Jordan — Things were not going well for the Skaneateles boys basketball team in the waning seconds of Saturday night’s game at Jordan-Elbridge.
Ahead for large portions of the second half, the Lakers had seen that advantage disappear when the Eagles’ Collin Barrigar buried a 3-pointer with eight seconds left to tie the game. Worse yet, a shot to perhaps pull things out for Skaneateles was off target as the clock neared zero.
But Zach Blair, doing what every basketball coach has implored for generations, hustled after the play, and it paid off when the ball rebounded to him and, deftly, Blair tipped it in just before the clock hit zero.
Discouragement turned into delight, and the Lakers, instead of surrendering all the momentum going into overtime, escaped J-E with a 64-62 victory and remained undefeated, moving to 2-0 on the season.
Twelve days had passed since Skaneateles had edged Fulton 65-64 in its Nov. 24 season opener, and it was eager to get going again, setting a fast pace against the Eagles and trading baskets until Jake Reed hit a 3-pointer right before the horn to tie it, 18-18, a hint at the ending ahead.
Reed’s basket made J-E mad, and it answered by controlling the second quarter, leading by as much as 11 before the Lakers whittled that margin to five, 31-26, at the break. From there, it was close throughout the second half, Skaneateles getting in front but the Eagles not letting them pull away.
What kept Skaneateles in front until Barrigar’s late 3-pointer was strong free-throw shooting. Pete Knupp, who led all scorers with 25 points, converted 10 times from the foul line, six of them in the fourth quarter, while J-E only went three-for-seven from the line and missed Dale Wagner (who led his side with 17 points) due to late foul trouble.
continued — Blair’s winning basket gave him 10 points for the night, while Reed finished with 16 points as all four of his field goals were 3-pointers. Sam Duggan contributed six points. For J-E, behind Wagner, Austin Cassick had10 points, with Dylan Dunham getting nine points as Brandon Macvicz and Jonan Patrick earned eight points apiece.
Looking for three in a row, Skaneateles hosts rival Marcellus on Tuesday night and then faces Cazenovia on Thursday.
The latter is an intriguing game because so many of the Cazenovia basketball players just helped that school’s football team win a state Class B title, and as a result the first two basketball games were pushed back on the schedule, so this is Cazenovia’s second game after it opens with Vernon-Verona-Sherrill on Tuesday.
