TROY, N.Y. — Not only did Christian Brothers Academy senior guard Matt Sgambati make the last-second layup to send the Brothers dancing into the Section 2 Class AAA Championship Semifinal, but he also got the steal to set it up.
With 8.2 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s quarterfinal matchup at Hudson Valley Community College, the Shenendehowa Plainsmen inbounded the ball from their own sideline, tied with CBA 50-50. The pass would find Plainsmen senior Grady Ceccuci but would get no further as after just two dibbles Sgambati would poke the ball loose from behind and streaked towards the other end to set up the game-winning layup.
After picking up the loose ball, CBA sophomore Amare Coffil would find Sgambati on the breakaway for the game-winning layup as time expired, 52-50.
“I knew I had a foul to give, so I was gonna go try to get the ball, and I ended up getting the ball from behind, then I saw the ball coming and I just caught it, took my time, and finished,” said Sgambati on the final sequence. “I popped it out from behind, it went to one of my teammates and he made a great pass.”
“He’s been doing that all year. He’s been getting steals, I think he had 44 for the season, and some of them are just flat-out hustle plays, quickness and anticipation,” CBA head coach Dave Doemel said of Sgambati, postgame. “I think he saw an opportunity there and he took it. Credit to him for being able to hustle, stay with it, and come up with it.”
FINAL: CBA 52, Shenendehowa 50
here’s the game-winning layup from CBA’s Matt Sgambati, off a steal, and the Brothers are dancing into the Semifinals for Class AAA@cbaalbany @SaratogaSports @TroyRecordSport pic.twitter.com/SSl6qRRP6E
— Drew Wemple (@DrewWemple) February 25, 2024
Prior to the layup, CBA first had to overcome a nine-point deficit, midway through the fourth quarter. The Brothers would erase that deficit in a near instant, behind three straight three-pointers and an overall 15-2 run to close regulation.
“It was nothing that we haven’t been through all year. We’ve had a lot of ups-and-downs and coach Doemel knows what he’s doing, he kept us together, and we just fought and won,” said Sgambati. “Something clicked for me. I mean, this is the last time I might be playing basketball ever, so I knew I had to keep playing hard.”
Sgambati and the Brothers’ run will now continue into the Class AAA Sect’l Semifinal round, on Thursday at Cool Insuring Arena, in Glens Falls, NY. It’s far from unfamiliar territory for the Brothers, which made a run that ultimately fell short in the championship game, versus Green Tech, a season ago.
“We’ve been there before and coach (Doemel) has been there a lot, so we’re going to try to stay together and keep it going now,” said Sgambati, “gonna enjoy the win today, but we know we got a tough game no matter who we play. So, we’ll have three tough days of practice.”
The Brothers went 13-6 across the 2022-23 regular season, but entered this year’s quarterfinal round with just a .500 record (10-10), having closed with a six-point loss to Shenendehowa, two weeks ago, and a 26-point loss to Albany Academy to end the season.
“It was an eye opener- ‘hey, you’re not that good, you got to keep working and get better,’” said Sgambati, “and that’s what we did.”
The Brothers would come out ablaze offensively in the first quarter, getting three-pointers from freshman J.T. Vogel and J.J. Osinski – as a part of a 10-3 run to start play. Shenendehowa however would quickly turn the game back on its heels, with an 8-0 run to close the stanza and go into the second with an 11-10 lead.
Other than when the Plainsmen took a 21-16 lead, the second quarter was entirely back-and-forth, with nine lead changes alone. Shenendehowa would get a last-second layup of its own, to end the first half, as sophomore Begad Ibrahim would score to give the group a 23-22 lead going into the break.
The third quarter would be just as much of a tug-of-war between the familiar, Suburban Council foes, as while Ceccuci would score 12 of the team’s 15, Sgambati would counter with six and get help from Coffil, Osinski, and seniors Sam Ruggles and Aiden Wine, to keep the game tied at 37-37. But again, with seconds remaining in the third quarter, Shenendehowa would get a buzzer-beating basket, this time from senior Miles Peterson on a turnaround, to give the team a 39-37 advantage, going into the final quarter.
‘Coach was telling us, ‘Keep going.’ We had a tough third quarter, but there’s still another quarter; we play four for a reason and that’s what we did,” said Sgambati in the conversation between quarters.
It looked as if CBA’s season would slip away to start the fourth quarter, as Shen would score seven straight unanswered points – on a three from Ibrahim, a put-back layup from Peterson, and a fastbreak layup from sophomore Jacob Stewart – to take a 46-37 lead.
“At the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth, they kind of took a little wind out of our sails because I thought we were trading baskets there for a long time,” Doemel said. “There have been a lot of games where when that happens, we kind of lay down a little bit, or felt sorry for ourselves, instead of fighting and staying in there.”
“In this game, it’s very gratifying that when we went down we kept battling and battling and battling and then we caught fire with a couple of threes; that was fun.”
There, CBA would score nine unanswered, on three consecutive three-pointers – from Vogel, Coffil, and Sgambati.
