The Shenendehowa boys basketball team did not have a rally left in it.
Bishop Maginn closed the game on an 8-0 run to pull away for a 59-50 victory over the Plainsmen in Tuesday’s Section II Class AA semifinal game at the Times Union Center.
Shen (19-2) rallied to take the lead twice in the second half and got to within a point of Bishop Maginn (8-13) before Demere Hannah’s three-pointer late in the fourth quarter sparked the Golden Griffins’ final run.
The boys had a great season, said Shen coach Tony Dzikas. `To end the season 19-2, to go 16-0 in the league and to continue the tradition we started here is a great accomplishment.`
Shen entered the game with more height and more playoff experience than Bishop Maginn, but the Plainsmen had no answer for the Golden Griffins’ relentless energy. Bishop Maginn routinely crashed the boards for offensive and defensive rebounds, and it used its aggressive man-to-man defense to force Shen into 18 turnovers.
`We knew it was going to be a battle,` said Dzikas. `We had trouble holding on to the ball.`
The Plainsmen also had a hard time staying out of foul trouble, especially Jackson Shea. The junior guard sat out much of the second quarter after picking up his third foul, and he went back to the bench early in the third quarter when he committed his fourth foul.
Without Shea on the floor, senior guard Jose Reyes tried to pick up the slack. Reyes led Shen with 24 points, but he only made six of his 17 shots from the field.
Reyes had the highlight of the first half when he made a buzzer-beating three-pointer from the half-court line to cut Bishop Maginn’s lead to 28-27 at halftime. Shea then hit two consecutive shots at the start of the third quarter to put Shen ahead 32-28.
Once Shea went to the bench with his fourth foul, though, Bishop Maginn got in gear. The Golden Griffins went on a 13-3 run to take a 41-35 lead, capped by Hannah’s layup off of a turnover at the other end of the court.
Shen regained the lead early in the fourth quarter when Shea drained a three-pointer to make the score 47-45, but it was short lived. Cammeron Womack made a pair of free throws, Jay Briceeus hit a shot in the paint and Matt Petruccione sank two foul shots to put Bishop Maginn ahead.
Free throws by Matt Pierson and Ted McCarthy got Shen within one point before Hannah’s three-pointer squashed the Plainsmen’s final rally. The Golden Griffins made five out of eight free throws in the final minute to seal the victory.
Maurice West scored 14 points to lead a balanced Bishop Maginn attack. Petruccione contributed 12 points, while Briceeus added nine points. Six Golden Griffins scored seven or more points.
`They had multiple guys hitting the glass [for offensive rebounds], and they put their shots back in,` said Dzikas.
Shen survived a scare from Schenectady in last Saturday’s quarterfinal round. Farshad Sarrafi-Nour hit a shot in the closing seconds to give the Plainsmen a 52-51 victory over the Patriots.
Schenectady took a 33-26 lead into halftime and nursed it through much of the second half until Shen made its final push late in the fourth quarter.
Pierson had 13 points, and Reyes contributed 12 points for the Plainsmen. Schenectady’s Anthony Richardson had 21 points.“