Tartans breeze to boys' Class A title

PHOTOGRAPHER: Jim Schiltz

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Sometimes, it just all comes together.

That happened for Scotia-Glenville’s basketball team Saturday night, and it was the perfect time.

The Tartans made half of their shots from all parts of the Glens Falls Civic Center court, never let Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons gather any steam and soared to the Section II Class A championship with a 59-43 victory.

“We have a lot of respect for those guys. I was expecting another tough battle,” said Scotia-Glenville senior Chris Zanta, the Class A most valuable player. “We just hit shots tonight.”

Bishop Gibbons led only once, at 15-13 in the second quarter after James Vice converted a three-point play. The Tartans (No. 3 seed, 17-4) closed the first half with eight unanswered points, went on a 19-8 third-quarter blitz and sealed their second title in four years with a 10-0 push in the last stanza that made it 54-30.

“We were patient on offense, and we stayed with the defensive scheme,” said Scotia-Glenville assistant coach Mark Sausville. “When you do those things, good things usually happen.”

Good things happened again and again for the Tartans in a game nothing like their previous three at the Civic Center. Scotia-Glenville clipped Mohonasen in Friday’s semifinal on Matt Renko’s last-second overtime floater, 62-61. Scotia-Glenville also won a tense two-pointer against Bishop Gibbons in last year’s semifinal round before losing by 17 to Mohonasen in a final that was never close.

“We had a rough stretch during the year,” said Zanta. “To bounce back and be the champions, and to win like this, it means a lot.”

“We shot the ball extremely well, and we executed on defense just as well,” said Tartans head coach Jim Giammattei.”Our defense was right where we needed it to be.

“When you hold a team of that caliber to 43 points, you played some good defense.”

“We talked about how we wanted to attack them, and we kept throwing the ball away,” said ND-BG coach Jay Mahoney. “We tried to get momentum, then someone hits an open three. Then someone else hits an open three.”

Scotia-Glenville sank 22 of 44 shots from the field, as well as nine of 12 free throws, with freshman Joe Cremo going 6-for-7. Cremo led the Tartans with 24 points, Zanta collected 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Casey Norton added nine while anchoring their defense from the back line.

“We knew if we took care of the ball, and kept moving the ball and found shooters, we’d be OK,” said Cremo, who made the all-tournament team with ND-BG’s Vice and teammate Johnny Villanuena. “At the end of the second quarter, we got momentum going, and it just kept opening up for us.”

Andrew Tabbert tied the game at 15-15 with a drive, Cremo scored twice down low sandwiched around a tip-in by Zanta, and Scotia-Glenville continue to build on its 21-15 halftime advantage.

“It helped that we were hitting our shots,” said Zanta, who was 6-for-9 from the field and made all three of his three-point attempts. “Getting up was big, and once we got control of the game, everything kept going.”

Norton scored on a drive and Cremo delivered on a putback to begin the third quarter, and a 10-0 run later on made it 37-20. Renko started that push with a three-pointer and ended it with a reverse layup, and Cremo had two foul shots and a three-point play in between.

The play of the game came in the final seconds of the third frame when Alex Sausville fired a bounce pass between a defender’s legs, and Zanta dropped in a three-pointer for a 40-23 lead. Cremo and Norton nailed threes in the 10-0 fourth-quarter flurry.

Scotia-Glenville will see regional action Saturday at 6:30 against the Section III-X winner at Hudson Valley Community College.

SCOTIA-GLENVILLE

Tabbert 2-2-6, Renko 2-0-5, Zanta 6-0-15, Cremo 9-6-24, Norton 3-1-9. Totals: 22-9-59.

NOTRE DAME-BISHOP GIBBONS

Kilinski 1-0-3, Megyeri 1-2-5, Caruso

0-3-3, Vice 5-4-16, Villanueva 5-0-11, Sanders 1-2-5. Totals: 13-11-43.

Scotia-Glenville 10 11 19 19 — 59

ND-Bishop Gibbons 9 6 8 20 — 43

Three-point goals: Renko, Zanta 3, Norton 2, Kilinski, Megyeri, Vice 2, Villanueva, Sanders.