January 21, 1999

Calvert beats buzzer and Black Knights

By Chris Homan
Sports Writer

VAN BUREN -- When Tony Mass asked Van Buren coach Geoff Palmer after the game if there was anything he could do for him in the future, the Black Knight coach didn't hesitate in asking for Dan Walter.

No deal, not his go-to-guy. It was no secret to anyone, coaches or fans, who would get the ball with Calvert and Van Buren knotted at 59 and 14.5 seconds left in the game Wednesday night.

And so Walter took control at half court, drove the lane and was hammered, but still managed get loose and sink the Black Knights with an eight-footer at the buzzer, 61-59.

''Hey, that kid just took the ball and said 'I am better than the rest of you' and beat us,'' Palmer said. ''I knew he'd get the ball and we had our play, but he got away and took a tough shot. We had two guys on him when he put that shot up. They made the plays and we didn't when we had the chances.''

And what a chance the Black Knights had.

Calvert (7-1) rallied back from a 59-55 score on a Walter's layup and a pair of foul shots from Eric Welty with 1:13 left. Van Buren (4-6) ran the clock down to 15.4 seconds, but all a Palmer timeout produced was an inbounds pass that was picked off by Welty, one of his eight steals on the night, that set up the finale.

''We hope that our defense plays aggresive and gets some steals and creates plays on the offensive side, but the secondary thing is that we want to wear the other team down and force them to make some passes that they normally would make,'' Mass said. ''I think it took its toll on them at the end.

''I knew who was going to get the ball on that last play. I thought he was fouled, but you have to live with what's called,'' he said. ''I thought Dan did a good job of controling the ball and obviously it was a huge shot.

''I really am happy for Dan and the whole team too, but he has put in a lot of time. The thing that we preach is that good things happen when you work hard and we did, we just had to keep battling all night.''

Van Buren relied on the outside shot of Chris Decker to keep Calvert from running away with things in the first half. The Senecas led 16-9 when Decker, who finished with 19 points, nailed his first of five 3-pointers.

Calvert again pulled away at 27-20 when Decker nailed another longball. But this one put the kick into a 10-4 Black Knight run that saw the Senecas turn the ball over six straight times and in turn leave the halftime score standing at 31-30.

''We just didn't have a good offensive night; there was no flow to our game,'' Mass said. ''I looked at the stats at half and Dan and Joe (Walter) each had one offensive board, so that's what we talked about. We stood around an awful lot.

''We weren't getting anything from our offensive plays and when we finally did, the shots didn't fall. We had ten turnovers at halftime and we haven't had that many in the past two games combined. We had to score points off our defense and we expect that. Eric (Welty) gave us a nice push; he really had a big first half.''

Ryan Korkos (15 points) gave Van Buren it's first lead with Calvert actually on the court on the first bucket of the second half. Dan Walter scored the game's next four points and Welty (13 points) added a steal and follow-up, but the Black Knights answered with a 10-0 spurt for a 42-37 edge.

The odds may have been stacked against the Senecas as Van Buren took a 45-42 lead into the final eight minutes and Calvert suffered the losses of Joe Walter(10 points) and Dustyn Risner to fouls.

But Dan Walter was the go-to-guy, no secret about it.