GLENS FALLS – Five years, one pandemic and a string of heartbreaks separated the West Genesee boys basketball team from its 2019 state Class AA championship in Binghamton and its return to the state final four in Glens Falls.
The Wildcats wanted this trip to have the same triumphant ending as that first one did – but it was denied to them in Saturday night’s title game by Long Island’s Elmont Memorial, whose spectacular defense took WG out of its preferred fast tempo, caused foul trouble for key players and led to a 51-44 defeat.
None of this seemed likely a day earlier.
The state semifinal on Friday afternoon pitted WG against Pougkeepsie’s Our Lady of Lourdes, the Section I champions. Try as it could, the Warriors were unable to cope with the frantic face and variety of weapons the Wildcats could deploy as it prevailed 79-61.
Defensively, the Wildcats mixed it up from the outset, with both half-court and full-court pressure causing all sorts of confusion, leading to turnovers, transition opportunities and baskets on the other end.
WG jumped out 13-4, then scored the last five points of the first quarter, capped by a Joe Cavallo 3-pointer, to launch a 23-8 run that extended deep into the second period and put the Wildcats in control.
It was 43-26 by halftime as Gary McLane (14 points) and Sicnere Smith (10 points) were already in double figures and the Wildcats nearly equaled the total of 46 points Lourdes allowed in the entire Peekskill game while committing just one turnover to Lourdes’ nine.
Even when Lourdes’ Zach Hart (who led all scorers with 30 points) helped cut his team’s deficit 46-37, WG would answer with another patented scoring explosion – nine points in a span of 45 seconds.
It began with a 3-pointer from Cain, continued with turnovers lead to McLane hitting on back-to-back baskets, the last of them an emphatic dunk, and concluded with a steal and layup from Smith which made it 60-39, putting it beyond Lourdes’ reach despite a late Warriors flurry of 3-pointers.
Smith, continuing his strong post-season play, led WG with 25 points and seven rebounds. McLane, with 20 points and six rebounds, was close behind as Cain finished with 17 points.
Elmont defeated Section VI’s Jamestown 52-38 in the other semifinal, displaying an ability to shut down the opposition that would carry over into the title game.
Neither side could put together an early run, trading rare baskets and matching each other in intensity and defensive ability. But the events of the last two minutes of the first half turned the game in Elmont’s favor.
Cain, who had 10 points and was the only WG player producing on a regular basis, picked up his third foul. When Cain left, Elmont went on a 7-0 run, carrying a 23-17 lead to the break.
Making it even tougher was having Smith pick up his third and fourth fouls early in the third quarter, forcing him to the bench, after which Elmont extended its lead to 30-19.
Unable to play the game at the pace it wanted and with its outside game shut down, WG watched Elmont extend its lead to 39-24 by the fourth quarter, and Smith fouled out with 7:10 left.
Even with all this, the Wildcats, switching to full-court pressure, battled back, cutting it to 42-37 with more than a minute to play, but it got no closer. A series of free throws by Gemere Friars-Walsh, Cassius Moore and Arlyn Brown allowed the Spartans to close it out.
Cain led WG with 18 points and McLane had 11 points, but as a team WG shot 16-for-48 from the field and made just two of 19 3-pointers, not converting one until the fourth quarter. Moore led Elmont with 24 points.
