One could never tell that the Scotia-Glenville boys basketball team’s season had ended in defeat Saturday afternoon at Cicero-North Syracuse High School.
Once the Tartans’ 90-61 loss to Section III champion Jamesville-DeWitt in the Class A regional final was over and all the certificates and awards were handed out, the players ran across the court to mingle with students that had made the long bus trip west to the Syracuse suburbs. Smiles, not tears, defined the moment.
Scotia-Glenville had come a long way, starting with the fact that it had won its first Section II title since 1975, and nothing was going to spoil that accomplishment especially a loss to a team heavily favored to repeat as state Class A champions this weekend in Glens Falls.
We are not going to let this ruin everything we did,` head coach James Giammattei said. `We just ran into a much better team. If they (J-D) play like they did today, they’re not going to get beat.`
By themselves, J-D superstars Alshwan Hymes and Brandon Triche nearly outscored the Tartans. Hymes set a new career mark with 32 points, including eight 3-pointers, while Triche ` who is going to Syracuse University next fall ` dropped in 28 points.
Going in, Giammattei knew his team’s task would be tall. J-D had won 42 of its last 43 games and wanted to play at a breakneck tempo.
`With J-D, you’ve got to pick your poison,` Giammattei said.
So the Tartans chose to play a zone defense, locking up the Red Rams’ 6-foot, 8-inch freshman center DaJuan Coleman, while keeping Triche from driving to the net. At the same time, they dared J-D to beat them with outside shots.
At first blush, it seemed to work. Playing with fire and energy, Scotia-Glenville took a couple of brief leads and stayed within range during the first quarter as guard Joe Ferrari began to riddle J-D with hot three-point shooting.
However, once Hymes started to heat up, the tone of the game started to change. Six different times in the first half, Hymes launched his high-arching three-point shots, and they all softly found the net, leading to 20 first-half points overall.
`If they missed some of those threes, it could have become a closer game,` Giamattei said.
Despite this, Ferrari’s own hot streak had the Tartans within three points, 33-30, with three minutes to go in the second quarter. At that point, though, senior center Jim Janson went to the bench with his third foul, and the floodgates opened.
In those remaining three minutes of the half, J-D reeled off 14 unanswered points, eight of them from Triche as he twice threw down dunks and ignited a lethal fast break for which the Tartans had no answer.
Down 47-30 at the break, Scotia-Glenville stayed within striking distance in the third quarter, but saw the Red Rams seal its latest trip to Glens Falls with a 19-5 outburst at the start of the final period before Triche and Hymes went to the bench.
Ferrari still had 25 points, making six 3-pointers on the afternoon, while Terell Winney provided 18 points. Nick Alescio (eight points) and Tyler Ackley (six points) also contributed, but Janson ` who is going to LeMoyne College this fall ` never scored a basket.
Still, the large Scotia fan contingent gave Janson a standing ovation when he was taken out late in the game, reflecting the spirit and positive energy the Tartans maintained, even in a moment of great disappointment.“