The first three quarters between Amherst and Orange featured plenty of excitement and waves of momentum.
In the end, the Comets held the Lions to three points in the fourth quarter to pull away for a 65-50 victory in the opener of Midview’s DiFranco Classic on Dec. 2.
“We talked about it, (Orange) played last night and we knew they would have tired legs,” Amherst coach Pat Bray said. “We knew we had to get after them. Once their legs got tired in the second half, we started taking advantage of it. I told my guys holding them to three points in the fourth quarter is a heck of a job.”
PHOTOS: Amherst vs. Orange boys basketball, Dec. 2, 2023
Amherst’s defense came through in the second half. The Comets will be facing a height deficit in most games this season and Orange’s length was no exception. While they’re shorter, the Comets showed grit to outrebound the Lions and hold them to only 16 points in the second half.
“We came in just trying to go at it and do what we can,” Landen Bray said. “We didn’t come out as aggressive as we wanted to at the beginning. But a big talk at halftime was defense and boxing out. I think we came out pretty well in the second half and we did what we had to do on the defensive side.”
Across the board, it was a game of runs. It was tied early at 9-9 before Amherst closed the quarter on a 9-0 run. Ryan Yoder knocked down two 3-pointers and Stanley Robinson made one of his own.
Amherst built a 25-12 lead in the second quarter, but Orange came back with a 14-0 run of its own to take the lead back. Ernie Pryor and Major Calhoun sparked the run for the Lions. Pryor had eight points in the quarter on the way to pouring in a game-high 27 points.
Along with grit, the Comets showed resiliency whenever Pryor was stuffing the stat sheet. After the 14-0 Orange run, Bray knocked down a big 3-pointer and David Dudziak made a pair of free throws. Amherst weathered the storm and took a five-point lead into the locker room.
“Some of our guys, they have short memory spans, which is a good thing in this sport,” Pat Bray said. “For us to settle down and come back with our little run to have a lead going into halftime was huge.”
Pryor scored the first six points out of the locker room to give the lead back to the Lions, but that would be the last time. Bray responded with a 3-pointer to put Amherst back in front and Pryor scored again to tie it.
A 6-0 run was capped off by a layup from Tristyn Young and the lead sat at three entering the fourth after Pryor drained a triple. Following that basket, it was all Comets.
Robinson was a spark plug off the bench for Amherst. He knocked down two huge 3’s in the fourth quarter to stretch the lead. Pryor had a basket in between, but that was the Lions’ only field goal of the fourth quarter. Yoder made an and-one to extend the lead to 10 with over three minutes to go. With the way Orange was struggling to score, that effectively ended it.
“It just took a lot of tough effort,” Landen Bray said. “Coming out for the first game of the year not really knowing how it was going to go, we just had to dig deep and push to get every bucket and every stop we could.”
Bray led Amherst with 18 points, and Yoder was close behind with 17. Amherst is back in action on Dec. 5 at Clearview.
THE SCORE
Amherst 65, Orange 50