The Riverview and Springdale boys basketball teams battled intensely for 32 minutes. It was natural for some of the emotions to spill over following their Section 2-2A battle.
Dynamos players celebrated on the Raiders’ logo after a 50-43 win Tuesday night in Oakmont. Riverview senior Matt Carlino took exception, confronting the Springdale players walking toward their bench, leading to a brief skirmish that was pulled apart quickly.
Springdale forward Robby Simmen, who scored a game-high 20 points, thought the sequence was a product of the game.
“I mean emotions like that are bound to happen,” Simmen said. “If you are passionate about the sport and love what you do, emotions are going to come out.”
Springdale, which has won three straight, didn’t score for the first five minutes as Riverview built a 7-0 lead. Dynamos coach Scott Ruppert said they didn’t practice over the weekend because of the weather.
He felt it might have contributed to the slow start.
“It was a hostile environment,” Ruppert said. “A rivalry as old as time. You always get a game here at Riverview. It was chippy, and throughout the game it was physical and our kids had to adjust.”
Riverview (5-12, 3-7) made clear adjustments from the last time it played Springdale. The Raiders didn’t score in the fourth quarter of the Dynamos’ 48-29 win over them in December.
Riverview showed plenty of mettle this time around.
The Raiders trailed 35-22 in the third quarter following a 3-point by Landon Linderman.
Riverview scored the last five points of the third quarter and stretched that to a 9-0 run that cut the lead to 37-35 following a jumper by Jake Sprajcar.
Riverview, which hadn’t led since the second quarter, tied the score 40-40 on two free throws by Ben Franciscus midway through the fourth quarter.
Raiders coach Dre Corbin left before he could comment.
“It’s happened before. We knew since they were our rival we had to come back,” Springdale forward Trevor Clark said. “We got a few stops and made a few buckets. We got that run. We knew we were fine.”
Springdale (10-8, 7-4) scored the go-ahead points after Prince Govan was called for a technical foul for deflecting an inbounds pass while the ball was still out of play. Simmen made both free throws to put Springdale ahead 42-40.
Clark, who finished with 10 points, followed with a key layup a minute later to stretch the lead to 44-41. Clark said both teams were playing aggressive defense.
“We had to fight back,” Clark said. “They were hacking the whole time, but we had to do our share of hacking as well and we had to fight through.”
Rex Roberts led Riverview with 16 points, and Fransicus finished with 10.
Simmen said he would like to see Springdale work on its mental game to avoid slow starts.
“That’s a big part of it,” Simmen said. “Even though we didn’t practice, you have to come in with a good mindset. As long as your mindset is good, you can do a lot of things.”