) Allen 2, Sutherland, Lathrop, OV) Cerasani.

Mt. Markham 64, S-E 51

WEST WINFIELD – Mt. Markham avenged an overtime loss to Sherburne-Earlville the previous week, and eliminated the Marauders from the Section III, Class B playoffs Friday night.

Josh Pugh, who had two 20-plus-point games in the first two meetings against S-E, had 24 points over the middle two periods and scored a game-high 28 points in the win. During those two stanzas, Mt. Markham was able to erase S-E’s three-point lead at the first turn and open a 10-point advantage entering the fourth.

“Pugh is a athletic kid who went to the basket strong,” said S-E coach Kevin Vibbard. “We paid a lot of attention to him and had a lot of guys rotating to help, but he still got to the rim.”