POTSDAM — It is very difficult to win a championship basketball game without some easy scoring.
Absolutely nothing came easy for Heuvelton Central in Friday’s New York State Class D Regional Championship against Section 3 Champion Hamilton at SUNY Potsdam.
The Emerald Knights (22-1) brandished their length and athleticism in a 1-3-1 zone defense which forced turnovers and never let the Bulldogs (21-5) approach their signature efficiency posting a 53-34 win. They advanced to the NYS Final Four for the first time in school history since Hamilton teams made four trips in eight years between 1994 and 2002.
“Our team is all about our defense. Heuvelton is a very good team and we saw them play four times. But they had trouble with our defense and turned the ball over a lot more than normally would. Our defense was outstanding,” said Hamilton Coach Tom Blackford.
“They have a good press so we put an extra guy in the backcourt. We didn’t want to attack their press, we just wanted get it over halfcourt and then run our offense.”
The Knights ran than offense through skilled forwards Hudson Idzi and Reese Snyder and it led to a steady succession of well conceived conversions in the paint. Idzi also buried three 3-pointers scoring 17 points and Snyder tallied 16 points.
“We worked on getting the ball inside on offense in practice and our defense was outstanding tonight,” said Idzi.
“And our defense transitions to offense.”
The Knights allowed just 22 points over the course of the last three quarters and the Bulldogs’ execution problems against the defensive pressure were compounded by 5-21 3-point shooting. Nate Mashaw, one of five senior starters who saw their brilliant careers ended, kept the Bulldogs close in the first quarter at 14-12 by hitting two long 3’s and converting a spinning drive down the lane in heavy traffic. He went on to score a game-high 21 points with three 3s and a series of highly challenged drives off the dribble. He finished as the second all-time leading scorer in Heuvelton Boys Basketball history.
“I am really going to miss these seniors. Some of them have been with me since they were team managers. I am really going to miss seeing them every day,” said Heuvelton Coach Josh McAllister.
“We just did not play well and you have to credit Hamilton. The length on their defense bothered us and we never got anything going.”
Jake Venette scored on the break off a pretty drop pass from Chris Ashlaw to tie the score at 12-12 late in the first quarter and it turned out to be the final tie of the game. Idzi scored inside for the final points of the quarter and Reese Snyder opened the second quarter with a putback which was the starting point of methodical pull-away which peaked at 51-29 late in the fourth quarter.
“This a very good group with plays very well together. And we have two elite athletes in 23 (Hudson Idzi) and 10 (Reese Snyder),” said Hamilton Coach Tom Blackford.
Ethan Nagel and Drew Baker scored seven and six points for the Knights.
Lucas Thornhill scored eight points for Heuvelton with a pair of 3s and Venette and Ashlaw rounded out the scoring with four and one point.
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