By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — John Nally needed to see more energy out of his Pittsford Sutherland Knights, so the 19th-year coach called for a timeout less than two minutes into the second quarter.
Nally’s squad responded with a decisive run over the remainder of the stanza.
“We just lost energy,” Nally said after Sutherland’s 56-40 victory over the Gates-Chili Spartans in the opening round of the 2018 R-H Boys’ Holiday Tournament. “I thought we started the game okay, but then we had that stretch where we gave up a ton of offensive rebounds right in the matter of two minutes. It was probably six offensive boards. Our energy dropped for a little bit. We let them tie it up.”
John Luther and John Messina combined for 15 points as Sutherland outscored G-C, 17-5 over the final 6:17 of the second quarter.
Luther connected three times behind the arc. His three ball from the top of the key snapped a 14-all tie and gave the Knights a lead they did not surrender. Messina responded with six points over the next three possessions, and Luther followed with two more treys pushing the lead to double digits.
Sutherland went into halftime with a 31-19 advantage.
“It was big to get some buckets out of those guys,” Nally said of Luther and Messina. “The guards were solid tonight.”
Sutherland big man Kevin Ryan supplied the interior threat and scored a game-high 18 points.
“Kevin had to earn everything tonight,” Nally said of the 6-foot-6 senior. ” Those guys were tough and physical. They didn’t just put him on the free throw line.”
Ryan has scored in double figures in all seven Sutherland (4-3) games and is averaging 17.7 points per game.
“Whenever they start scoring, it just opens up our offense,” he said of teammates Luther and Messina. “That’s a big factor for us.
“We just really started moving the ball well,” Ryan said of the second-quarter run. “We started playing better defense.”
Sutherland forced five turnovers during the second-quarter run and allowed just two field goals over that period of time. The Knights limited Gates to eight second-half field goals. For the Spartans (6-2) averaging 63.6 over their previous seven games, the 40 points represented their lowest offensive output of the season.
“Luckily, we were able to get them to miss some shots tonight,” Nally said. “Overall, our first shot defense was really good, and that is obviously big. We didn’t light it up offensively.”
Adam Williams led a balanced Gates attack with 11 points. Nine different Spartans scored in the game.
“They’re going to be in the mix with everybody,” Nally said of his alma mater. “They have a really good player with Keith (Slack). They got some other kids who are tough physical kids. They all got really good quickness. We’ll take every win we can get, and this is a good one.”
Traylan McCray added eight points for Gates. Devin Walton had five. Slack and Turner Harris had four apiece. Tre Green, Terrace Walker, Jr., Mair Morrison and Serdrick Thomas each had two points.
Messina and Ben DiGiovanni scored 10 apiece for Sutherland. Connor Fitzsimmons chipped in six points, and Own Flisnik had three.
Sutherland will take on host Rush-Henrietta in Friday’s final. A 6:15 PM tipoff is scheduled.
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