“That was huge. Shots weren’t falling, but we kept taking them. We knew they were gonna fall,” said Sgambati, who finished the game with 17 points.
Shenendehowa would get back-to-back baskets from Stewart and Peterson to retake a, 50-46, lead, but again CBA would have an answer, with first a layup from Sgambati, inside the final minute of regulation, to go down two and then the game-tying layup from Osinski, with 25-seconds remaining.
The Brothers’ top two freshmen, Osinski and Vogel, played with veteran composure Saturday, as the duo would combine for 20 points, with 13 from Vogel, including three, three-pointers, and seven from Osinski.
“They’re great players, they’re really easy to play with and they’re great teammates, so they just kind of look at me and we work together and figure it out,” Sgambati said of the freshman-pairing.
After Osinski had tied the game, Shenendehowa would advance the ball across half-court before calling timeout, with 16 seconds remaining in the final quarter. CBA would also use a subsequent timeout before Shenendehowa would finally inbound the ball for what could have been the final play.
The Plainsmen would, however, have to call another timeout eight seconds later, in order to reset offensively after the initial inbound pass. That may be a timeout Shenendehowa head coach Paul Yattow will regret, as not only would it come after the draining of eight precious seconds, but also allowed the Brothers to reset defensively, for the game-winning steal and score.
“The first set that he had out there, that made it evident that we had to make sure that we had Ceccucci taken care of, but then he went to the baseline stuff and we had worked on it a little bit, and thank God we paid attention and they dropped down on it,” said Doemel. “I thought it was a great play.”
After Sgambati had poked it away from Ceccuci and received the ensuing pass from Coffil up the floor, all that was left to do was lay it in to punch the Brothers’ ticket to a second-straight Sectional Semifinal bout.
“I knew the game was on the line,” said Sgambati, “I just tried to stay calm and finish the play.”
—
CBA 52, Shenendehowa 50
CBA;10;12;15;15;— ;52
SHEN;11;12;16;11;— ;50
Brothers- Ruggles 2-1-6, Wine 1-2-4, Vogel 5-0-13, Osinski 2-2-7, Coffil 2-0-5, Sgambati 8-0-17. TEAM: 20-5-52.
Plainsmen- Morgan 1-0-2, Ceccucci 5-2-14, Ibrahim 4-4-13, McAuliffe 4-0-8, Sweeney 1-0-2, Kaloudis 1-0-2, Peterson 4-1-9. TEAM: 20-7-50.
Halftime- SHEN, 23-22.
3-point Field Goals- CBA 7 (Vogel 3, Sgambati, Osinski, Coffil, Ruggles), SHEN 3 (Ceccucci 2, Ibrahim).
![NEW YORK — Jaylen Brown scored 30 points, Kristaps Porzingis had 22 and the NBA-leading Boston Celtics easily handled the New York Knicks 116-102 on Saturday night for their eighth consecutive victory. Brown shot 13-for-24 from the field and had eight rebounds for the Celtics, who improved to 45-12 and sit atop the Eastern Conference with an eight-game lead over Cleveland. The All-Star forward downplayed the big advantage in the standings with less than two months left before the start of the postseason. “When it comes down to the playoffs, none of that stuff really matters,” Brown said. “I feel […]](https://www.saratogian.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Celtics_Knicks_Basketball_37477_81757b.jpg?w=525 "NEW YORK — Jaylen Brown scored 30 points, Kristaps Porzingis had 22 and the NBA-leading Boston Celtics easily handled the New York Knicks 116-102 on Saturday night for their eighth consecutive victory. Brown shot 13-for-24 from the field and had eight rebounds for the Celtics, who improved to 45-12 and sit atop the Eastern Conference with an eight-game lead over Cleveland. The All-Star forward downplayed the big advantage in the standings with less than two months left before the start of the postseason. “When it comes down to the playoffs, none of that stuff really matters,” Brown said. “I feel […]")
![PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — In a thrilling lacrosse matchup at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pa., the University at Albany men’s lacrosse team displayed resilience and determination but ultimately fell to Drexel in overtime, with a final score of 13-12. The game began with Drexel striking first, taking an early lead on a goal from Jack Joyner. UAlbany’s response came swiftly, with Joey Carino netting his first collegiate goal, leveling the score at 1-1. The back-and-forth continued, with both teams trading goals. Jackson Palumb, leading the Great Danes in scoring with his first collegiate hat trick, showcased his offensive prowess to keep […]](https://www.saratogian.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/IMG_3866-1.jpg?w=467 "PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — In a thrilling lacrosse matchup at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pa., the University at Albany men’s lacrosse team displayed resilience and determination but ultimately fell to Drexel in overtime, with a final score of 13-12. The game began with Drexel striking first, taking an early lead on a goal from Jack Joyner. UAlbany’s response came swiftly, with Joey Carino netting his first collegiate goal, leveling the score at 1-1. The back-and-forth continued, with both teams trading goals. Jackson Palumb, leading the Great Danes in scoring with his first collegiate hat trick, showcased his offensive prowess to keep […]")