Crowdpleasing final in tournament
Kingston holds off Saugerties; MVP Wright scores 29 points, Sawyers’ Johnson nets 43
Kingston High’s championship game of its inaugural RYAN (Raise Your Awareness about Narcotics) boys basketball Tournament proved to be a crowd pleaser.
Chris Wright scored 29 points to lead the Tigers to an 83-72 victory over old rival Saugerties for the title. The Sawyers and Dior Johnson didn’t disappoint either, battling Kingston throughout behind the eighth-grader’s career-high 43 points.
Fresh off his career-high 38-point performance in Friday’s opening round, Wright was named the event’s Most Valuable Player.
“It means a lot to me. I wanted to get this championship for my coach,” Wright said. “It meant a lot for my coach. I wanted us to win it. We had to take it all,”
The impetus behind the tournament and the RYAN program was the overdose death of Ryan Kelder, Kingston coach Ron Kelder’s nephew. Ryan Kelder’s parents and sister presented the awards.
The All-Tournament team included Johnson, Tiger Da-
mani Thomas, Zack Foley of Goshen and Poughkeepsie’s Niyal Goins.
Poughkeepsie defeated Goshen 81-66 in the consolation game.
Thomas had 14 points, Brian Moore 12 and Thomas Huleatt 11 to help guide Kingston. Austin Curlin came off the bench for 14 for Saugerties.
“Damani was a big part it and, once he started hitting, I started scoring,” Wright said.
Neither team could get on track in the first quarter. Kingston missed its first eight shots, including four on one possession, but still found itself tied 2-2 2:30 into the contest. The lead changed four times as staunch defensive play forced both teams into misses.
Kingston maintained a lead in the second quarter, but a fast-break layup by Caleb Edwards and six consecutive points from Johnson in a one-minute span spurred the Sawyers to go ahead in the third.
The Tigers dominated the final four minutes of the third, staging a 16-6 run that was fueled by 10for-13 foul shooting. Fouls dictated the game. There were 59 fouls called with Kingston making 28-of49 attempts overall. The Sawyers were 25-for-30 at the line.
“Early on, in the second quarter, I thought we did a nice job controlling the paint, but then we let it start to get away from us,” Saugerties coach Mike Tiano said. “It started to get into a track meet and then we just couldn’t keep up with them.
“We got taken out of our rhythm. We stopped running our sets and we tried to run with Kingston,” Tiano said. “Kingston’s very athletic. They run up and down the court fast and we tried to keep up with them.
“It was a five-point game in the third quarter, then a couple of possessions, a couple of bad turnovers and it just kind of got away from us there. It slipped away.
“In a game like this, an environment like this, you can’t let those opportunities get away from you.”
A pair of 3-point field goals by Wright and two big baskets from Huleatt enabled the Tigers to build an 18-point advantage with 5:40 remaining.
Johnson, playing hurt and with four fouls, willed his team back into the hunt. He had 31 points in the second half, including 20 in the fourth quarter. He scored 14 consecutive points, eventually pulling
the Sawyers within 76-69 with 2:10 left.
Thomas responded with a rebound off a Moore miss that led to a foul shot, then got a fastbreak basket to cement the lead.
“Their best player did some really good things, but we allowed that to happen,” said Kelder, who had players going one-onone with Johnson. “He’s good. If it’s a league game later in the year, we’re going to double that guy if he’s killing us like that.”
Johnson, whose previous single-game best was 36 last season, banged his ankle against a stanchion during Friday’s win over Goshen. He aggravated it Saturday and eventually cramps forced him out with 41.5 seconds left.
“When I came down the court on the fast break, I got up for a layup and I landed wrong,” he said. “The harder I played, the more it got worse. My teammates just kept telling me, ‘Don’t worry about it. Play your game.’ I just wanted to play through.
“I did not want to come out of the game. I just tried to play through it as hard as I can and I think I did that until the cramps came.”
“We played hard. That’s what I want from them,” Tiano said. “They just got to understand to settle down and learn from this.”
“The biggest thing, from day one, is we got to defend. I think we’re a below-average defensive team right now,” Kelder admitted. “We’re getting some hustle plays, getting some plays from behind from certain guys who are really hustling from the back side, getting deflections and things like that.
“But we’re not containing the basketball. We didn’t contain it last night and we didn’t contain it today.”
Kingston beat Poughkeepsie 82-71 on Friday.
“The tempo and the flying up-and-down wasn’t a bad thing. The crowd was liking it for today,” Kelder remarked, “but we can’t continue to defend like we’re defending if we want to make a move.
“If we want to accomplish our goals, then we got to become a better defensive team.”
SAUGERTIES (72)—Defino 0 0-0 0, Johnson 15 12-14 43, Walsh 0 0-0 0, Curlin 3 8-9 14, Whitaker 0 2-3 2, Rell 2 1-2 5, Passante 0 0-0 0, McGirr 0 0-0 0, Hartrum 0 0-0 0, Edwards 3 0-0 6, Smith 0 0-0 0, Hindes 0 2-2 2, Schoonmaker 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 25-30 72. KINGSTON (83)—Watson 1 2-4 4, Moore 2-3 12, Wright 11 4-8 29, Genther 1 0-0 2, Thomas 3 8-11 14, Warnecke 0 1-4 1, Moot 1 6-8 8, Huleatt 3 5-7 11, Housen 0 0-0 0, Gaton 0 0-0 0, Bamba 0 0-0 0, Jakcson 1 0-3 2. Totals 26 28-49 83. Saugerties 11 16 21 24—72 Kingston 14 18 26 25—83 3-point field goals: Johnson; Wright 3. Team records: Saugerties 1-1; Kingston 2-0.