Fouls become common occurrence for rivals Deer Lakes, Valley

By: Alec Italiano
Wednesday, February 7, 2018 | 4:42 PM

Deer Lakes and Valley added some evidence to the adage about familiarity breeding contempt Tuesday night.

The Section 1-4A boys basketball rivals' second meeting in four days produced 54 called fouls — an increase from the 47 they racked up Saturday in Deer Lakes' 43-41 overtime win — 75 free throws and four players who fouled out.

Valley's Deonte Ross and Nyjewel Carter each picked up technical fouls for their fifth fouls of the game. Deer Lakes' Jake Kelly left the contest late in the fourth quarter with an injury, landing hard after getting tangled up under the basket with a Valley player as Kelly attempted a layup.

When the dust settled, Valley emerged with a 92-87 victory.

“I have a feeling it's going to be close, and we can't hurt ourselves,” Valley coach Mark Faulx said of the technicals. “Those are not necessary. We need to fix that. We can't have that, hurting ourselves like that.”

The fouls caused both teams to lose rhythm at times, although a glance at the scoreboard might not have suggested that.

“It was just one of those games, fast-paced, where not a lot of sets were being run because of the press,” Deer Lakes coach Terence Parham said. “When you do that, you get a high-scoring game. We just wish we made more plays at the end, and unfortunately everyone did.”

Deer Lakes also lost three points when free-throw shooters stepped over the line, and lane violations by both teams nullified more made free throws.

“I've never seen a game where we had so many (foul-line violations),” Parham said. “Those are big points when you look at the score. That's tough.”

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer.

Tags: Deer Lakes, Valley