Falcons Knocked From Ranks of Unbeaten with Loss
MONROE, NJ–Entering its Monday night clash with Allentown of the Colonial Valley Conference in Week Seven action at the 2014 Monroe Sports Center Fall League, Monroe had yet to lose this fall. Â The Falcons got off to a fast start too against the Redbirds by scoring the first four points and six of the first eight over a span of 5:32. Â However, Allentown, which only lost one game so far this fall, turned up its defense, which fed its offense for an 18-2 tear over a span of 10:02 for a 20-8 lead. Â The Purple Birds weren’t able to recover after that, and lost for the first time this season.
The Redbirds went on to lead by 15 at the half before Monroe put together a furious second half rally to give itself a chance to tie at the end, but four three point attempts in the last 34.5 seconds were all off the mark, and Allentown pulled out an exciting 46-43 win in one of two great games on the evening at MSC. Â Tyler Salzer led the way for the Falcons in defeat with 20 points while junior Eddie Pinto chipped in with 14 including twelve in the second half. Â Monroe hurt itself significantly at the foul line. Â For the game, the Falcons were only 3 of 9 from the charity stripe in the contest.
Allentown didn’t score for the first 4:24 of the game as Monroe jumped out to a 4-0 lead. Â After the Redbirds scored on a layin to pull within two, the Falcons got another score set up by a nice pass upcourt by Salzer to a teammate for a layup from the left side and a 6-2 lead with 14:28 to go in the first half. Â Then, the Redbirds took over with an 10-0 run that included a charge drawn on Matt Cocorikis at the 14:06 mark, a layup at the 12:09 mark, and then a bank shot off an inbounds to cap the run and force Monroe to call timeout at the 10:49 mark. Â Following the timeout, the Falcons crept back to within four at 12-8 as Pinto dished out a nice assist for a layup from the left low block at the 8:57 mark.
Monroe was unable to get any closer for the time being though as the Redbirds from Monmouth County scored the next eight points including a layup at the 6:39 mark, a steal for another layup at the 4:38 mark, and then another steal for a layup attempt that drew a foul and resulted in two free throws for the 20-8 lead with 4:25 to go in the first half. Â Salzer did his best to keep the Falcons hanging around by swishing a three from the right wing at the 3:40 mark, and banking in another trifecta from the left wing with 1:40 to play before halftime. Â However, Allentown still managed to outscore Monroe by a margin of 9-6 during the latter stages of the first half for a 29-14 advantage going into the intermission.
The start of the second half saw the Purple Birds come out with a purpose as they put together a 14-2 tear over the first 8:52 of the period to pull within three at 31-28 with a little more than 11 minutes remaining in the contest. Â During the scoring spree, Pinto scored 8 points while Salzer chipped in with 5. Pinto started the run by opening the second half with a steal for an easy layup at about the 19 minute mark for a 29-16 Allentown lead. Â After Salzer added one of two from the line to narrow the deficit to 29-18, Pinto got two more scores including a reverse layup at the 13:48 mark, and then a basket as he was fouled with 13:32 to play. Â Despite missing the bonus free throw, Pinto helped the Falcons pull to within 9 points.
A little over a minute later, the Falcons went back to work with a pair of foul shots by Salzer at the 12:20 mark, a follow in the paint by Pinto at the 11:45 mark, and then a layin by Salzer at the 11:08 mark to finish off the run and get the Falcons back into the game. Â Allentown managed to keep Monroe at a distance with a couple scores over the next 55 seconds for a 35-28 lead, but Salzer pulled the Purple Birds within four again at 35-31 on a three from the left side of the key. Â Monroe still couldn’t get closer though. Â Instead, the Redbirds scored 9 of the next 13 points including a floater at the 7:30 mark for a 44-35 lead. Â The Falcons weren’t out of it though as they put together one last rally. Â MTHS scored 8 of the last 10 points of the contest including a layup by Cocorikis at the 4:30 mark, a follow by Salzer at the 2:28 mark, and a basket by Pinto with 2:08 to play.
Leading by only three at 44-41, Allentown managed to hold on despite missing some foul shots down the stretch. Â The Redbirds did get a pair from the charity stripe with 50.2 seconds to go for a 46-41 lead. Â Salzer pulled Monroe back within three on a floater from the right side of the paint with 37.5 seconds left. Â Unfortunately, despite several good looks down the stretch, the Falcons were unable to tie and Allentown came away with the 46-43 victory. Â With the win, the Redbirds, which suffered its only defeat to Howell two weeks ago, improved to 6-1 while Monroe slipped to 6-1. Â Both teams will be back in action next week with Allentown playing its final game of the fall on Monday night, November 3rd against Central Regional at 8:05 PM on the MSC Red Court while Monroe will take on Pennington at 8:55 PM also on the MSC Red Court.