Firstly I have to give it to Laura Amato, James Allen, Will Springstead and the others who are able to tweet, watch a game and prepare for articles due hours later. I could barely get something typed and my thoughts had changed. Ultimately I gave up trying and just enjoyed watching a really good game between Hoosic Valley and Spa Catholic. It was fantastic theater and I was amazed at how both teams were willing and able to take the ball to the rim. Four of the first five HV possessions were layup attempts and both teams I believe took more shot attempts in the paint than out of it.
When I got there it was about midway through the third quarter of the class D final. They had a great finish as well. It was a one possession game for what seemed like most of the fourth quarter. I had to leave before the B game or I would have been cabbing it back home but apparently I didn't miss much with Voorheesville crushing B-P. I'm sorry I missed the A final as Scotia defended their title in double OT against Troy.
Back to the game I did watch. HV seemed to miss a couple early opportunities to grab a large lead. SCC held it at bay long enough to give themselves an excellent chance in the fourth quarter. The officiating was pretty good with very few defensive fouls called on all those drives to the hoop, however there were more charges called in one game than I can ever remember.
One thing about this game was that neither team did anything remarkably different in the second half. HV's shots just weren't falling and SCC's were. I do want to point out that what SCC employs isn't so much a press as there was hardly any trapping involved. They do use full court pressure. That may be due to HV's ability to break it I suppose but after reading about it following their win over Rensselaer I was expecting something very different. Finally, the winner of the unintentional comedy award goes to Coach Calhoun who was almost taken to the floor by his assistant after the final buzzer.
Congrats to all the winners today. Argyle and Scotia repeated and Hoosic Valley is the only school to win both boys and girls titles. Good luck at States.
No comments:
Post a Comment