STREAKS ROLLING
Saratoga routs Columbia, sets up match-up with Shaker
An 0-2 start to the season had Saratoga Springs varsity boys basketball coach Matt Usher concerned about his team.
Four straight Suburban Council wins since have alleviated some of that worry.
Saratoga Springs proved too much for Columbia with a 65-49 league win that was never really in doubt. The hosts led by nine points after the first quarter and stretched the lead to 18 at the half.
“They played really hard on the defensive side of the ball tonight,” Usher said. “If we can continue to get better on the defensive side of the ball I think we can do some pretty good things this season.”
The Blue Streaks defense limited the Blue Devils to just 18 points in the first half and used a press to create turnovers and easy points going the other way.
“It was good to see Brian Hart, some of those other guys flying around the floor,” Usher said. “We pulled away from them in the first half with that full court press.”
Saratoga Springs once again had a balanced scoring effort from its team. Coming into the game Hart, AJ Lawton, Chris Hulbert and Andrew Patnode have each led the team in scoring in different games. Against Columbia senior Matt Larkin added his name to the list who had a teamhigh 12 points along with Hart.
“It’s going to be different this year because it can be a different guys each night to lead us in scoring,” Usher said. “We’re much more balance than we have been in the past. It’s going to be an adjustment for us but it’s also going to be tough to game plan against.”
Nate Chudy finished with 11 points while older brother Nick scored nine on three 3-pointers in the first quarter.
“We started off 0-2 and we used that as fuel to keep winning,” senior Nick Chudy said. “We’re so deep and we know it. If we try as hard as we can when we’re out
there we know we’ve got fresh legs coming in who are going to try equally as hard.”
Nick Chudy is a 6-foot-3 wing player who shoots 3s and is the team’s defensive stopper. It’s his job to guard the opponent’s best player most night. Nate Chudy, a junior big man, who’s already made an impact in his first year on varsity.
“Varsity is a higher pace because I’m playing with older guys who are more athletic and more skilled,” Nate Chudy said. “It feels amazing that I can trust my brother and the rest of my teammates to score and take pressure off me. I was just doing what I like to do. I jump up and get rebounds. The rest just came to me ... offensive rebounds I put back.”
Columbia was led in scoring by junior guard Alex Adams’ 13 points and fellow junior Liam Dunahar who added nine points in the loss.
The Saratoga Springs win sets up an early season tussle for first place in the Suburban Council Gray Division with 4-1 Shaker.
“They’re one of the best teams in the league, maybe the most talented team in the league,” Usher said of the Blue Bison. “They’ve got all sorts of size and a couple of guys going to play DI. It’s going to be a tough matchup for us but we’ve got the size and athleticism to throw different players at them defensively.”
Shaker is led by 6-foot-8 Sloan Seymour, who leads the team in 3-point shooting and 6-foot-9 Jake Cook. The Blue Bison and Blue Streaks will play at 7 p.m. Thursday night in a girls-boys doubleheader at Shaker High School. The Shaker and Saratoga Springs varsity girls teams tip-off at 5:30 p.m.
Two Shaker grads who are currently pitching in MLB will have their jer- sey’s retired in a ceremony Thursday. Then from 6:15-7 p.m. Colorado Rockies starter Jeff Hoffman and Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle will sign posters.