By PAUL LIOTTI
GATES – Northstar knows it has an undersized lineup. With nary a player taller than 6-1, the Knights know they can’t power their way through their competition.
They have to do it with speed and quickness, and be as close to perfect in other non-contact areas.
Friday night the Knights did just that, blowing past East Rochester 99-69 in a Class C1 quarterfinal, using a combination of speed and quickness – and hitting 25-of-30 free throws.
Miles Brown – Section V’s leading scorer and player of the year candidate – slashed through the Bombers defense for a game-high 30 points, while fellow running mate Tray Roberts added 27 (including 4 three pointers). Brown was nearly perfect from the line hitting 11-of-12 free throws, while Roberts swished all 5 of his attempts.
The Bombers’ turned in a valiant effort against the state’s 3rd-ranked Class C team, using a combination of the inside presence of 6-4 senior center John Lexer and the outside shooting of junior Austin Mack, but every time ER would make a run and pull within striking distance, the Knights would answer with quick baskets in succession to thwart any comeback.
Lexer finished with 26 points and 11 rebounds and Mack 15 points – all on deep three pointers. Lexer exerted his presence inside all night before fouling out, and, at times, Northstar had no answer for him. The Knights’ lone weakness – an inside presence – is a known factor, but they make up for it with offensive speed, aggressively quick team defense and a methodology of rebounding by committee.
“The biggest difference in this game was pushing the ball up the court,” Brown said. “Coach told us we started off slowly in the last game, and needed to pick up the pace in this game and make (ER) adjust to us. We know we are an undersized team and for us to play defense on a bigger guys, we are going to have to play to our strengths.
“(Lexer) played a very good game. He got into his rhythm early and we were lucky enough to get an advantage as the game went on.”
The loss ended the Bombers’ season at 14-8, while the win pushed the Class C1 top seed to 21-1. The Knights now face 5th seeded Marcus Whitman which upset LeRoy 54-53 on Friday night on a last second shot. The game is set for Monday night on a neutral court to be determined.
Besides Brown and Roberts, Medeiros added 13 points, Michael Brown 10, 8th grader Ryan Garwood 9 (all on three pointers) Daniel Pickett 7, and Atu Tramel 3. Shoring up ER’s scoring was Cicero with 16, Alex Rans with 6, Jayden Nelson with 4 and Ben Pope with 2.
Northstar scored the first 7 points of the game and led 8-4 just two minutes in. But after that, the Knights’ gave ER fits: If the Bombers did break the trapping 2-2-1 full court press, NCS’ aggressive half-court defense recovered and made everything difficult. Brown scored 10 points in the quarter and when Matthew Madieros swished a three pointer at the first quarter buzzer, the Bombers were staring at a 30-11 deficit.
But East Rochester refused to yield.
Relying on the strong inside play of Lexer and the deep corner threes by Mack, ER outscored Northstar 30-27 in the second quarter. Lexer had 9 points, Mack 6 points and Mat Cicero 7 to keep the Bombers within striking distance, trailing only 57-41 at intermission.
The first 4 minutes of the third quarter was again played evenly, and when Mack drilled another three pointer, the lead was cut to 67-50. However, within the next 120 seconds, Roberts pushed the lead to insurmountable as he scored on 2 deep threes and a slashing drive to the basket, putting Northstar up 79-55. The lead increased to 81-55 with 1:08 to play on two free throws by Brown, and just like that, any threat of an upset was ended. Roberts finished the quarter with 13 points.
The fourth period was mop up work with most of the starters out by mid-quarter.
Northstar is primed to make a deep run in the sectionals and state tournament. With a combination of an experience lineup — 2 four-year varsity starters and 2 three-year varsity starters – and a difficult schedule that would rival anyone’s in the state, it makes for a very seasoned squad. The Knights are primed to win their third consecutive sectional title and a return trip to Binghamton.
“We don’t learn much about our team when we play teams when we are up by 40. So I wanted to put together a schedule that would challenge us and see how we do facing adversity,” Coach JJ Garwood said. “We put together a strong schedule this year and the guys really responded.”
This season, the Knights have defeated Bishop Kearney, Leadership Academy, CG Finney twice and Clyde Savannah (all from Section V) while knocking off East Aurora (last year’s Section VI Class B1 sectional champ) and Section IV’s defending AA champion Corning. Their only loss of the season was a three point loss to Buffalo’s Middle Early College in December. Middle Early College is currently ranked 19th in Class B.
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