ROTTERDAM — Lindsay Steenland’s homecourt coaching debut with the Mohonasen boys’ basketball team didn’t go as well as she had hoped.
A shot clock malfunction delayed the contest for 20 minutes, and while the Mighty Warriors hung around early once the action commenced, they couldn’t stay with Lansingburgh in a 74-60 Colonial Council setback Friday night.
Mohonasen never led in the game against a Lansingburgh team that has lofty goals this season, and saw the Knights rattle off 13 straight points to close the half with a 38-17 advantage.
“It didn’t go like we expected as far as running our game plan,” said Steenland, whose Mighty Warriors opened the season with three road games. “I didn’t see as much of it as I wanted to see.”
Lansingburgh (4-0) had much to do with that, with the Knights pressuring defensively in the halfcourt and when Mohonasen (1-3) was bringing the ball up.
“We’ve got a lot of quickness, and our guys don’t get tired,” said Lansingburgh coach Eric Loudis, who previously directed the Schenectady varsity for several seasons. “I tell them all the time, ‘Pressure, pressure, pressure.’”
Steenland was aware of Lansingburgh defensive prowess, having learned quite a bit about that as Mohonasen’s boys’ junior varsity coach the past two seasons. When she was elevated to the varsity spot, she was believed to become the first woman to serve as a boys’ varsity basketball coach in Section II since Dorothy Douglas guided the Hoosick Falls squad in the 1943-44 season.
“We’re still coming together,” Steenland said. “We’re putting the pieces together. We’re going to work hard and try to improve. We expect to be better.”
While Steen;and will get a bunch more opportunities to post that first homecourt win, she already has a road victory under her belt. That came a week ago when Jacob Paolino nailed two late 3s in a comeback win at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk.
“I was happy to get that win out of the way,” Steenland said.
Steenland has won before, and often. Aside from the 23-6 record Steenland put together with the Mohonasen JV, in a prior six-season stint with the Stamford JV boys she won five league championships.
“We’re going to keep building,” Steenland, whose team is split between veterans and new guys. “We’ll pick a few things every day and try to get better.”
Lansingburgh, on the other hand, is fine tuning with its veteran cast.
“Last year we went 14-8 with no varsity experience,” Loudis said. “Now we have all five starters back, and that makes a huge difference.”
Wesley McIntyre scored 21 points for Lansingburgh and capped the 13-0 run to end the first half with a pair of layups. Markous Green turned one of his four steals into a layup and hit a 3 in that key spurt, and finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and five assists.
“They executed at both ends,” Steenland said.
Kameron Coats had 20 points and eight rebounds for Niskayuna, Karieam Brown scored 14 points, and Andrew Batcher had eight points, five boards and three blocked shots.
“Coats is one of our captains,” Steenland of the senior. “He leaves it all on the court.”
Mohonasen wasn’t able to string two baskets together until the second half.
“We were hoping to get out of the game right away,” Steenland said.
Lansingburgh 17 21 22 14 — 74
Mohonasen 11 6 20 23 — 60
Lansingburgh scoring: McIntyre 8-3-21, Allison 1-0-3, M. Green 7-1-16, Hardt 2-0-4, Pickert 1-02, A. Green 52-13, Oliver 5-5-15. Mohonasen scoring: Coats 9-2-20, Oleksiak 1-0-2, LaValley 4-0-8, Brown 6-2-14, Bullinger 1-3-6, J. Paolino 1-0-2, Batcher 4-0-8. Scoring totals: Lansingburgh 29-11-74; Mohonasen 26-7-60.
Categories: -Sports-, High School Sports, Sports
