STILLWATER, N.Y. — One would be hard-pressed to find a more dangerous team in high school basketball than the Stillwater High School Warriors have been this season. Why? Well, aside from being second-ranked for New York State in Class B, the Warriors have no shortage of depth on the roster, experience in the moment, and unfinished business on the mind.
Two years ago, the Warriors made it to the State Title round, after a 16-2 campaign, before falling to Newfield. Last season, in the Class CC Sectional Final, the Warriors lost on a buzzer-beating three-pointer to Chatham, ending the chance at redemption. Nine players from last season’s team have returned, eight of whom were also on the State runners-up team, to help make the Warriors the 25-1, powerhouse they are today, competing again for the right to bring home the hardware and as the group says, “to turn out the lights.”
“We look back and think about, ‘what could have been,’ if we had won the state championship, but, I also think it was good for us,” Stillwater senior guard Thomas McDonough said. “We weren’t pleased with ourselves, we wanted to go out and get it done, and I think that’s what’s driving us this year.”
Even a more recent wound the Warriors are trying to avenge, comes from a whole different sport- a loss in the NYSPHSAA Class C Football Championship game, just this past fall. Six players from that team had to ditch the pads and helmets just three days after the loss in the Carrier Dome (now known as JMA Wireless) and suit up for game one of the Warriors’ basketball season. The coaches were in the same boat.
“All four coaches were there a couple of years ago when we lost (basketball) and three of the coaches were on the football staff. Dave (Cook) was the ‘O-C’ (offensive coordinator), I was an assistant coach, and coach (Craig) Burdo was on the defensive side of the game, so, we’re working as hard as we possibly can to get this team ready to play this weekend,” Stillwater head coach Bruce Lilac told the Saratogian, in a over-the-phone interview.
“We’re taking it one game at a time, but I mean, there’s not anything that we’re going to see this weekend that we won’t be ready for. Then, it just comes down to execution, of course.”
“Losing two (State Champ. games) obviously, doesn’t sit right with us, and losing a third, it just doesn’t seem possible for that to happen to us,” McDonough said.
On Thursday night, at 6 p.m. at Cool Insuring Arena, in Glens Falls, Stillwater will take on Section I-champion, Woodland (22-4) in the NYSPHSAA Class B Championship Tournament’s semifinal round, with a shot at appearing in Friday’s title game on the line. Aside from the internal fuel that Stillwater has been using to get to this stage, the team has shown each step of the way that it has the talent, up and down the roster, to back it up.
While led by senior Jaxon Mueller, who’s surpassed the 1,000-career mark in both points and rebounds, the Warriors’ depth comes in spades and is seemingly peaking at its best, at the right time.
In the Warriors Regional Championship victory last Saturday afternoon, over Canton, senior guard Kaelan Leak paced the team in scoring, with 19 points including six, made three-pointers, while his veteran counterpart, Lukas Lilac would follow with 18.
Stillwater has put three or more players in double-digit scoring totals in all six of its postseason games to this point.
“The balance is real. I mean, we don’t put an emphasis on anything besides getting the ball inside. We want to build the ‘triangle,’ from the inside out and everything will just work off of that. We don’t try and get just one guy going; if a guy is hot, we have stuff that we could run for each player, but most of the time, we want to share the basketball, make the extra pass, and realize that two passes away from a three-pointer is usually a layup for us,” said Lilac.
“I think we’re a tough scout. I think we run a lot of different sets, we work the ball at different levels, we attack at different levels, and anybody on the floor, at any time, can go off for 10, 15, or 20 points, so, I think it gets some teams surprised. I think they’re surprised by our speed. I think they’re surprised that we push the basketball and then share the basketball. I think we can absolutely set some teams a little back on their heels at times.”
In the win over Canton, in what was already a rematch of a late-December meeting in Stillwater, the Warriors had trailed by three at the end of the first quarter and eventually clung to just a two-point edge by halftime.
A 15-2 run out of intermission and an overall scoring advantage of 34-16, in the second half would help the Warriors put the game comfortably away.
