Cougars lose close game to Lenape 30-29

Chris Santo ('11), who was not expected to start, let alone play because of a concussion suffered during practice was cleared by his doctor and he ended up leading East in scoring with 14 points along with 11 rebounds. However, the Cougars could not succumb the talent of Lenape's stellar team as they went on to lose a low-scoring game by one point.

Dan Melleby ('11) who also suffered a concussion, was not cleared to play so he sat out resulting in Jesse Gold ('12) starting at the three position moving Santo to the five and Jake Gurkin ('12) played the four spot.

The game had a slow start to it as both teams missed the majority of their very minimal shots taken. The score after one quarter was Lenape five to the Cougars' four points.

East was playing phenomenally on the defensive end, but could not seem to score any points. Half way through the second quarter Valore pulled Sam Rose ('11) from the game to put it future starting guard Hank Davis ('13) for his first varsity appearance. Davis showed his spectacular speed hustling up and down the court assisting a basket to Santo. Davis, known for his great shooting ability, only attempted 2-three pointers in the game. At the half East was down 16-9.

Once the third quarter started, East finally started to wake up holding the Indians to five points the whole quarter. East had only missed three shots in those eight minutes as they went on their way to score 13 points taking a one point lead after suffering a seven point deficit.

In the final quarter, the referees starting to call fouls that they failed to call in the first three quarters all which happened to be against East. So with 10 seconds to go in the game they were both tied when Gurkin got called for a shooting foul. Lenape made the first and missed the second with three seconds left. Gurkin grabbed one of his 10 rebounds tossing it pass half court to Mark Schlessel ('12) who attempted a three with 1.5 seconds left banking it off the backboard handing East their third loss for the season. Lenape moved on to 6-0 as East dropped to 2-3.

Player of the game: Chris Santo. Once again he led East in scoring in a game where he was not expected to play. He brought his career total to 1933 points. He also did not turn the ball over once for the first time this year.

East's next game is Thursday January 6 @ Cherokee at 7 pm.