Chatham Squeaks Out 48-45 Victory

JEFFERSON — The Chatham Cougars boys basketball team overcame a number of obstacles during its game at Jefferson High School on Tuesday night.

Raucous fans? Check. Questionable calls from the referees? Yes, sir. But Chatham did not fade in the face of such challenges and walked away with a hard-fought 48-45 victory.

Foul calls left both head coaches vocally expressing their displeasure to the officials. The Cougars were charged with 17 fouls going into the fourth quarter. Jefferson had five.

"I was surprised that we had seventeen fouls and they had five," Chatham Head Coach Todd Ervin said. "Maybe we had a little more, but not that much more."

But fouls aside, junior guard Brian Ballard was Chatham's go-to guy from behind the three-point arc. His three-pointers helped Chatham attain a 12-7 first quarter lead.

Ballard finished with 11 points and four rebounds. Despite a number of offensive turnovers for Chatham in the second quarter, the Cougars went to the half leading 16-15.

Other Chatham players began to step up in the second half. Sophomore Jonathan Berntsen scored all of his team-high 13 points in the second half and senior captain Chris Conroy narrowly missed recording a double-double, getting nine rebounds to go along with his 12 points. The team's 18-point third-quarter offensive outburst had them leading 34-25 after the third quarter.

Even though Jefferson played a press defense for most of the fourth quarter, Chatham was too strong underneath. Senior Kevin Giannattasio came up with seven rebounds, junior Brendan Damodaran finished with seven points and two rebounds, and after a failed buzzer beater attempt by Jefferson that would have tied the game, Chatham escaped with a 48-45 win.

"We just made some plays down by the basket in the end and we got some stops. And fortunately, they missed some shots," Ervin surmised.

Senior guard Gavin McCarney led the Falcons with 27 points.

Chatham improved to 9-5 on the year. It will face Dover at home on Thursday at 7 p.m.