Harrison All-Stars Advance to Final Four

Coaches Daniel Rinaldi and Barry Barefoot led a Harrison team of 7th and 8th graders to an impressive 58 - 40 win against Bedford in a second round matchup in the midget boys division tournament at the Westchester County Center.

Harrison got out to an early lead and never looked back. Led by the team's two best players, Andrew Barefoot and Michael Bronzo, the team used full court pressure to gain a commanding 15 - 6 lead at the end of the first quarter. Bronzo and Barefoot combined to score 13 of the team's 15 points in the first period and continued to lead the team's offense throughout the game.

"I can't say enough about our guard play today," Rinaldi said. "We have the luxury of keeping two great ball handlers on the court at all times, both Michael and Andrew are great at just about everything, they move without the ball well, they play great defense and either one of them can create shots for other players on the team."

The second quarter was the same story for Harrison. Bronzo and Barefoot along with backcourt mate Nick Falciglia continued to play tenacious defense which led to several easy transition baskets.

The guards got big help from two interior bench players. James Wolf added 8 points off the bench and Mark Perri played excellent defense in transition.

"Mark did a great job getting back on defense for us," Rinaldi said of his 7th grader. "Things like getting back on defense and diving for loose balls don't show up in the stat sheet. But he had a big part in us winning this game."

In the second half Bedford continued to have difficulties scoring the basketball because of Harrison's stellar defense. The Huskies started to play to the clock and slow the tempo of the game so that they could avoid any costly turnovers.

When the fourth quarter began it was obvious that the Bedford team, who only had six players, was fatigued and could not keep up with the fresh legs off Harrison's bench. Bedford was walking the ball up the court and continuously failed to get back on defense, making Harrison's lead insurmountable.

Harrison only outscored Bedford by two points in the second half, but thanks to the team's first half dominance, the team was able to come away with a 58 - 40 victory to advance to the tournaments final four.

Harrison had a well balanced scoring attack led by Bronzo's 16 points and Barefoot's 13 points. Both Bronzo and Barefoot also helped the team in other statistical categories such as steals and assists.

Harrison will play Eastchester on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Westchester County Center.