IAC BOYS BASKETBALL: FOUL TROUBLES COSTLY IN S-VE LOSS TO TIOGA (February 5, 2026)
By TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
SPENCER — Tioga took advantage of Spencer-Van Etten’s early turnovers and foul troubles to pull away for an 81-43 victory in IAC South Small School boys basketball action here Thursday and clinch a postseason berth in the process.
S-VE managed to hang around in the early moments, trailing, 9-7, as the first quarter neared its midway point, but the transition game was key to the Tigers' ability to pull away.
“Yeah, that's been a point of emphasis because we have some guards that can really handle the ball and get out and transition,” said Tioga coach Connor Hutchinson. “Our bigs do a good job of running the floor as well. That's something I think we've gotten better at as the season has progressed, so that's definitely good to be seeing that at this point in the season and we'll look to get better these last few games.”
When the Tigers weren’t scoring points in transition off turnovers, they were connecting at the free throw line, making seven of their first nine attempts.
Tioga would put together scoring bursts of five, six and eight points to create some space and Jackson Bombard’s long 3-pointer at the buzzer gave the visitors a 32-11 cushion. It could’ve been worse had the Tigers not missed six of eight foul shots during the final three minutes of the quarter.
“We got behind the eight ball pretty much right away and the game plan changed in an instant,” S-VE coach Kyle Pierce said of the Panthers’ foul troubles. “We had a lot of guys have to play a lot of minutes and they stepped up, and we struggled in the first half, but kind of started working together in the second half. Now we’ve just got to try to get that for a full game.”
The Panthers’ Jackson Bennett put S-VE on the board in the first minute of the second quarter, but a nine-point Tioga run, capped by a Carter Stoughton trey, made it a 41-13 game.
Bennett stopped the surge with a basket at 4:26, followed by a 3-pointer at 3:49, Nevin Mack sank three foul shots and Bennett added another bucket to cut the gap to 43-23 with 39 seconds remaining in the half.
The Tigers responded with consecutive baskets from Dominic Palmer, Gavin Kithcart and Bombard to push the lead to 49-23 at the break.
Bookend three-balls by James Miller and Palmer highlighted a 12-2 Tioga run in the third.
Meanwhile, Bennett converted a steal and layup with just over 2 ½ minutes left in the third quarter, but the Tigers responded with a 6-0 spurt to make it 67-29.
Bennett fouled out with 39.8 seconds left in the period with 15 points to his credit.
The Panthers’ Noah Ingram started the final frame off with a basket, but the Tioga reserves lit up the scoreboard with four 3-pointers, two by Stoughton, and one apiece from Cole Webb and Jonah Palmer gave the Tigers a 79-35 advantage.
Cameron Sundquist and Nick Oakes wrapped treys around a basket and two free throws by Luukas Carling to close out the game with a 10-5 S-VE run.
Dominic Palmer led all scorers with 19 points, including three 3-pointers. Kithcart contributed 15 points and Bombard added another 13 markers.
Stoughton canned three threes on the night, Miller recorded seven points, Brady Landmesser chipped in with six, Webb had five, Jonah Palmer added three and Josh Rought tacked on a basket.
“We played well,” said Hutchinson. “The first minute or two we had to kind of get going, but once we did, I thought we executed well on the offensive end.
“We were pretty active on defense, which allowed us to get some easy offense, so that was good stuff.
“(We were) able to get everybody minutes tonight and get a lot of game reps, so that was good as well.
“They had a good shooting night,” Pierce said. “We were a little slow on our rotations trying to get over and tried a couple of different defenses. All we can do is kind of watch the tape, look at what we need to do to get better and we'll try again next week.”
In addition to Bennett’s 15 points, Carling contributed eight, Mack pitched in with seven, Oakes knocked down a pair of treys and Ingram had two points.
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IN PHOTO 1: Jackson Bennett. ... PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
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