Scotia-Glenville basketball coach Jim Giammattei had his starters on the court in the third quarter in Sunday’s Section II Class A quarterfinal game with Glens Falls.
A half would have been more than enough.
Joe Cremo, Scotty Stopera and Joe Almond sank three-point baskets on the Tartans’ first three trips, Diamond Corker scored on a putback to complete the fourth, and the defending state champions were well on their way to an 88-35 triumph at Hudson Valley Community College.
“We didn’t want to come out slow. Throughout the day, it seemed like teams were coming out slow,” Stopera said after the Tartans extended their postseason win streak to 10 games and overall win streak to 47. “It was, ‘Let’s not do that.’ ”
Scotia-Glenville (No. 1 seed, 20-0) outscored Glens Falls (No. 8, 9-11) in the first quarter, 28-5, and in the second, 22-3, en route to another lopsided win against its Foothills Council rival. Scotia-Glenville prevailed midway through the regular season, 92-53.
“We just wanted to come out on fire. We wanted to get going and get into a flow,” said Corker, who totaled 16 points and nine rebounds. “We know teams want to beat us. You don’t want to give them any hope.”
The Indians may have had a bit when Colman Schliff dropped in a layup to answer Cremo’s game-starting three. The Tartans’ answer to that layup was 19 unanswered points, and the second frame included a 17-0 flurry that made it 45-5.
“The guys came out with tremendous focus,” said Giammattei. “The layoff didn’t affect them.”
Scotia-Glenville played its final regular-season game at home on Feb. 17 and worked over Schalmont, 79-43, to wrap up its third straight perfect regular season. Sunday’s game was a start to what the Tartans hope is a fourth consecutive run though the Section II tournament.
“Our practices were great. None of them were so-so. We also scrimmaged Saratoga, Catholic Central and Green Tech,” said Giammattei. “They’re all different teams, and they gave us different looks. We treated all three like real games with a full scouting report and everything else. That helped us.”
Scotia-Glenville was extremely sharp in the first quarter, making 11 of 14 shots from the field. Cremo scored 12 of his 30 points and Stopera had nine of his 12 in the frame, all on threes.
“It looks easy, but it’s not,” said Cremo, who had five threes and 23 points by the half. “It comes from hard work and playing together.”
Quick, smart passing was a chief component to Scotia-Glenville’s monster first half. Stopera finished with a team-leading eight assists, getting his first two on feeds to Cremo and Almond in the three-point blitz to begin the contest.
“We had some great passes in that run,” said Giammattei. “That’s when the game becomes so pretty.”
The Tartans had 16 assists on their 35 field goals, with Cremo getting four to go with nine rebounds, and Almond picking up three to go with his seven points.
“That’s that we were raised to do,” said Cremo. “If you’ve got a good shot, give it up for a better shot.”
Joe Girard and Schliff led Glens Falls with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Scotia-Glenville will look for a three-game season sweep when it meets Amsterdam Thursday night at 7:30 in the second of two Class A semifinals at Glens Falls Civic Center. The state’s No. 1-ranked team beat Amsterdam twice in winning the Foothills Council South Division.
Amsterdam moved on with a 77-74 double-overtime win against Queensbury earlier Sunday.
“They’ve had two games to figure us out,” said Giammattei. “On the other hand, we’ve had two games to figure tham out. I’ll take the group I have.”
RAMS ADVANCE
Andrew Druziak collected 20 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, and Amsterdam (No. 4, 16-4) never trailed after Kory Bergh’s three-pointer to start the second overtime gave the Running Rams a 71-68 lead.
Keegan O’Leary had 24 points, 18 rebounds and four assists for Queensbury (No. 5, 15-6).
Averill Park (No. 3, 14-6) and Troy (No. 2, 13-7) will meet in Thursday’s first semifinal at 6. Averill Park bounced back from a late fourth-quarter collapse to beat Gloversville (No. 6, 9-12) in overtime, 80-74, and Troy used its quickness and board strength to forge a 74-35 victory over Mohonasen (No. 7, 7-14).
