By PAUL GOTHAM
HILTON, N.Y. — Khorie Reaves converted a pair of late free throws and finished with a game-high 24 points to lead a come-from-behind effort as Greece Athena defeated host Hilton in the 2022 Hilton Hoops Holiday Tournament, 63-62, Tuesday night.
Trailing 62-61, Reaves sank two from the charity stripe to clinch the Trojans (7-1) sixth straight win.
“He’s our engine,” Athena head coach Mike Setzer said. “We trust him in big moments, and he came through.”
Reaves went the length of the floor after a missed field goal attempt and drew contact on the way to the basket.
“I told the kids if they miss the free throw, we’re not calling a timeout,” Setzer explained. “We’re going. We don’t want them to set up. Hilton’s a great defensive team. We didn’t want them to set up. It’s hard to cover Khorie Reaves in the open floor. He got the rebound, and he just went.”
Reaves connected on 10-of-18 shots from the floor. The 6-foot-4 junior guard also handed out three assists in the win.
Trailing by as many as 10 points late in the second quarter, Reaves scored 11 of his points to lead the comeback. He took a high-low feed from teammate Connor Osier and finished at the rim for a 35-34 Athena edge early in the third.
“This is kinda what we do to ourselves,” Setzer said referring to a recent win over Sutherland in which Athena trailed by 15 at half. “What I have to keep reminding myself of is, we’re young. We have one returning starter.”
Sophomores I’zick and I’Zayah Reaves have joined Athena’s first five along with junior transfer Zee Johnson and Osier.
“Connor was in the rotation last year, but he got limited minutes. We got a great transfer in Zee, but he hasn’t been in the program. We’ve got two sophomores starting, so we’re going to sometimes come out flat. Sometimes, we’re going to make mistakes.”
Andrew Lenhard’s bucket capped a 9-1 Hilton run to give the Cadets a 31-21 advantage midway through the second quarter.
“We weren’t sticking to the game plan early,” Setzer explained. “It was really frustrating. At one point, I asked the kids ‘you tell me what defense we’re going to commit to because right now it doesn’t look great.’
“We’ve been holding teams in the low 50s. We did a better job in the second half, but we gave up 34 points in the first half.”
Compounding Athena’s challenges, Brady Gerig connected on four of six 3-pointers in the third quarter to pace Hilton. The junior guard’s fourth triple of the frame gave the Cadets a 53-48 advantage late in the third.
“Gerig was killing us,” Setzer admitted. “We decided to go no-help on him with I’zick Reaves, switch perimeter screens and kinda keep Connor protecting the rim.
“I didn’t know that we were going to have to go no-help, but it turns out that we did. That’s the one that I think we had the most success with. That allowed the others guys to pressure the ball.”
The fourth quarter saw three ties and five lead changes.
Hilton’s Luke Pisani connected from distance for a 62-59 Cadets lead.
Osier hit twice from the charity stripe next time down the floor to pull Athena within one.
Osier finished with 10 points and 17 rebounds. Johnson scored 14. I’Zayah Reaves had 10. Javon Barfield (3) and I’zick Reaves rounded out Athena’s scoring.
Gerig paced Hilton (2-5) with 18 points – all on shots from distance. Mac Emrich scored 13. Ben Sneddon and Timmy Graziano added 11 apiece. Lenhard accounted for five points. Johnny BIanchi added a free throw.
Athena will play Irondequoit in Wednesday’s championship game. Hilton will face West Genesee (III) in the consolation game.
Leave a Reply