Boys basketball: Tigers set to face No. 1 Pine Bush for berth in tourney final
KINGSTON, N.Y. » A scintillating first half powered Kingston High’s boys into the Section 9, Class AA basketball semifinals as the Tigers rolled to a 76-50 triumph over Washingtonville Monday night.
The (16-5) Tigers will now play 6 p.m. Thursday at top-seeded Pine Bush, which beat Kingston twice in the regular season.
Brian Moore scored 18 of his game-high 20 points in the first half, Chris Wright had 17 points, five assists and five steals, while Damani Thomas chipped in with 15 points, four assists and a pair of steals to guide the Tigers.
Ryan Johnson and Brendan O’Leary tallied 15 and 13 points, respectively, to pace (12-9) Washingtonville.
“In the first half we came out really wanting to dominate. Me and Chris got it going in the first and second quarter,” Moore said. “That just helped to build the lead.”
Kingston got the Wizards into early foul trouble and cashed in at the line, making 15 of 23 free
throws in the first half.
Wizards coach Todd Rose threw everything except specialty defenses, but nothing slowed the Tigers down. Kingston outscored Washingtonville 22-9 in both the first and second quarters.
“They threw three defenses in the first four minutes of the game and nothing’s working,” Moore remarked.
“He emptied the bucket list in the first quarter. He played 3-2 (zone), 2-3, manto-man, he tried to press us. He had everything out there,” Kingston coach Ron Kelder said. “Like I told them, ‘Once a team throws everything out there like that, the only thing they got left is to try to make it ugly and physical.’ We had to make sure that we didn’t allow that to happen and we handled our composure and stayed focused.
“We put them in a real bad spot early and that’s why he went through so many defenses.”
The Tigers took charge in the first quarter with a 14-2 run with six different players scoring. They pulled away in the second quarter, going on a 17-3 burst that included 10 consecutive points from Moore.
At the beginning of the month, Kingston hung on to beat the Wizards, but only after watching them slash a 26-point deficit down to nine.
Washingtonville was down 30 early in the second half Monday night and rallied to get within 55-37 late in the third quarter, but Kingston got out of its doldrums. Thomas ended that comeback bid with a big 3-point field goal with one second left in the period off a Wright assist.
Thomas and Wright sparked a 10-0 run in the fourth to clinch the win.
“I really believe that they’re an excellent threepoint shooting team,” Kelder said of Washingtonville and what his gameplan was. “If you give their guards room, they’re going to hurt you. We were going to try to force them off their spots and off their dribbles. We did some good things, forced them into tough shots.”
The Wizards played Kingston evenly in the second half.
“We got outran. I thought that they made us work to make shots,” Kelder said. “When we weren’t executing or swinging the ball, reversing the ball and taking first shots, we got cold for a little while there. Then we started to attack the rim and reverse the ball and good things happen again.” WASHINGTONVILLE (50)—Johnson 6 2-4 15, Gallagher 1 0-0 2, Hendricks 1 0-0 3, Doelger 1 0-0 3, Walters 1 0-0 3, Graham 3 2-2 8, Clark 0 0-0 0, O’Leary 6 1-2 13, Sullivan 0 1-2 1, Fitzpatrick 0 1-2 1, Higgins 0 1-2 1. Totals 19 8-14 50. KINGSTON (76)—Watson 1 1-2 3, Moore 7 5-6 20, Wright 6 3-6 17, Genther 0 0-0 0, Thomas 4 6-7 15, Warnecke 1 2-3 4, Moot 1 0-0 2, Huleatt 2 2-4 6, Housen 0 0-0 0, Gaton 0 0-09 0, Bamba 0 0-0 0, Jackson 3 3-4 9. Totals 25 22-32 76. Washingtonville 9 9 19 13—50 Kingston 22 22 14 18—76 3-point field goals: Johnson, Hendricks, Doelger, Walters; Wright 2, Moore, Thomas. Team records: Washingtonville 12-9; Kingston 16-5.