FAIRPORT, N.Y. — With little more than four minutes remaining in the third quarter of Wednesday’s non-league matchup, the University Preparatory Charter School For Young Men (UPrep) basketball team faced its largest deficit of the night at nine points.
When the final horn sounded, the Griffins walked off the floor with their first win of the season.
Fueled by a trapping and pressing defense, UPrep rallied to beat host Fairport, 75-67.
“I’m glad for them,” second-year head coach Demond Stewart said of his team. “Guys stepped up.”
Kayshawn Ross hit a pair of clutch 3-pointers and scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half. Melvin Council, Jr. added 11 of his game-high 25 points coming out of the break.
Kayshawn Ross pulls up on the break. After 1: UPrep 14 @FCSDSports 13 pic.twitter.com/HFBGCTSFoH
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) December 5, 2019
But UPrep’s defense made the difference. The Griffins forced seven turnovers in eight possessions during a pivotal stretch.
“They finally believed,” Stewart said. “You know how young kids are. They want to score baskets, but defense wins. Defense wins games and they finally started to see that.
“First it was like three guys believing. They got a couple turnovers and had a chance to see it working. We’re scrappy. We’re not tall. You got to be a defensive-minded team.”
Ross hit a pull-up jumper from the free throw line to give UPrep its first lead of the second half at 47-46.
“We started trusting our instincts more, trusting our defense more,” the senior guard/forward added. “We had to want it. We didn’t want it in the beginning.”
He buried a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. The first gave UPrep a 58-51 lead. The second all but clinched the win at 67-56 with 2:58 left on the game clock.
“They were playing too aggressive on the man up top,” he explained. “I tried to get lower in the corner and opened myself up.”
Council connected five times from behind the arc. Four of those triples came in the first half.
“The defense got me going,” the Greece Athena transfer said. “I was finding the gaps in the defense and getting open from there to get my shot.”
Melvin Council, Jr. grabs the loose ball and goes the length of the floor. UPrep 51 @FCSDSports 48 pic.twitter.com/C5fbgvLNvI
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) December 5, 2019
The two teams met last March in the Class AA semifinals, a game that UPrep won 54-43. One of the two has appeared in each Class AA final since 2014 with Fairport taking the 2017 title in the only head-to-head meeting in the championship.
“We’ve both been in the mix for a while,” Fairport head coach Scott Fitch said. “Fun to play one against them early in the season to see where you’re at and to gauge yourself.”
Wednesday’s match started out like two contenders measuring each other. Neither team led by more than six points in a first half which contained six ties and two lead changes.
Fairport’s Max Molisani used a Euro step in the open floor to get to the rim to knot the game at 32 heading into the break.
Stefan Milinkovic scored 11 of his team-high 21 in the third quarter. The 6-foot-5 senior forward stepped out for a corner three and a 37-34 Fairport lead. Milinkovic then fed Molisani for two. He converted one of two from the free throw line and then slipped ahead of the defense for a layup.
Stefan Milinkovic drills the 3 to send us to the fourth: UPrep 51 @FCSDSports 51 pic.twitter.com/34Bdanr2Cr
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) December 5, 2019
Ryan Lucey converted a rebound and putback. Molisani hit two from the charity stripe, and the Red Raider advantage stood at 46-37.
Back-to-back buckets from Na’Zea Fowlks and Ross cut the deficit to five. Fairport called a timeout, but it didn’t matter. UPrep’s defense had the momentum it needed.
“They got great length and great athleticism,” Fitch said comparing UPrep to the Syracuse Orange when their defense is frustrating opponents. “That’s what happens. They got that length and the court gets small. We didn’t help ourselves either. We didn’t do things that could help us take away from that athleticism. We fed into it tonight.”
Brandon Moore started the fourth quarter hitting four straight free throws to give UPrep (1-1) a lead it did not surrender.
“It’s a long season,” Fitch noted. “Now we go back and we try to get better in the spots where we weren’t good. That’s what’s great about playing a great team early. Proud of the way we competed. UPrep’s a real high-level team.”
Fowlks finished with 16 points. Moore had eight, and Christian Edwards had seven.
Molisani scored 15 points for Fairport (0-1). Lucey added 14. Jack Lindstrom had 13. Drew Johnston and Andrew Smith rounded out the scoring for the Red Raiders with two points apiece.
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