Briarcliff Hangs On as the Panthers’ Last-Second Shot Falls Short

By Monica D’Ippolito – Fittingly, the rivalry between Briarcliff and Pleasantville was turned up a notch during Thursday’s outing, as both teams were fighting for bragging rights and the honor of hoisting the 11th annual Lt. Charles Garbarini Memorial trophy.

“That was a tough game,” Bears coach Cody Moffett said after his team barely held on for a 43-41 road victory. “Those kids from Pleasantville came out and they were ready to battle. They executed their game plan. The days off didn’t feel like it affected them. I don’t think it really affected us, I just thought it was two teams going after it.”

The game had 12 different lead changes and the score was tied on seven different occasions. After going back and forth all evening, the outcome came down to the final play of the contest.

The Panthers, trailing by two points with 6.6 seconds remaining, had the ball on the sideline. Pleasantville captain Chris Maloney inbounded to big-man Gianfranco Amicucci, who then found teammate Mike Manley on the right wing for a potential game-winning 3-point shot.

“I got to be honest with you,” Moffett admitted, “it might have been like that part of Space Jam where he’s just stretching, stretching and stretching, because it seemed like the ball was in the air forever.”

Manley’s shot, when it finally came down, hit off the left side of the hoop and bounced out. Bryan Wolf tried tipping in the rebound before the buzzer sounded, but his attempt was just short.

“I saw the angle and I saw when he tried to tip it,” said Moffett. “I saw that it was probably going to be short. But you never know, so I was just waiting on the clock to say zero more than anything.”

The Bears had beaten Pleasantville at home 67-54 on January 9, so Thursday’s win on the Panthers’ home floor Briarcliff the series sweep and bragging rights for another season.

“It’s great, I haven’t lost to this team yet in high school,” Briarcliff senior Sean Crowley said. “We’re really mentally tough. That’s been our motto all year, mental toughness. We just battled back until the end of the game and we changed the momentum of the game and we took over.”

The two teams were tied at 9-9 after the first quarter and again at 30 apiece after the third quarter. However, the Panthers got off to a strong start in the fourth quarter with Maloney leading the way.

The senior captain would facilitate Pleasantville’s first fourth-quarter lead when he found Amicucci under the basket for an easy lay-in, then assisted Manley’s corner 3-pointer, which increased the Panther lead to 39-35.

After the Manley trey, Moffett immediately called a timeout and tried to refocus his players. In the huddle, he preached about covering the shooters, specifically Maloney and Manley, who hurt the Bears in their previous matchup.

“We said this kid, the first time, was their leading scorer, now he’s playing in his home gym, his percentages are going to go up,” Moffett explained. “To have a mental lapse like that and leave a shooter wide open, that was very frustrating. (But) we responded like a championship team and that was really exciting to see the guys pull together and think positive in the huddle.”

After the timeout, the Bears went on a 6-0 run, which was capped off by a Crowley put-back, giving the Bears a 41-39 lead. Maloney tied the game at 41, but Briarcliff’s Josiah Cobbs quickly took the ball back up the floor and gave the Bears back a two-point lead.

“It was a few costly turnovers and that’s it,” Pleasantville coach Chris Welsh said. “There’s nothing more you could say. We played real tough, proud of the kids’ effort, just a couple of plays that went the wrong way in the fourth quarter. A 9-6 season in a really tough league… It’s never easy to lose. It’s hard to lose, kids hate losing, I hate losing. But at the end of the day, you have to look at the facts and the facts show that we’re a pretty good team and we’ve done some good things and hopefully it can continue for the rest of the season.”

Crowley led the Bears with nine points and eight rebounds, but it may have been the hustle plays of the junior Cobbs and sophomore Jack Reish off the bench that helped Briarcliff earn its 10th win.

“Even since last year, those are the two main guys that I pulled aside and I said if we are going to do anything special this year, you two are going to have to have a huge part in it,” Moffett said of Cobbs and Reish. “I’m not afraid to bring those guys off the bench early. So I’m excited for what they bring to the table. It’s a little easy for a coach knowing you can reach back and grab two guys like that off the bench.”

Cobbs finished with seven points and seven rebounds – including five offensive boards — while Reish finished with three points and four rebounds.

Maloney wound up the evening with 11 points, seven rebounds and six assists, while Manley finished with 11 points and two steals.

The Bears improved their record to 12-3 after defeating Valhalla Friday and Palisades Prep Saturday in the Friends vs. Cancer Tournament. Reish was named tournament MVP after scoring 22 points in the championship game against the hosting Phoenix.

“We have aspirations of being a state championship team,” Moffett said after Thursday’s win. “Some may say those goals are high. But I say if you set low goals what are you reaching for?”