Full-court press helps Amsterdam boys' basketball beat South Glens Falls

PHOTOGRAPHER: Stan Hudy

Amsterdam's Manny Santos splits two South Glens Falls defenders on his way to the basket late in Tuesday's Foothills Council boys' basketball game at Amsterdam High School.

Share on Facebook

Save

AMSTERDAM – The answer to, “What kind of offense did Amsterdam run Tuesday” would be, “full-court press.”

The Rams pressed from the outset against South Glens Falls, and, as it usually does, it paid off nicely. Amsterdam easily had more points come from its press than South Glens Falls did in total after a 31-16 first quarter en route to a 91-39 Foothills Council boys’ basketball victory.

The win improved Amsterdam – ranked 19th in this week’s Class A state poll – to 5-0 in the league and 9-1 overall. South Glens Falls fell to 2-4 and 4-8.

“We’re the ‘Running’ Rams, so we’re going to run you out of the gym. We’re going to press and make you uncomfortable,” said senior guard Ceasar Thompson, who scored all of his 23 points in the first half.

Amsterdam’s pressure made things look easy from the start.

“It looks it, but it’s the work that they put in that really drives it,” Amsterdam coach Tim Jones said. “Without the work, it’s not very efficient. They’ve done a great job of working on it and trying to own it.”

Amsterdam showed its offensive versatility in establishing the big lead, too. With the exception of forward Alec Bartone, it’s not a tall team, but its athleticism makes height almost meaningless.

The best example of that on Tuesday came from guard Jashean Vann, who led the team in rebounds with 14, to go along with 12 points.

“He’s incredible,” Jones said of Vann. “He’s a stat guy. He fills up the stats.”

Amsterdam got its biggest lead of the first half by the intermission, leading 50-26.

“We play for each other,” Thompson said. “Our chemistry is phenomenal. We just know each other, know our spots, and whoever has the hot hand, we feed them.”

Everyone seemed to have the hot hand in the third quarter, as Amsterdam outscored the Bulldogs 24-2, holding South Glens Falls without a basket until 1:56 remained in the quarter.

Alec Bartone added 16 points and eight rebounds for the Rams, while Victor Dueno contributed 16 points and six steals. Jhai Vellon had nine points and five assists.

“This is a special team for us,” Jones said. “We’ve seen them grow, and now to see it go into fruition, sometimes it’s nice to kind of sit back and watch the years and years that have gone into it.”

South Glens Falls 16 10 2 11 – 39

Amsterdam 31 19 24 17 – 91

South Glens Falls scoring: Casey 2-0-4, Viger 0-1-1, Vasak 0-2-2, Gutowski 6-0-15, Fitzsimmons 5-4-17. Amsterdam scoring: Vann 6-0-12, Dueno 7-0-16, Santos 3-0-8, Thompson 9-0-23, Azam 1-0-3, Vellon 4-1-9, Bartone 7-2-16, Rivera 1-0-2, Franklin 1-0-2. Team totals: South Glens Falls 13-7-39, Amsterdam 39-5-91.

Contact Will Springstead at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @WLSpringstead.