TENACIOUS ‘D’
Colonie limits Shen to just 38 points in big road win
CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. » Dr. James Naismith giveth, Dr. James Naismith taketh away.
When the inventor of the game of basketball created the indoor game in 1891 there was a simple goal of putting at that time a soccer ball through a peach basket and he wanted the game that was free of hard physical play as a player moved towards the intended goal.
He wouldn’t want to see Friday’s game tape between the Shenendehowa and Colonie High School boys basketball team.
One coach called it a “defensive clinic” and another called part of the night “offensively inept” as both squads scored less than 10 points in the second quarter and tied each other with 10 points each in the fourth as Colonie won on the road, 42-38 in a Suburban Council Gray Division clash.
“You tell me that we hold them to 42 points, I’m thinking we win,” Shenendehowa coach Tony Dzikas said. “We just couldn’t get going, it’s one of those games where nobody’s going, and nobody got it going on.”
The Plainsmen(8-2 Suburban Council, 11-3 overall) never led in the contest and pulled within a point at the buzzer to end the first quarter on Chris Hulbert 3-pointer and once again down the stretch with 2:27 remaining in the contest when Josh Nails drove the lane and Hulbert ended up at the foul line for a one-and-one.
A rare miss and Garnet Raider rebound set up Josh Aybar’s banked 3-pointer from the top of the key to give Colonie (9-3 league, 10-3 overall) just enough room in the closing minute to give assistant coach John Karbowski the win.
“We were offensively inept tonight, we just couldn’t score a
goal,” Dzikas said. “They (Colonie) did a great job and then we couldn’t hit free throws, we missed some lay-ups that we right there, we missed some wide-open threes and then have someone come in, drive the lane and hit it off the bounce. They were hitting some tough shots.”
Both teams provided tenacious defensive efforts, when combined with errant passing by both squads and limited clean opportunities heading towards the basket made it at times a war of attrition.
That was exactly what Raider head coach Ken Dagostino had drawn up for his squad.
“Shout out to Coach Dags who was bed-ridden today, we dedicated this game to him and his game plan,” Karbowski said. “The boys played a clinic on defense, Josh (Aybar) and Will (Aybar) on the perimeter, we knew we had to close out because they are great shooters, they got that done. Shai (Young), Aaron (Satin) and Isaiah (Moll) on the inside were fighting over screens and they were slipping and they kept communicating, held them at bay the best they could.
“It was a defensive clinic for us, put out for 32 minutes and they got it done. I’m real happy for the team, we needed this. After Shen beat CBA they were on a Shenendehowa sophomore Jake Reinisch looks to split Colonie’s Josh Aybar (1) and Donovan Canty (20) in the second half of Friday night in Suburban Council Gray Division action at Shen’s High School East gymnasium. roll and if we were going to get back in the thick of things we needed this win. The boys responded with a good game plan and they got it done.”
While disappointed with the offensive output by the Plainsmen, Dzikas was satisfied that Isaiah Moll was limited to just 12 points on the night.
“I think we did a good job on (Isaiah) Moll,” Dzikas said. “The other guys, hey, they scored 42 points.”
Moll led the Raiders with his 12 points, but his presence underneath the boards and his ability to find his teammates kept Colonie one step ahead.
“I’m a big part of the offense and I feel they were box-and-oneing me and I think they were putting a little too much emphasis on me so I was going to give the other guys an opportunity to shine,” Isaiah Moll said. “In the locker room I just instilled confidence in them and say ‘You can shoot, we know you can shoot, you’re good, take your shots.”
With just 15 points scored in the first half, including a scoreless six minute stretch to start the second quarter Dzikas cut the halftime speech short. Rather than take out his frustration about the anemic offensive performance, he put his Plainsmen players back on the court during the break.
“When you can’t put the ball in the basket, let’s get out there and get some shots,” Dzikas said. “So they did a shooting drill, seeing the ball go through the basket a little bit.
“As a coach I believe that’s what you should do, but it didn’t work.”
Despite an 18-point night by Shenendehowa’s Chris Hulbert, Colonie held onto the lead, outscoring the Plainsmen by a single point and clung onto the lead for the win.
“That’s a huge win for this program, we’ve been playing good, we’ve got some wins but we really haven’t been hitting on all cylinders,” Karbowski said. “We knew coming into this gym that we would need to play solid defense and slow the game down and get the shots we wanted or we would have a long night.
“They followed the game plan exactly as we wanted to. I told them you have to play with guts in a game against Shen, you have to get on the floor, you have to hustle but you have to play with some smarts and we kept pulling it out, running our offense, being patient, keep the score low and I thinks that’s one of the only way we stay in the game and win it.”