Outside game yields victory
Twins are said to be able to feel the pain of their sibling when they are separated. Friday night, cousins Joseph Girard III and Trent Girard made the Johnstown boys’ basketball team endure the pain of made 3-pointers.
The Glens Falls guard tandem combined to bury the Sir Bills with an avalanche of long-range shots as the cousins converted 15 shots from beyond the arc to propel the Indians to a 93-66 victory in the Section II Class B quarterfinals at Hudson Valley Community College.
“I thought we played pretty well. Our shooting was fantastic in the first half,” Glens Falls coach Rob Girard said.
“When he is going, I get going and when I am going, he gets going,” Trent Girard said. “We help each other because I am making shots, they have to think about both of us. When he makes his shots, they have to go to him.”
Joseph Girard III, the state’s all-time leading scorer, came within a point of his average by tallying a game-high 48 points.
Glens Falls drained 16 3-pointers overall, 14 of which came during the game’s first 19 minutes. Girard III buried eight of his nine during that span with Trent Girard adding all six of his conversions from beyond the arc.
“He can light it up from anywhere. He can light it up from deep,” Joseph Girard III said of his cousin.
Trent Girard went his previous 10 games with a total of 15 3-pointers. Friday, he delivered season-high totals of 18 points and six 3-pointers — all of that coming in the opening 17 minutes — to help stake the Indians to a commanding 62-23 advantage.
“He struggled there for a little bit (in the second half of the season). We just tried to keep his confidence up and make sure he keeps grinding it out,” Rob Girard said. “It pays when you keep doing what he was doing.”
Up next for the Indians (21-1) is a semifinal contest Monday evening against third-seeded Watervliet (17-5) at Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls.
“We’ve got to play all 32 minutes. They are a great team,” Rob Girard said. “I’ve seen them two or three times already. It is going to be a tough task. They have size and they have athletes. We’re going to need to be focused.”
There was not much regarding Friday’s matchup that proved difficult against the Sir Bills. After Johnstown senior star Matthew Boyle (team-high 29 points) hit a 3-pointer to open the scoring, the Indians quickly reeled off 12 consecutive points capped by 3-pointers from Trent Girard and Joseph Girard III.
“When we get going, especially (Trent Girard), it opens up a lot of lanes for me,” said Girard III, who went 18-for-29 from the field. The Syracuse-bound star drained 9 of 16 attempts from beyond the arc and added seven rebounds to go with his points. He now has scored 4,383 career points.
Glens Falls connected on 19 of 34 shots during the first half and finished shooting 34-for-66 (51.5 percent) overall.
Friday’s encounter went much the same way for Glens Falls as its two regular-season contests against Johnstown when the Indians recorded Foothills Council wins by scores of 96-65 and 104-63.
This time around, the Sir Bills never recovered from shooting 4-for-16 during the first quarter when they fell behind 23-10.