Bristol keeps it close, but falters near end

The Panthers were sidelined by Newbury's late spurt, 54-49, at Harding.
By JIM FLICK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
WARREN -- Justin Klasa scored 23 points to lead Newbury to a 54-49 victory over Bristol Tuesday night, in a boys Division IV district basketball tournament semifinal game at the Warren G. Harding Fieldhouse.
The win advanced Newbury (15-8) to the district championship game Friday night against top-seeded Windham (19-4).
Windham defeated Ledgemont 61-34 to earn its berth in the district title game.
For most of the game, Bristol hung onto a two-point lead that it had produced after the first quarter.
The Panthers led 16-14 after the first quarter, 24-22 at halftime and 38-36 at the end of three quarters.
But the Black Knights hammered Bristol in the fourth quarter, 18-11, to earn the victory.
Klasa, a senior, was the big cog in Newbury's win, scoring 13 points in the first half and 10 in the second half.
Senior Eric Day and junior Shawn Wilkes added eight points each for the Black Knights while junior Seth Robinson tallied seven points.
King, Harkelrode lead Bristol
Mitch King, a senior, and junior Joe Harkelrode shared scoring honors for the Panthers with 17 points each.
Only four other players scored for the usually multi-faceted Bristol offense.
"We didn't shoot good in the second half," Bristol coach Mark Giesy said.
In fact, the Panthers missed their first six shots of the second half, and shot cold all night long.
The team shot only 34 percent from the field for the game, connecting on only 20 of 58 field goal attempts, including just five of 20 shots from three-point territory.
"Newbury just played better than us," Giesy said. "They were the class team tonight."
Newbury connected on 44 percent of its field goal attempts, 21 of 48, including 1-of-8 from three-point land.
Newbury takes first lead
Newbury didn't take its first lead of the game until the early minutes of the fourth quarter when the Black Knights surged ahead 40-38.
A three-point play by Wilkes expanded the lead to 43-38, and Newbury led 49-40 with 3:11 left in the game after junior Dan Markiewicz sank a basket.
Harkelrode sank a three-pointer for Bristol and King sank a basket to cut Newbury's margin to 49-45 with less than two minutes remaining in the game. But the Black Knights hung onto the lead as the clock ticked to zero.