Jan 16, 2008 By Mike Ciarochi 3 min read

CONNELLSVILE TWP. – Frazier started the game with a 10-2 run and Geibel Catholic was never able to recover in the Commodores’ 59-51 win over the Gators in non-section boys basketball Tuesday night. The win was Frazier’s second of the season against 14 losses, but both wins have come against Geibel Catholic, which fell to 3-9.

Craig Rebovich paced a balanced Frazier scoring attack with 17, while Eric Rock and David Smith added 10 each. Matt Keebler scored nine and Frank Bartolomucci eight before each fouled out.

Tyler Erdely led Geibel Catholic with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Ryan Craft added 14 points and Brendan Costantino scored 11.

“This was a hard-fought game,” Frazier coach Larry Mikesell said. “It’s nice to win here. This is always a tough place to play and they usually play well at home.”

Usually, but not on this night, according to Gators coach Ken Misiak.

“We put basketball behind another 25 years or so,” Misiak said. “It was terrible. They wanted it more than we did. We had no hunger. We were coming off a pretty good game at California, but tonight we were as flat as we could be.

“I’m very disappointed. We’re going into the latter part of the season and to play like this is discouraging. Frazier’s a ball club with only two wins and both of them are against us, so to me that means they wanted it more than we did.”

The Commodores were able to get what they wanted on the defensive end of the floor, according to Mikesell, who admitted that his team has trouble scoring.

“We played great defensively tonight,” Mikesell said. “We took away their three-point looks and they are normally a good shooting team. We went back to our man-to-man defense a couple of games ago and it paid off tonight. We don’t score a lot, but playing good defense allows us to hang in there.”

Frazier built its 10-2 lead up to 24-11 forcing a second Gators timeout 2:52 before halftime. The Gators managed to pick away at the Commodores lead throughout the third quarter and closed to within three, 49-46, on Costantino’s three-pointer midway through the fourth. The Commodores responded with six straight points to make it 55-46 with 2:08 to play.

“Tyler Erdely gave us 100 percent of what he had,” Misiak said. “But every time we’d get close, we’d make a mistake.”

Even though these teams are not section rivals, the proximity of the schools makes this game worth scheduling every year.

“We’re moving up to Class AA next year, but we’ll still play them twice,” Mikesell said. “These kids know each other and it’s a good rivalry.

The Gators return to Section 2-A Friday night at Jefferson-Morgan, while Frazier travels to Serra Catholic in Section 3-A.