Ryan Bielawa scored 19 points for Averill Park, including a layup to begin the overtime, and the Warriors never trailed afterward. Isaiah Moak had 18 points and eight rebounds for the Warriors, and Jordan Yearsley scored half of his 10 points in the OT.
Ricky Mitchell scored 25 for Gloversville with four of the Dragons’ 13 threes. Gloversville ended the fourth quarter with an 8-2 run capped by Quantel McGee’s putback basket with four seconds left.
“We sweated it out, but we’re going to Glens Falls,” said Averill Park coach Dave Pugliese.
Troy went on a game-changing 20-4 second-quarter run after Anthony Jones’ steal and buzzer-beating three enabled Mohonasen to tie it at 14-14. Dyaire Holt scored nine of his 22 points in that big second quarter.
SCOTIA-GLENVILLE 88,
GLENS FALLS 35
GLENS FALLS
Girard 2-5-11, Batts 2-0-4, Green 2-0-4, Schliff 4-2-10, Owens 1-0-2, Stanafel 1-0-2, Jackson 0-2-2. Totals: 12-9-35.
SCOTIA-GLENVILLE
Stopera 4-0-12, Clune 1-0-2, TenEyck 1-0-2, Almond 3-0-7, Palleschi 2-2-6, Degraffenreid 3-3-9, Cremo 12-1-30, D. Corker 7-2-16, Martin 2-0-4. Totals: 35-8-88.
Glens Falls 5 3 6 21 — 35
Scotia 28 22 21 17 — 88
Three-point goals: Girard 2, Stopera 4, Almond, Cremo 5.
AMSTERDAM 77,
QUEENSBURY 74 (2OT)
QUEENSBURY
Twyman 2-7-11, Troelstra 2-1-5, Rodriguez 7-5-20, Dray 3-2-10, O’Leary 8-7-24, Zita 2-0-4. Totals: 24-22-74.
AMSTERDAM
Druziak 7-6-20, Bergh 3-0-9, Robinson 3-3-9, Rodriguez 5-3-13, Aponte 6-0-12, B. Stanavich 5-3-14. Totals: 29-15-77.
Queensbury 19 18 15 4 2 6 — 74
Amsterdam 15 20 14 17 2 9 — 77
Three-point goals: Rodriguez, Dray 2, O’Leary, Bergh 3, B. Stanavich.
AVERILL PARK 80,
GLOVERSVILLE 74 (OT)
GLOVERSVILLE
Poulin 1-0-3, Reppenhagen 3-0-9, McGee 2-2-7, Bravo 4-0-12, Mitchell 9-3-2, Nails 5-4-14, McCredie 2-0-4. Totals: 26-9-74.
AVERILL PARK
Horan 2-0-5, Bielawa 7-5-19, Rollins 1-5-8, Joyce 6-3-17, Yearsley 2-5-10, Murray 1-0-3, Moak 5-5-18. Totals: 24-23-80.
Gloversville 19 13 13 19 10 — 74
Averill Park 15 19 19 11 16 — 80
Three-point goals: Reppenhagen 3, McGee, Bravo 4, Mitchell 4, Horan, Rollins, Joyce 2, Yearsley, Murray, Moak 3.
TROY 74, MOHONASEN 35
MOHONASEN
Jones 2-0-6, Carter 1-0-3, Canavally 0-4-4, Lasher 1-2-4, Ziobrowski 0-2-2, Cannon 3-1-7, Tope 1-0-2, Stillson 2-3-7. Totals: 10-12-35.
TROY
Carmello 1-0-2, Holmes-Hines 1-0-2, Davis 2-0-6, Holt 8-4-22, Radz 2-5-11, Buie 2-0-5, Brown 2-2-6, Watson 3-5-11, Rosario 1-0-2, Perdoma 1-0-2, Pugh 2-0-5. Totals: 24-18-74.
Mohonasen 14 4 7 10 — 35
Troy 14 20 25 15 — 74
Three-point goals: Jones 2, Carter, Davis 2, Holt 2, Radz 2, Buie,
Pugh.
Categories: High School Sports
