Pushed to the edge, with its three-year reign as state Class A champions in peril, the Jamesville-DeWitt boys basketball team again pulled through and kept its dream of a fourth straight crown alive.
The Red Rams got big clutch shots from Tyler Cavanaugh late in the fourth quarter of Saturday morning’s state Class A semifinal at Glens Falls Civic Center and beat Section V champion Rochester Aquinas 61-52 to advance to Sunday’s championship game against Harborfields.
Though it led most of the way, J-D never could feel comfortable against the Little Irish. In its first state final four appearance since 2000, Aquinas made a series of comebacks throughout the contest and, with less than four minutes left, were tied 50-50, poised to put a halt to the Rams’ dynasty.
Then Cavanaugh, the versatile 6-7 junior, took over. First, he hit a 3-pointer from the point with 3:47 to play to push the Rams ahead 53-50. Then, a minute later, Cavanaugh got open again in the left corner – and converted another 3-pointer, giving him 14 points for the game and making it 56-50.
Aquinas never recovered from those twin blows, as it hit a late-game drought, unable to score a point until the waning seconds, when it was too late. Demetrius Mitchell hit on four free throws in the final minute to make it a 10-0 run, sending the Rams to the championship game again.
In many ways, J-D’s trio of stars – Cavanaugh, Mitchell and DaJuan Coleman – again carried the heavy load. And while previous post-season games against Cortland (in the Section III Class A final) and Mohonasen (in the regional finals) had scary moments, they were well in hand by the fourth quarter – unlike this game, where Aquinas kept fighting back, no matter what J-D did.
The Irish hit the game’s first basket, a 3-pointer – but J-D, alert despite the early 9 a.m. tipoff, countered with a 16-2 run to gain a lead it would not relinquish until a brief moment in the fourth quarter when Aquinas went in front 47-46.
In particular, Coleman, with his 6-10 height and big body, did a number on the Irish front line. He had 17 of his 19 points in the first half, 10 of them in a row, using a series of smooth post moves to get open looks, including a couple of thunderous dunks.
J-D led 20-8 after one period and still was up by double digits, 26-16, early in the second quarter. But Aquinas chipped away at that margin the rest of the half and, when Christian White sank a 3-pointer just before the buzzer, the Rams only had a 33-30 lead going into the break.
Mitchell got hot early in the third period, earning seven straight points (he finished with 11). That, plus Cavanaugh’s lay-up, restored the margin to 42-34. Once again, though, the Irish would rally, closing within 46-44 by the end of the third quarter before another White 3-pointer briefly moved Aquinas in front.
A tense four minutes followed, neither side bending. At 48-48, freshman Jafar Kinsey hit two free throws, only to see the Irish use a pair of its own foul shots to draw even at 50-50 – all setting up the two biggest shots of Cavanaugh’s high school career, at least to this point.
The Rams welcomed back Pete Drescher from a sprained ankle that kept him out of the regional playoffs, and the senior hit a pair of 3-pointers in the first half. In a somewhat ironic twist, Cavanaugh suffered his own ankle injury in the closing minutes, but it won’t keep him out of action.
In Sunday’s state final at 1:30 (to be telecast locally on Time Warner Sports 2), J-D will face Harborfields, a Section XI school from Suffolk Country on Long Island. Harborfields beat Byram Hills 55-48 in the state semifinal immediately following the Rams’ conquest of Aquinas.
