The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Falkenburg nets 39 in semifinal victory
Bears best Red Devils to advance to Section III Class B final
SYRACUSE » Chittenango’s Zach Falkenburg has proven over his two years on the boys basketball team that he has a wide variety of ways to score the basketball and the potential to post big numbers every time he steps on the court.
Saturday, in his biggest game he turned in his highest-scoring performance.
The junior scored 39 points in a Section III Class D semifinal against Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, leading his Bears past the Red Devils 60-52 and into the final.
“You watch the film and he does so many things for us and he can do so many things,” said Chittenango coach John Clancy. “I was kind of waiting for this. You see glimpses of what he can do and he really just, it was an incredible game. It was an incredible performance. Not only the scoring but he found a couple kids a couple other times.”
For much of the game, Falkenburg was locked in a scoring duel with the Red Devils’ Davey Moffett, who finished with 26 in defeat. The key was the fourth quarter, when the Bears held Moffett to just five points and none over the final 3:34. Falkenburg scored 11 in the final period, including a key 3-point play to put his team ahead by six with 3:19 to play.
“You don’t really expect to come out here (and score) until once the ball gets thrown up,”
said Falkenburg. “Then the adrenaline kicks in and you go from there.
“It felt good from the first shot I took and my teammates did a really good job of finding me once I did get the hot hand.”
Chittenango scored the game’s first points on a Matthew Lamphear basket but quickly fell behind by nine behind some sharp shooting from VVS. Moffett connected on three 3-pointers and Jake Engler added another during a 16- 5 run for the Red Devils. The Bears began to close the gap before the end of the first, scoring the final five points of the period to pull within 16-12.
The No. 2 seed carried that momentum into the second quarter, taking an 18-16 lead on backto-back 3-pointers from Falkenburg. Dylan Voutsinas added a 3 of his own as Chittenango built its biggest first- half lead at 25-18. Mof fett connected on back-to-back 3-pointers on the other end to get VVS back into it. The teams traded baskets over the final two minutes of the period, with Jacob Burgan’s buzzer- beating jumper from the baseline putting the Bears ahead 31-28 at halftime.
Moffett made four free throws to start the third and put the Red Devils back in front before Falkenburg countered with four of his own. The Bears junior added seven more points in the period but two key 3-pointers from VVS’ Nathan Palmer kept the No. 3 seed in the game, trailing 44- 40 going into the fourth quarter.
Palmer stayed hot to start the final period, canning his third 3-pointer of the game just 13 seconds in. Moffett added two free throws on VVS’ next possession for a 45- 44 lead. Baskets by Hunter Hendrix on one end and Moffett on the other each changed the advantage before Falkenburg put Chittenango ahead for good with a 3- pointer with 4:42 to play. He added a pair of free throws and then the key 3-point play with 3:19 to go for a 54- 48 edge. Andrew Roden immediately answered with a 3-point play on the other end but Voutsinas’ second 3-pointer of the game extended the Bears’ lead to 57- 51 with 2:46 to play. The Red Devils were in an identical situation in their quarterfinal win over Marcellus but couldn’t complete another comeback. Falkenburg added three free throws in the closing minute to ice the victory.
“He’s really good,” said Moffett. “We tried to put one player on him and it didn’t really work. They have a lot of big guys that can set picks and he gets around them. He’s a great shooter and a great all-around player and he just had a great game.
“We knew this year and next year, we’re going to be better just being really young and inexperienced. This year we made it to the semis, it’s a great job. Next year we’re hoping to get even further. It’s a tough loss but a great team.”
Chittenango advances to face No. 1 seed Westhill, having dropped the first meeting of the season by twenty points.
“They might be the best team in the section, they really are,” said Clancy. “I really enjoy watching them play except when we’re playing them. We’re just going to try to muck it up the best that we can. We were competitive in the game the first time. We just got a little bit nervous. We had it about 7 or 9, then it got to 11 or 13 and we could just never get a run to get back into it but that’s a part of the reason why they’re so good also. They don’t really let you do that.
“We’re pretty young so I’m hoping we’ve grown from them and you know what, we’re going to give it our best shot and see what we can do.”