By PAUL GOTHAM
VICTOR, N.Y. — Injuries nearly short-circuited the season of the Pittsford Sutherland boys’ basketball team. The subsequent response to those maladies have the Knights in position to win their first Section V title since 2016.
Kevin Ryan scored 17, and Ben DiGiovanni added 13 as Sutherland downed the Wilson Magnet Wildcats, 60-45 in Class A2 semifinal action Wednesday night at Victor High School.
One game after neutralizing the guard-heavy lineup of the NE Douglass Panthers, Sutherland thwarted Wilson’s interior attack.
“We’ve started a lot of guys this year,” Sutherland coach John Nally said about the challenges faced throughout the season. “We can do some stuff, though. When a team like Wilson who has a big lineup, we can start big. Against a team like Douglass we started small. We can match up different ways like that. It’s nice to have that flexibility.”
Sutherland didn’t always that flexibility. The Knights waded through the season only managing back-to-back wins once through the first two months. They entered the month of February with a record of eight wins and seven losses.
“Our injury stuff started all the way in the summer, and so we didn’t have a great off-season,” Nally explained. “That was part of what contributed to some of our being out of shape and getting injured that way, again.”
Recurring injuries lingered. In February, with the Knights riding a season-long four-game win streak, Nally had to make the decision to sit players in the team’s finale. The result was a 64-35 thumping at the hands of Greece Athena.
John Messina gets in the lane to give Sutherland a 24-16 lead pic.twitter.com/2uQkUa28I7
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) February 28, 2019
“We had to kinda give up a game against Athena to rest guys because the seed was already there,” Nally added. “We had to be smart about it. It didn’t matter at that stage. We were trying to get healthy.”
Three wins later, the plan has worked. Wednesday night Sutherland downed a Wilson squad which appeared to have destiny in their collective hip pockets. The Wildcats, who faced their own lineup challenges throughout the year, looked like a different squad with the return of 6-foot-5 junior forward Brennan Clark to the lineup. It showed when the No. 7 seed Wildcats knocked off second-seeded Northstar Christian, 76-68 in the quarterfinals.
Wilson kept it close in the early going, Wednesday night. A Christian Harmon 3-pointer to start the second quarter pulled the Wildcats within three at 13-10.
They never got any closer.
Sutherland responded with a 7-3 spurt. Ryan drew the defense on a drive from the free throw line and dished to Connor Fitzsimmons for two of his four points. Matt Panara followed with an and-one for three of his eight on the night. Ryan converted two from the free throw line, and the Knight had a 20-13 advantage. Ryan’s jump hook in the lane before the end of the half gave Sutherland a double-digit at 26-16.
Wilson was not able to make it single digits again.
Arthur Wilson and Brennan Clark work the inside-Out with Wilson connecting, but @wildcats_wilson trail Sutherland 43-30 going to the 4th pic.twitter.com/YHdtJPwsjQ
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) February 28, 2019
Coming out of a timeout midway through the third quarter, Sutherland went to Ryan for a bucket underneath and the Knights’ largest lead of the contest at 52-37. They still had the 15-point margin when DiGiovanni hit a runner in the lane.
Sutherland held Wilson to its second-lowest point total of the season. The Wildcats scored just 34 points in a loss to Pittsford-Mendon earlier in the month.
The No. 6 seed Knights (15-8) move on to play top-seeded East (21-1) in Saturday’s final.
“I don’t know if we have guys who are 100 percent, but who is this time of year?” Nally said. “We’re healthy enough to battle through.”
Other scorers: Wilson – Robert Davis (12), Arthur Wilson (12), Brennan Clark (11), Malikk Johnson (4), Desi Floyd (3). Sutherland – John Messina (9), Pat Sanna (6) and John Luther (3).
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