Egg Harbor, NJ – Two weeks into this year’s Del Val GOYA Basketball season, and there has been not much in the way of suspense. Between the two weeks of games at Holy Trinity Wilmington, and the early games this past Sunday at Holy Trinity Egg Harbor, not a single game was decided by single digits.
And then the late game happened. In what has to be an early-season candidate for game of the year, St. Demetrios Upper Darby’s boys headed down to Egg Harbor in a rematch of last season’s quarterfinal contest with the hosts from Holy Trinity. For the host team, fresh off a tough opening week loss to St. Thomas Cherry Hill, the boys from Egg Harbor were looking to get back on track. For the boys from St. D’s, playing in their season opener was about shaking the cobwebs off and getting back into championship-contending form. Early on it was all St. Demetrios, sparked by hot outside shooting and the speed and quickness of top guard tandem of Laz Louca and Chris Dawson that has been their mantra for years, Upper Darby opened up a double-digit lead early, and an 8 point halftime lead. They would hold Holy Trinity at bay for the third and most of the fourth quarter, holding onto a 9 point lead with just under four minutes to go.
Not to be denied however, the boys in blue fought back. Sparked by the strong attacking game of Saki Mertis, Holy Trinity cut into the deficit down to 1 with under a minute to go. Following a great defensive stand, Holy Trinity marched down court looking to take the lead. With 10 seconds to go, Sophomore Nick Psilopoulos hit a tough lay up in traffic to give Holy Trinity their first lead of the game. Game over right? Not so fast. St. Demetrios quickly inbounded and raced down the court looking to retake the lead.
With just under 2 seconds left, youngster Theodore Stergiou drew a foul that would send him to the line to shoot two pressure-packed free throws. With the crowd looking on, he hit not one, but both free throws to give St. Demetrios the lead back with 1.2 seconds remaining. A half court inbound found its way to a Holy Trinity player, who fired up a half court buzzer beater that would glance off the rim as the horn sounded. Final score St. Demetrios 36, Holy Trinity 35.
The win puts St. Demetrios in a tie atop the standings at 1-0, while the loss drops Holy Trinity down into a last place tie at 0-2, with plenty of games left to play. A tremendous contest between both teams, fans of the league can only hope that we see these two in action against each other again sometime in January.
As the league takes a week off next week before resuming action, we at Cosmos Philly congratulate both teams on a great game and we hope to see many more nail-biters like this one in the weeks to come!