BOYS HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL: Mechanicville pulls away from Schuylerville to reach Sect’l Championship

GLENS FALLS, N.Y. — To reach Tuesday night’s Section 2 Class B Boys Basketball Championship Tournament Semifinal matchup at Cool Insuring Arena, seven-seed Mechanicville’s senior Colin Richardson first had to go the length of the court for a last-second, buzzer-beating layup to upset two-seeded Hudson, down at Hudson Valley Community College over this past weekend.

Versus Schuylerville, with a chance to advance to the Sectional Championship, Richardson wouldn’t have to play hero, even while scoring 14 points with nine rebounds, as the Red Raiders got 16 and 16 from junior Cruz Goverski and were led by 19 from senior Austin Rozowiz as a part of another, upset victory – 64-52, over the three-seeded Horses.

“I was getting faceguard the whole entire game, that’s when a bunch of all our other guys decided to step right up. It’s just a preview of what we’re going to continue to do. I was struggling today, to score the rock, and I can’t give enough credit to the other four guys that were out there the whole entire game because they won us that game today. They were unbelievable. I mean, it’s the best they’ve played the whole year and I’m so proud of my guys,” Richardson said postgame, on Tuesday.

“Cruz is easily one of the better guards in the Wasaren League; 100%…I couldn’t be prouder of him. He deserves tonight.”

Mechanicville would go back-and-forth with Schuylerville for nearly all of the first half, until turning a one-point deficit in the second quarter to a seven-point halftime lead. While Schuylerville would be able to get back within as close as four in the second half, at 36-32, Mechanicville would then open a 8-2 run, to take a double-digit lead.

The Red Raiders would spell any worry of a semifinal letdown after the thrilling, upset-victory in the quarterfinals, as its matchup with the Horses meant even more than just a chance to advance to the championship round. A season ago, the Red Raiders had lost in the first round of the Sectional Tournament and saw its season ended versus the same opponent faced on Tuesday night.

“Last year, we were in the same exact spot, against the same exact team, in the first round; we were up seven last year, we were up seven this year at half. I kind of came in to my guys and said, ‘hey, we were in this same spot last year. Let’s not end our season tonight,’ and they got fired up and they came out with the same intensity they did in the first half,” said Richardson.

“There was a mild level of concern about (a letdown), frankly, but the guys I have, have all been on varsity at least, as far as my starting five goes, two plus prior seasons and have experienced adversity. So, they know how fleeting a Sectional run can be,” added Mechanicville head coach Alex Lilac. “They don’t take any practice, or any game, for granted and I’m really pleased with how we bounced back for tonight’s game.”

While Schuylerville’s Luke Sherman would go for another, valiant 20-plus-point outing, with 26 versus Mechanicville, the senior star would be nearly shut-out in the third quarter, taking just three shots and making one. Sherman had gone for 14 points in the opening half, on 12 attempts, and would get another 10 in the final frame, but by then the damage had been done by Mechanicville, enough to prevail for a 12-point win.

“We came into the game planning to double-team him on ball-screens. At halftime, especially up, we started double-teaming him on the catch. They didn’t need to bring a guy to him for us to trigger a double-team, we just wanted to get the ball out of his hands as soon as we could and make it difficult for him to get it back,” said Lilac, “but, he’s a good, physical player, he’s been up on varsity forever, so we knew that he was going to still get touches and shots, but we were just trying to limit the quality of those.”

“I mean, you see his game, everybody sees their game; he makes unbelievable shots. We came in at halftime and were like, ‘hey, let’s keep on going. On screens, lets bump-up onto this guy, let’s make tonight hard for him,’ and I feel like he definitely scored a lot tonight, but I feel like he was getting really tired,” Richardson said. “I feel like my guys did a really good job on him. Joseph DeVito is easily one the better defenders and I think he did a great job on (Sherman).”

Mechanicville will now be advancing to face rival Stillwater, on Friday at Cool Insuring Arena at 6:45 p.m., for a chance at a first Sectional Championship win since 2011-2012. The top-seeded and State second-ranked Warriors (22-1) have already beaten the Red Raiders twice during the regular season – the first time by just one-point and the second by 15.

Heightening the emotions at stake is the fact that first year head coach for Mechanicville, Lilac, will be going up against not only a league-rival, but also family-rival in cousin Bruce Lila, who is the head coach of the Warriors that defeated Fonda-Fultonville on Monday night in Glens Falls, 57-33, to advance.

So to add it all up, on the table Friday night for both the Warriors and Red Raiders will be bragging rights amongst both the close-quartered communities, student bodies and at the Lilac dinner table, as well as a potential Sectional Championship plaque.

“They’re similar to us, in the sense that they have a bunch of multi-sport athletes that have won a lot of accolades in different sports, so I don’t think either team is necessarily going to be fazed by the atmosphere of Friday night. This is a small-scale version of Duke-UNC (North Carolina) in our league, so the place will be packed, but as far as adjustments go, Bruce is going to make some from the first two games, I’m going to make some from the first two games and the rest of it will be up to the to the kids to see who goes out and plays better,” said Lilac. “Stillwaters played a bunch of games on this court and it was good for us to kind of get our feet wet before seeing them on Friday, so it should be a great game.”

“I don’t know if it’s true, but I heard today that there’s never been a Mechanicville-Stillwater meeting in the Sectional Championship, so hopefully the last one out of those two towns gets the lights that night.”

—

Mechanicville 64, Schuylerville 52

MECH;16;16;16;16;— ;64

SCHUY;13;12;14;13;— ;52

Red Raiders- Starks 2-0-6, Goverski 8-0-16, DeVito 3-1-7, Rozowiz 7-5-19, Richardson 5-4-14, Eiseman 0-2-2. TEAM: 25-12-64.

Horses- Sherman 11-1-26, Brophy 2-1-7, Bolduc 4-0-9, Cumm 1-0-2, Flanders Jr. 2-0-4, Steinfort 2-0-4. TEAM: 22-2-52.

Halftime- MECH, 32-25.

3-point Field Goals- SCHUY 6 (Sherman 3, Brophy 2, Bolduc), MECH 2 (Starks).