Fourth Quarter Slump Hurts Cougars

To hear Head Coach Todd Ervin tell it, the Chatham boys' basketball game played solid basketball for about 30 minutes of its game against the Delbarton Green Wave.

But for a couple of minutes toward the beginning of the fourth quarter, Chatham turned the ball over often and didn't make many shots. Ervin said the team's play during that short period of the time was part of the reason it lost, 59-49, to Delbarton during Cougar Night at Chatham High School on Saturday in an energetic, loud gymnasium.

"It was a two-minute stretch that killed us," Ervin said.

Chatham began the game red-hot from the field. Sophomore Jonathan Berntsen sunk a three-pointer to open the team's scoring, and junior Brendan Damodaran and senior Chris Conroy hit nifty layups to put the team ahead 10-7 in the middle of the first quarter. Another Berntsen three-pointer helped Chatham take a 16-9 lead at the end of the first quarter.

But Delbarton roared back in a second quarter full of streaky play. It scored the first nine points of the quarter, but a three-pointer by Berntsen stopped the Green Wave offensive and was the beginning of a 7-0 Cougar run. The teams went back and forth for the rest of the quarter, and Chatham went into its locker room at halftime with a 26-23 lead.

"Chatham really shot the ball well tonight for most of the game," Delbarton Head Coach Dan Whalen said.

The game's fast pace—both teams were consistently running at full speed up and down the court—continued throughout a back and forth third quarter. Damodaran hit a three-pointer and made another flashy layup to lead the Cougars at the beginning of the period, and Chatham eventually took at 40-36 lead.

But Delbarton senior Mick Moran scored with 1:02 left in the quarter to tie the game at 40, and the Green Wave scored three more points in the period's final minute to take a 43-40 lead.

Chatham would never regain the advantage, and it began to play what Ervin called its worst two minutes of the game.

After a scoreless first minute of the fourth quarter, Delbarton's Mitch Lawrence and Damodaran traded three-pointers. But Delbarton junior Dean Brierley—who led all scorers with 19 points—completed a three-point play soon afterward, and put back a missed shot to keep Delbarton ahead.

Delbarton's lead quickly stretched to nine, then to 11, and Chatham three-point tries that were going through the net at the beginning of the game were rimming out in the fourth quarter. Chatham pulled the score to within seven points in the fourth but ultimately fell short.

Conroy, who led Chatham with 18 points, said he noticed Delbarton used its press defense in the second half a bit more than it had in the first. The Cougars, he said, were affected by that extra aggression.

"We had too many turnovers," he said.

The Cougars, who dropped to 8-5, will face Jefferson Township on the road at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.