If Catholic Central’s defensive strategy was to foul Tashan Newsome every time he tried driving to the basket, it backfired.
Newsome made all 12 of his foul shots on his way to a 28-point night to lead the Colonie boys basketball team to a 64-41 victory over Catholic Central in Sunday’s Section II, Class AA quarterfinal game at Albany’s Times Union Center.
I’m hard on myself on free throws, said Newsome. `I went 25 for 25 on free throws in practice (Saturday), and I’m glad I carried it over to today.`
`Newsome is supposed to make them,` said Colonie coach Doug Kilmer. `He’s one of the best shooters in the area, so if he’s unguarded, shouldn’t he be able to make those?`
Catholic Central’s list of concerns extended beyond Newsome’s accuracy at the foul line, though. The Crusaders had no answer near the basket for the duo of Sean Peer and Herb Tedford, who hauled in nearly every open rebound and pounded the paint for a combined 30 points.
`Coming into the game, coach (Kilmer) was saying we had to keep (Jordan) Gettings out of the lane and (Devin) Grimes off the boards,` said Peer. `We did a good job of that.`
`The way we talked about it going in was we have two 6-6 guys (Tedford and Peer) to their one (Grimes), so we had a 2-to-1 advantage,` said Kilmer. `Their effort was great.`
By the middle of the second quarter, Catholic Central ` which had defeated Colonie earlier this season ` was reduced to taking three-pointers, many of which fell short of the basket.
`We definitely wanted to make them shoot outside more,` said Peer. `It felt good when they started chucking up threes.`
Colonie didn’t have to shoot three-pointers all the time, though the Garnet Raiders certainly made theirs count. Newsome drained two threes to start the second quarter, and Andrew Goo added another to cap an 8-0 Colonie run that gave the Garnet Raiders a 24-9 lead. Catholic Central never challenged after that.
Tedford contributed 16 points including a personal 6-0 run to open the third quarter, and Peer added 14 points for Colonie, which meets Bishop Maginn in Thursday’s class AA semifinal at the Times Union Center.
`We’re looking forward to our next opponent,` said Newsome. `We’re going to treat this like any other game.`
Christian Brothers Academy also advanced to Thursday’s semifinals after knocking off Big 10 rival Troy 79-53 in Sunday’s quarterfinal round.
The Brothers steadily built a 34-22 halftime lead and then put the game away by outscoring the Flying Horses 25-9 in the third quarter.
Malcolm Austin drained five three-pointers on his way to a game-high 30 points for CBA, which meets Suburban Council champion Guilderland in Thursday’s semifinal. DeAndre Kennedy-Ebron contributed 12 points, and John Mantas added 11 points.
Donovan Johnson’s 13 points paced Troy.“