Troy holds off charge by Gloversville
LOUDONVILLE — As Gloversville was chipping away at his team’s lead, Troy High coach John Killian relied on his team’s experience after navigating a difficult regularseason schedule between Suburban Council games and nonleague contests.
After seeing its 17-point third-quarter lead dwindle to three early in the fourth quarter, the Flying Horses tightened up on defense and rode the scoring of eighth-grader Stetson Merritt and junior Terrance Clark to knock off Gloversville 70-64 Sunday in the Class A quarterfinals at UHY Center.
Third-seeded Troy (11-10) never trailed in the game and advances to the semifinals and will face either Hudson Falls or Averill Park on Wednesday at Cool Insuring Arena.
Gloversville came into the game hopeful of replicating its upset of Troy in the 2022 quarterfinals but ends its season 14-8 after falling short.
“The thing we did this year was we played a really, really tough schedule,” Killian said. “We were 10-10 overall but we played Bishop Grimes, Bishop Ludden, we played Goshen and as you know, the schedule in the Suburban Council is tough. We were battle-tested and being battle-tested helped us close that game out today.”
A 21-7 Gloversville run cut the Troy lead to 58-55 with just less than seven minutes left in the fourth quarter but Merritt, who led the way for the Flying Horses with 24 points, scored consecutive baskets to give Troy a 62-55 lead with 3 minutes, 38 seconds left in the game.
“I just had to tell my teammates to slow down, they were trying to rush us up to force turnovers,” Merritt said. “We just had to slow down. I knew I had to hit shots, play hard and play for my teammates. For the seniors, this could be their last game. Win or go home.”
Clark chipped in with 19 points and Legend Merritt, Stetson’s cousin, had 14 off the bench for Troy and both helped key the active defense down low that held Gloversville without a point for a span of 3:44 after the Dragons had cut the lead to three.
“Defensively, these guys have stayed with it all year. We’ve had to make some changes along the way,” Killian said. “We’ve had to make some adjustments and they stepped up big time when they needed to.”
Legend Merritt hit a jumper to push the lead to 64-55 with 3:14 left but Gloversville didn’t fade, cutting the lead to 66-62 in the final minute behind a 3-pointer from Mariano Dicaterino and three free throws from senior James Collar.
Troy led 42-32 at halftime before Collar warmed up in the second half, scoring 15 of the 17 Dragons’ points in the third quarter and finishing the game with 34 points.
“I have a lot of respect for (Gloversville coach) Ed Collar, he does a great job over there and their kids are tough,” Killian said. “They never quit, they battled right to the end.”
Dicaterino added 16 points for Gloversville in the losing effort.
“The kids are all heart,” Ed Collar said. “We knew we had to stop Stetson and Terrance, they were their two best players. Stetson got off to a great start right away coming out against our zone. We tried to take away their stars and their role players were stepping up and making shots. We made some halftime adjustments. We gave up 42 in the first half. Our defensive intensity kept us in the game. When you lose at the end of the year, the one thing you want as a coach is to go out and empty the tank and be able to say the other team played well. Credit to Troy, they played well and made shots when they had to.”