POTSDAM — The postseason turnaround continued for the Potsdam Central boys basketball team.
After avenging a pair of Northern Athletic Conference Central Division losses to Gouverneur en route to claiming their first Section 10 title in eight years, the Sandstoners pulled off a similar reversal against Section 7 champion Beekmantown in a 55-44 opening round victory in the NYSPHSAA Class B playoffs on Tuesday night at SUNY Potsdam’s Jerry Welsh Gymnasium.
“Give them credit, they’ve certainly come a long way since the first time we played them.” said Eagles coach Gary Castine. “They played hard. They played physical and they shot the ball well.”
“We just didn’t have it tonight,” he added.
In the earlier game at SUNY Potsdam, the Gouverneur girls fell to Saranac, 45-35, in a Class B first-round state game.
With the boys win, the Sandstoners evened their record to 12-12 and will now travel to Troy to take on Section 2 champion Catholic Central on Saturday at Hudson Valley Community College starting at 5:15 p.m.
The Eagles saw their season end at 17-6.
“They beat us by 33 points in our home opener back in December but we only lost by eight points when we played them on MLK Day in Beekmantown,” Potsdam first-year coach Justin Todd said. “It was definitely beneficial for us that we played against them.”
“We had a game plan and the kids stuck to their assignments the whole game. Our defense has improved so much and tonight, we had a lot of guys who stepped up for us offensively,” he added. “We made be 12 and 12 but we’re moving on. I couldn’t be prouder of our team. What a crazy first year.”
For one of the few times all season, eighth-grader Ian VanWagner wasn’t the leading scorer for the Sandstoners as junior Dylan LaMora filled the role with a 17-point effort that included three 3-pointers. His first three of the game came with 5:39 left in the second quarter and put the Sandstoners ahead 15-12, capping a methodical comeback from a 9-3 deficit with 2:42 left in the first quarter. VanWagner, who gave the Potsdam faithful a scare when he went down with an injury to his left ankle with 3:21 remaining in regulation and the Sandstoners having broken the game open at 53-38, finished with 15 points followed by junior Theo Hughes with 10, and senior Tanner Race with eight.
“Dylan had a big game for us for sure,” Todd said.
Senior Josh Burgin scored nine of his game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter where the Eagles used a strong opening to cut the deficit to 43-36 with 6:37 left. A LaMora three on the next Potsdam possession pushed the lead back up to 10 points and the Sandstoners kept the Eagles at bay the rest of the way.
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