SAINTS MARCH ON AGAIN TO GLENS FALLS
Aidan Dagostino scores game-winner for Saratoga Central Catholic
CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. » The Saints struggled to get away from the Golden Horde Friday night on a neutral court, but a pair of 4’s battled it out and a star continued to rise above the fray to deliver the game-winner as Saratoga Central Catholic has marched once again to Glen Falls with its 44-42 win over Granville at Shenendehowa’s High School East in the Class C quarterfinal.
“Granville is really tough,, we had seen them play when they won at Schuylerville where it’s really hard to win, so we knew how good they were and in the first half we were able to get them kind of in our pace, the second half they grinded us to a halt,” Saratoga Central Catholic coach Ken Mantia said. “It was just a slugfest, it really was, but I thought defensively our guys stepped up.”
The two squads, the fifthseeded Saints and the fourthseeded Golden Horde, were never separated by more than five points throughout the night in a physical battle underneath the boards and often on the Shenendehowa floor.
“When we played Duanesburg they out-rebounded us, which is why I thought it was such a close game and as you move along you’re facing better and better teams, you have to hold your own on the boards,” Mantia said. “I thought all of our guys did.
“Our seniors, Sean Englert and Sam Haraden rebounded, but Timmy Barrett is a junior and is really coming on, Tyler Haraden back the first game in a month and a-half, he probably had six or seven rebounds, so it really was a team effort on the boards.”
That message was sent throughout this week’s practices after Tuesday’s win at home.
“We were all right there, we
needed it, we needed the boards,” Saints Terel Tillman said. “Even in practice we’ve been telling our bigs and our point guard too, ‘We have to get the board if we want to win this game.’”
Along with the boards, Saratoga Central Catholic also needed scoring from throughout its line-up including Saints No. 44 Tim Barrett who was perfect in the first quarter and added his four jumpers from just inside the key.
“I was feeling it, we shoot those so much in practice too, so it’s just natural just to shoot,” Tim Barrett said. “Coach (Mantia) will yell at me if I don’t shoot it in practice.
“It feels great. In the beginning of the season I broke my nose and after that I just went downhill. I didn’t start to score until the sectionals and it feels so good.”
When not providing his three-straight scores early on, Barrett was bodying up with the Golden Horde’s No. 44 Matthew Parker. Both non-descript athletes were factors throughout the contest, matching up as two kindred spirits underneath the boards.
“It was a lot of fun because we were both shooting well, we both had good post moves, it was just fun to play against him,” Barrett said.
In a score line ugly fourth quarter, the two Class C squads scored just nine points between them and were locked at 42 points for the majority of the final two minutes before Mantia had to go to his clutch shooter, Aidan Dagostino.
“To have a sophomore make that floater in the lane when it was time, that takes a lot of guts,” Mantia said. “That is actually a set play where we just thought let’s put our post (players) behind the zone and try to beat those top two and he did the job.”
With 53 seconds to go Dagostino split the lane and rose up against the Golden Horde and wrist rolled the game-winner in.
“I was thinking ‘Go big or go home,’” Aidan Dagostino said. “If you’re going to be scared to take chances you’re going to fail every time, you’re not going to meet your goal.”
Dagostino scored the final 10 points in the win against Duanesburg in the preliminary round; he was ready for his number to be called late.
Granville (16-6) had its chances late battling through the final minute.
The Golden Horde put up a shot from the right baseline that sailed over the basket, as both ball and bodies ended up on the floor in a tangle with the Granville bench and players screaming for a time out. When the whistle was finally blown, the Golden Horde was awarded the ball under the jump ball possession arrow and its requested time out with 16 seconds left.
With time expiring, a jump shot from the left corner was blocked by the Saints and then recovered by Saratoga Catholic and the march to the newly named Cool Insuring Arena was on to face undefeated and No. 1 ranked Lake George in their back yard.
“We scrimmaged them early in the year, they kind of took it to us,” Mantia said. “I think we’ve improved a lot, but I’m sure they have too.
You have to play a complete A+ game if you want to beat Lake George and we’re up to the challenge. We’re glad to be there, we won 18 games, it’s been an amazing season and I told the kids ‘Why not? You’re facing the No. 1 ranked team in the state, let’s go have some fun and see what happens.’”