By PAUL GOTHAM
PITTSFORD, N.Y. – Coaches frequently point to the first four minutes of the second half as playing a key role in a game’s outcome.
Matt Deisering’s Geneva Panthers embraced that idea Tuesday night.
Leading 31-17 coming out of the locker room, the top-seeded Panthers scored on nine of their first 11 possessions of the second half en route to a 75-47 victory over No. 5 Hornell in the Section V Class B1 semi-finals from Pittsford Sutherland.
“I went into halftime and said ‘it’s zero to zero,'” Deisering explained. “I said ‘we can’t let up. We can’t take anything for granted.’ They came out and did it.”
Devon Martin scored seven of his game-high 27 points in the opening moments of the third quarter when Geneva pushed its advantage to 21.
“He was focused,” Deisering said of the junior. “I told him that he could dominate this game if he stayed focused and did what I told him to do. He did it. That’s probably his best game of the year.”
The junior forward opened the quarter on the receiving end of an alley oop from teammate Liam Ryan. Martin later followed Ryan for a putback in transition. His and-one with 3:45 remaining in the quarter made it a 48-27.
Liam Ryan to Devon Martin. HELLO! @BoysGeneva pic.twitter.com/rbutNxZLvX
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) March 4, 2020
“That was a set play on the dunk,” Deisering noted. “I said to them ‘we’re wearing them down, and we had to cut hard. We had to dig a little deeper when we cut to get those easy shots.’ They did it. That’s all them.”
Hornell was coming off a 53-50 win over two-time reigning champion Greece Odyssey. Geneva held the Raiders 11 points under their season average of 58 points per game.
“Defense was phenomenal,” Deisering said of his team’s effort. “We did not play well against Pal-Mac the other night. We let them in the lane. That was what we talked about the last two days was keeping them out of the lane and making them shoot threes. They did it. The kids executed everything we worked on for the last the last two days. That’s them.”
Nate Askin added 17 points for Geneva. Parker Bossard had 10. Ryan scored seven points. Nasir Harrison (5), Jagger Kerr (4) and Luke Lawson (3) rounded out the scoring for Geneva.
“I knew we could run on them,” Deisering stated. “When we got down to Hornell, when we played them earlier in the year, third and fourth quarter we really took over because we wore them down. I knew if we pushed the first half, that would only help in the second half.”
Hornell’s Jackson White and Malik Arnink scored 12 points apiece. Chase Freeland added 11 points. Collin Buisch and Tanner Stutzman both scored five.
Top-seeded Geneva (18-4) will play No. 3 Waterloo (17-5) in Saturday’s final. A 9 a.m. tip off is scheduled at Blue Cross Arena.
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