By Paul Gotham
ROCHESTER, NY — Cam Smith scored 10 of his game-high 17 points in the fourth quarter as the School of the Arts (SOTA) Silverhawks came from behind to defeat the Honeoye Falls-Lima Cougars, 45-42 in the Martin Luther King Jr. Basketball Classic on Monroe Community College’s George Monagan Court.
Smith scored 10 straight to open the quarter and help the Silverhawks erase a three-point deficit.
The senior guard hit a pull-up jumper at the free throw line. He followed with a steal and went the length of the floor for a layup and a foul. After a free throw, SOTA had a lead they never surrendered at 36-34.
“He can do that whenever he wants,” SOTA Head Coach Clay Pittinaro said of his leading scorer. “We don’t run anything complicated. If you got a kid like that, you get space around him and let him do what he does.”
Smith pushed the lead to seven with a basket in the lane and a catch-and-shoot three on a lead from Kenyan McGahee.
Andrew Wager drilled a pair of 3-pointers for HF-L to cut the lead to three at 43-40.
Darius Walker knocked down a pair from the charity stripe with 26.4 seconds remaining to give SOTA a 45-40 advantage.
Tommy Eastman made it a one-possession game when he converted one-and-one free throws for HF-L.
The Cougars had a chance to tie the game. Wager and Eastman ran pick-and-pop action at the top of the key, but Eastman’s three-point attempt rimmed out.
Eastman connected three times from long range on the night and led HF-L with 16 points. Wager added 15.
Eastman tallied six points as the Cougars outscored SOTA 13-9 in the first. HF-L added to the lead in the second for a 23-12 advantage at half.
“I told them at halftime ‘trust what we do,'” Pittinaro stated. “We got what we wanted in the first half. Shots were there. The looks we wanted were there. The passes we wanted were there. It just didn’t go our way. I told them to trust the system, and it will work.”
Smith came in averaging 18 a game, but was held scoreless in the first half. He netted his first points :45 after the break.
“I asked him ‘how long are they going to keep you down,'” Pittinaro explained. “He goes ‘not long.’ He erupted in the second half.”
With the win SOTA gets revenge for an overtime loss by four to HF-L earlier this season.
“On this big floor a lot of these kids got excited to play. It was a really good experience.”
Christian Simmons chipped in 10 points for SOTA.
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