ONE LAST GO AROUND
Shen seniors have eyes on the prize heading into sectionals
CLIFTON PARK, NY » Despite being one of the largest schools in Section II, the Shenendehowa Boys’ Basketball team only has two seniors, Jake Reinisch and Lucas Seyoum.
The two have worked as team leaders during their 16-2 season, clinching the Suburban Council and likely top seed in the Section 2 tournament.
“We’ve done pretty well this season overall. We started with a loss against Lincoln, from the city, but we only lost one other game and that was to Newburgh Free Academy.
Now we’ve won the Suburban Council and I think we’ve had a pretty successful season,” said Seyoum. Given that the Plainsmen’s two losses were against out-of-section teams, they went a perfect 13-0 in their conference.
The loss to Newburgh came in a high profile game at the Albany Armory on Saturday January 25, 2020. The Goldbacks picked up the 63-46 victory, who were ranked #5 in New York State when the game was played, while Shen was ranked #13. Reinisch had 5 three-pointers in the loss, on his way to 17 points and Seyoum had 12 points.
“Shen’s a very good threepoint shooting team. The whole concept was that we had to make sure we were challenging everything,” said Frank Dinnocenzio, Newburgh’s head coach. “We knew they were one of the better teams coming up here. I think, as long as we get out of our section and out of our region, this could be a team we might play if we’re able to get to Glens Falls,”
Shenendehowa’s coach Tony Dzikas echoed that sentiment, about his desire to schedule games against teams like Lincoln and NFA, who are some of the best competition out there.
“We have six non-leagues games and we want to play against the best competition in the state, and they certainly showed us that. NFA’s a state-championship contending team. They are long, they’re athletic, they have all the pieces. Those are teams we want to play,” said Dzikas.
“Albany Academy played them two weeks later and NFA beat them too. They’re really good. We think we’re really good too, but against a team like that, you make little mistakes and a matchup with them can be really difficult, and I think we learned from it.”
Seyoum and Reinisch will have to work together to lead the Plainsmen to the Section 2 title and beyond, but they’ve spent years preparing for this moment. “I’ve been playing with Jake since I was in eighth grade. I played with him a lot and against him a lot during AAU, so it’s pretty cool now that we’re here as seniors now,” said Seyoum.
Reinisch is hoping that their senior season still has many more memories in the making. “Over the past three years on varsity together we’ve created such a great bond, he’s one of my best friends on the planet. It means a lot to be able to go through everything with him and I’m looking forward to the sectional run we hope to make,” said Reinisch, who went on to talk about his team’s approach going into the tournament.
“Obviously our goal is to win the sectionals. We’ve done a good job of taking it game-by-game. Right now our goal is to win our next game. [A state title] would be a dream come true, but that’s a little far down the road for me right now. We’re just taking it little-by-little, having good practices and scrimmages, preparing for whoever we might face.”
While the Section 2 tournament starts this week, if Shenendehowa is going to get another shot at Newburgh, then both teams will have to make it to the state championship game, as that would be the only time Section 9 could collide with Section 2 in the state bracket.