By Aidan Joly
CLIFTON PARK – Shenendehowa made a furious comeback in the final few minutes but they came up just short, falling to Troy 60-56 Friday night at Shenendehowa High School.
The Flying Horses led by 15 with four minutes to go and starting to create separation, but Shen was not going to go quietly on their home court. They made a quick rally in the final few minutes of the night behind scores from Jake Reinisch, Andrew Martin and Lucus Seyoum to cut the deficit to three with under 30 seconds to play. However, a clutch free throw from Troy’s Latyce Faison and an offensive foul on the Plainsmen with under 10 seconds left sealed the deal, with Troy barely holding on for the win after having a big lead late.
It was a night of clutch plays for Troy as they needed them throughout the night with the game being close until the first few minutes of the fourth. Every time Shenendehowa would make a run at Troy, the Flying Horses would have an answer for them. It was most apparent through the play of both Nazaire Merritt and Faison, who combined for 50 of the team’s 60 points on the night and hit 12 three-pointers between the two.
Coming into the second half with his team leading by three, Merritt came up huge as he hit a trio of threes as part of an 11-point quarter for him. He finished with 24 points.
(Nazaire Merritt of Troy being guarded by Shenendehowa's T.J. Sangare)
“He’s just a guy who has the ability to see the moment and put it on his shoulders and when he rises up like that as a senior, I’m so proud of him to be able to do that,” Troy head coach Greg Davis said.
However, Faison had his share of big moments. He hit three shots from behind the arc in the second quarter and hit seven in total as part of a 26-point night. The biggest pair came in the fourth when he hit them back-to-back to extend the Troy lead from nine to 15. He had another huge one to end the first half, hitting one to beat the buzzer, giving the Flying Horses a five-point lead at the break.
Troy hit 12 three-pointers on the night, contrary to Shen’s five, but the mistakes of the Plainsmen, especially turnovers, proved costly to them in the long run.
“As far as the score and even the tempo of the game, I don’t mind it, I think we can run with teams like you saw at the end but I think we just gave the ball up, you can’t give the ball away,” Shenendehowa head coach Tony Dzikas said.
Many of those turnovers came in a fast-paced first quarter that saw Troy score 21 points and force Shen into turnovers numerous times, leading to easy scores.
“They were tremendous on defense, we struggled handling the ball,” Dzikas added.
Shen falls to 4-3 in league play, and 5-5 overall.
The Plainsmen were led in scoring by Jake Reinisch with 14 points and Andrew Martin added 12 points.
Troy continues to be undefeated in the league, at 6-0 now. They are 6-1 overall heading into some tough competition.
Davis said, “We have some quality wins against quality opponents, but it only gets harder. Columbia’s a great team, Schenectady is very tough next week for us. Still have Bethlehem, still have CBA, we have all those teams to play and we just need to be ready every night.”
By Aidan Joly
SARATOGA SPRINGS -- It’s been a theme for Saratoga all season, and Tuesday night was just another example of it. Starting slow, then coming from behind to pick up a win. That was what they did against CBA, beating them 63-53.
The Blue Streaks started the night about as flat as you can be and it showed on the scoreboard, as the Brothers led 18-6 at the end of the first quarter, and saw them trail by as many as 14 points early on in the second quarter.
Then, as Saratoga has done all year, they turned it on. They closed the half on a 15-4 run and only were down by three at the break, out-scoring the Brothers by nine in the second. That was spearheaded by Marcus Davis and Nate Chudy, who scored the majority of their points in that timeframe. Chudy had six points in the second, and had a team-high 17 for the night.
The Blue Streaks really got it going in the third quarter. Chudy, Will Fox, Aidan Holmes and Michael Rogan each came up with huge buckets for the team in the third, taking the lead early on in the quarter after the teams traded leads for the first few minutes of the second half, and then extended their advantage to 13 points, 46-33, by the end of the quarter. Overall, Saratoga had seven different player score Tuesday night. Holmes had 10 points, while Davis, Rogan and Fox had nine each.
“The majority of us on the team have been playing since we were very young. That chemistry as well as being able to play to other people’s strengths and helping their weaknesses has really helped us as a team,” Chudy said.
(Saratoga's Nate Chudy)
From there it was smooth sailing for the team, extending their lead to as large as 16, before eventually winning by 10, a very large turnaround from how they started, one of many occasions this has happened. Every time, though, they win, putting their record at now 10-0 for the season and 7-0 in league play.
“For whatever reason we seem to come out flat and once we get down or get frustrated, we seem to play a whole lot harder, so we’re going to keep mixing things up and hope to start from the get-go,” Saratoga head coach Matt Usher said.
CBA attempted to mount a comeback in the fourth, but they never got closer than nine points. They were led by Jordan King with 15 points, Drew Signor with 14, and Peter O’Toole had 11.
Head coach Dave Doemel said, “We played a hell of a first quarter. In the second quarter he switched things up a little bit and we panicked, and we can’t do that.”
The Brothers are now 4-3 in league play, and 5-3 overall.
By Dylan Friebel
Delmar-
By Troy Muller
Hudson-
Wednesday’s big Patroon Conference match-up featured 10-1 Maple Hill heading to Hudson to take on the 8-2 Bluehawks. It was a close game until midway through the first quarter when Maple Hill went on a little run to get the edge over Hudson to take a 14-10 lead after one quarter of play.
Opening up the second quarter of play, still having a two-point lead, up 14-12, Maple Hill went on a 8-0 run to take a 22-12 lead. Maple Hill would finish the first half up 28-17 at that point, was the largest lead of the game for them.
Maple Hill kept on the attack in the 2nd half going on a run taking a 45-24 lead in the third quarter. Hudson did go on a 9-0 run of their own to cut the lead down to twelve, but it wasn’t enough for them as Maple Hill finished off the game outscoring them 8-4 the rest of the 4th quarter.
Jenna Hoffman lead Maple Hill in scoring, with 10 points. Abby Utter had two three’s and finished with 8 points. For Hudson, Deja Beauford did the majority of her team's scoring, finishing with a game high 19 points. Abby Jepsen had 6 points, all of them coming from down town.
Shots weren’t falling for Hudson for the better part of the game, causing Maple Hill to get the win over them by the score of 53-37. It was a tough and disappointing game for Hudson as this loss has Patroon Conference implications, as highlighted by Hudson’s coach Brice Ivery.
“We have to bounce back, you know we want to. But that was for a piece of the Patroon if we won the rest of the games. I’m just disappointed. It was their day (Maple Hill) they won. I take nothing away from those girls. They worked hard, they beat us.”
Maple Hill's coach Seth Hendrick talked about how big of a win this game was for his team.
“Actually, the last couple of years Hudson has been up top in everything and we’ve been kind of in the shadows. So, we’ve been playing pretty good this year. It’s good to be back on top again.”
Hudson falls to 8-3 while Maple Hill improves to 11-1 on the season.
By Dylan Friebel
Averill Park-
