Ghosts Shine, Fall To 4^th-Seeded Otters
By Cody Montgomery

The Randolph boys, seeded 13^th in the Division II playoffs, traveled to fourth seeded Otter Valley on Tuesday, Feb. 27. They fought hard, but lost 48-41.

(For more on the RUHS boys’ season, see the editorial page column, "Team Spirit.")

Otter Valley opened the game up on a 10-2 run over the first four and a half minutes. Randolph then switched to a zone defense, and held the Otters scoreless through the rest of the period. The Ghosts were out-rebounded in the quarter, but Kyle Connolly and David Cooch each hit a three to shrink the Otter lead to two.

Ira Tillberg opened up the second for Randolph with a banked three from the corner, to give the Ghosts’ their first lead of the game, at 11-10. After another lead change, a Mike Czok jumper and a Connolly free throw tied the game back up at 14 apiece. Otter Valley quickly answered, and with five minutes on the clock continued to pad their lead with a 9-0 run.

Markus Farnham hit a jumper at the top of the key, and Jon White scored in the paint to close the gap to five. Farnham and Thomas Jacobs worked hard on the offensive glass, and Farnham finally laid the ball in the hoop to give Randolph some momentum going into the locker room. The Ghosts trailed 23-20 at half time.

Randolph held Otter Valley scoreless for the first half of the third quarter, and was able to take advantage of its stingy defense. Tillberg crashed the offensive glass and scored, and Connolly added one of eight Randolph threes in the game to put the Ghosts up by two, 25-23. Consecutive Randolph turnovers, however, fed another 9-0 Otter Valley run that put the Ghosts down eight. Farnham nailed a three, but the Otters added a bucket at the buzzer to give themselves a 36-28 lead.

The Ghosts proved they wouldn’t go quietly as Mike Czok hit a three, Jacobs scored under the basket, and Czok added another trey to bring Randolph within one, 37-36 with six minutes on the clock.

Both offenses slowed to a crawl as four minutes passed before Otter Valley scored to put the Otters up by three. White quickly answered to close the gap to one again.

With a minute and a half left, Jacobs got the ball at the free throw line, drove through the defense and put up a shot that went half-way down but came back out. The Otters then finished the game on a 9-3 run, with seven of those nine coming from the free-throw line.

"We did a heck of a job; we played about as well as we could play. Our guys showed up to play, and I’m very pleased," said Randolph coach Bruce Viens after the game.

Leading Randolph was Czok with eight points, Connolly, Tillberg, and Farnham with seven each, Jacobs with five, White with four, and Cooch with three. Jacobs had 10 rebounds, Tillberg had seven rebounds, Connolly had six rebounds, and Farnham had five.

The Ghosts graduate five seniors, and have five returning players, including three starters.

____________