“I don’t really think it was with Canton, as much as us. I think the only thing that can really beat us and get ourselves down is ourselves,” said Warriors senior forward/guard Carter Wichelns. “I want to say we played a little selfish and especially defensively, we had to figure it out. We talked pretty good halftime and came out and gave it to ’em.”
“It starts on defense and I think we held them to, I don’t even know how many second-half points, but we had 64 (points), they ended with 44, so we had to be playing some sort of defense,” added McDonough. “That’s really what we try to do is- is just play ‘D,’ let the offense come and that’s it.”
Prior to the win that propelled the Warriors into Thursday’s semi-final clash, there was a Sub Regional meeting with Section VII Champion Northeastern Clinton, at Shenendehowa High School.
The Warriors wouldn’t mess around in that contest, leading wire-to-wire for a 71-34 victory to kick off the State Tournament run. The team sure seemed to be carrying over its momentum from a Section 2 Championship title win just four days before, over cross-county rival, Mechanicville.
“We have a lot of confidence. Not cockiness, necessarily, but we know what we’re capable of and just winning that Mechanicville game was just one small thing that we knew we could do,” said Wichelns, who scored 12 in the win over the Red Raiders.
“I mean, it was cool that we won, but obviously, the section is just one of our goals, and like our coaches say, ‘we got a lot of goals to achieve,’ so, we went right back to work, doing film the next day,” said McDonough.
The most recent wins make up a current, 12-game winning streak for the Warriors that dates back to late January. The team’s only loss of the season came back on Jan. 22, when the Warriors were ousted by nine points at home in a non-conference meeting with Class A’s Lansingburgh, 62-53.
“I try to play up (in class) as much as possible and Lansingburgh was obviously playing (an) up game, and we knew they were gonna be athletic. They had really solid guards, which I wanted our guards to see and get sped up with, and I got exactly out of that game what I wanted,” Lilac said on the lone loss this season. “I never want to lose a game, but there is such (a) thing as a good loss, and that Lansingburgh game was a good loss.
“One of the things that we came out of that game knowing, is when the jump shots aren’t falling, we got to attack the second and third level of the basketball court. And I think we’ve done a really good job of growing from that game and playing in all three levels of the court.”
“Losing that game really showed us that if we don’t show up, teams really want to beat Stillwater and they can do it if we don’t show up. So, I think it was good that we took a loss against Lansingburgh because this team, coming up (Woodlands) plays just like them, I think, and I think we’re gonna be ready for them because of that.”
Without looking past its upcoming opponent on Thursday, which is on a 13-game winning streak of its own, the Warriors acknowledged what it would mean for not just their program, but the school and community to bring home the elusive State Championship.
“I think it’d be huge. I mean, it’ll really show Stillwater, or Section 2, or even the State, what we’re made of, as a small town,” said Wichelns. “In 2006, that team then wasn’t able to accomplish it and came up just short and it almost feels like we’re playing for that, and that 2022 team, and we know we have it in us. I think the town has our back and they know we have it in us, and the school and everybody that supports us, so, we’ll see what we can do.”
“The rest of the coaching staff and myself talk about the journey and climbing the mountain and, obviously, we’ve been very successful, we’ve had a lot of great athletes that we’ve coached and we’ve been to two basketball State Championships, one football State Championship, and now we’re going into our third weekend of basketball,” said Lilac, “obviously, to win a state championship, would put us at the peak and mean we’ve climbed the mountain. And, it would put me in conversation with my uncle (Mike), which is the most respectful thing I can be called as a coach. So, it’d be really cool.”
Lilac, who’s been head coach of the Warriors since 2018, knows this weekend will certainly be the last time his team turns out the lights and for nine, rostered seniors, their last chance ever.
The phrase is one he takes credit for, but says will stay within the coaching family. His players say they’ve heard it more than a few times, across both basketball and football, but the Warriors this time around, want to turn ‘em out, the right way.
“Hopefully, we do it, raising the state championship trophy,” Lilac said.
