SYRACUSE – Five years after it ascended to the peak of New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class AA boys basketball, Liverpool is two victories from getting there again.
By defeating Albany’s Green Tech 65-49 in Saturday’s AA regional final at SRC Arena, the Warriors have returned to the state final four, armed with a lineup that can both produce plenty of baskets and shut down the opposition from doing the same.
It was the defensive part that mattered most against a Green Tech side that beat the Warriors both in last year’s regional final and again in late January, the latter of them when star forward Andreo Ash was out with an injury.
“Our guys came out motivated and our defense was stifling,” said head coach Ryan Blackwell.
All that the Eagles could manage in the first quarter was four points, and it didn’t get into double figures until deep into the second quarter.
Blackwell said the key to this defensive effort was taking what it learned from those previous match-ups with Green Tech and mostly keeping the Eagles’ forwards from establishing themselves in the paint.
Ash, for his part, said it was vital to “crash the glass and keep (Green Tech’s) guards in check”, and that’s exactly what happened.
All of the missed shot and forced turnovers caused plenty of frustration for the Eagles, and it boiled over early in the second quarter when, after a rare Green Tech basket, guard Haisi Mayben got into an encounter with Jah’Deuir Reese, and both were issued technical fouls.
The game settled down from there, with the Eagles finally able to produce baskets on a consistent basis, only to see Liverpool answer every single time things threatened to get tight.
Late in the third quarter, Green Tech had closed the gap to 34-27 when Jason Lawler hit on a big 3-pointer. Then Ash and Bruce Wingate hit on back-to-back baskets that extended the Warriors’ margin to 41-29 going to the final period.
It never got within single digits again as Ash led all scorers with 20 points. Wingate, after a slow start, worked his way to 17 points, while Reese had 11 points and Lawler gained 10 points.
On Friday at 1 p.m. at Glens Falls’ Cool Inusring Arena, Liverpool will face Section I’s North Rockland in the state semifinals. The winner of that game goes to Saturday night’s title game at 7 p.m.
Blackwell said that, no matter who Liverpool faced in Glens Falls, the key was to still practice hard, then “play the way we play”, focusing on defense first, just like it did to get this far.
