By PAUL GOTHAM
HILTON, N.Y. — Quinn VanKerkhove’s late 3-pointer put an exclamation point on a dramatic rally as the Irondequoit boys’ basketball team erased a late deficit and beat West Genesee (III), 61-60 in the opening round of the 2022 Hilton Hoops Holiday Tournament.
Trailing 60-58, VanKerkhove connected with 1.5 seconds on the clock to keep the Eagles (7-0) unbeaten on the season.
“My coach told me to be ready to shoot and take any open look I had,” the junior guard said. “I knew it was good. It felt great.”
After a missed free throw at the opposite end, Ryan Heath led the Irondequoit break and found VanKerkhove along the right wing.
“I saw he had three people on him, so I sprinted to the corner. We locked eyes and he passed to me. I was ready to shoot.”
The lead was Irondequoit’s first since a 33-32 edge early in the third quarter. The Eagles faced a nine-point deficit with 2:50 remaining in the game.
Come on without. Come on within. Quinn VanKerkhove buries a 3 with 1.5 seconds remaining. @ITownHoops rallies from 9 down with less than three minutes remaining to beat West Genesee 61-60 pic.twitter.com/TuLlJzoaNF
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) December 27, 2022
“We knew the game wasn’t over,” VanKerkhove stated. “We had to grind out every play, every rebound and play defense. We knew they were in the double bonus. They had 10 fouls, so we attacked that.”
Irondequoit scored on eight of its last nine possessions with eight of 14 points coming at the free throw line.
Trailing, 56-47, Xavier Gissendanner converted two from the charity stripe to start the comeback. Heath hit one of two, and Gissendanner followed with another. Isaiah Ballard hit a pair before Heath added two more tosses.
Heath used a ball screen to get open at the top of the key for a pull-up three pointer to cut the deficit to one at 59-58 with 12.3 seconds remaining.
The triple was Heath’s sixth of the night, part of career-high 38 points.
“Ryan has been great,” Irondequoit head coach Chris Cardon said. “Tonight, he just took over.”
The senior guard hit a step-back 3 to beat the buzzer at the end of the first quarter. He went the length of the floor for a layup before the halftime horn. On the decisive play, West Genesee committed a pair of defenders to Heath as he brought the ball up the floor. A third Wildcat stayed in the lane to prevent the drive.
The defense played right into VanKerkhove’s hands.
“I knew they were going to double-team Ryan. He had an amazing game obviously. I saw he had three people on him, so I sprinted to the corner.”
The shot was the second make of the night for VanKerkhove who came into the game averaging better than 11 points per game.
“Quinn’s our best shooter,” Cardon said. “He’s our best 3-point shooter. He had a tough night. Those guys (West Genesee) have athleticism. They have length. They defend. The way they defend is a little bit different. They deny a lot. It’s a little bit different than what we are accustomed to. Every time he shoots, I think it’s going in because he can really shoot.”
VanKerkhove connected in the first quarter. He had gone more than 24 minutes without seeing one of his shots go through the net.
“My shot still felt good,” he said. “I just wasn’t getting many open looks, so I was out of rhythm. That was probably the most open look I had all night. I know how good of a shooter I am. I trusted myself.”
He finished the night with five points.
“That was a tough game,” VanKerkhove said. “They controlled the whole second half. The fact that we were able to pull that out was great.”
Irondequoit led by as many as seven points in the first half and had a 30-26 advantage heading into halftime.
West Genesee scored on eight of nine possessions starting early in the third quarter to take a 43-35 lead with 2:37 remaining in the stanza.
“We could not stop them,” Cardon acknowledged. “They came out with a lot of fire. They took it to us. I had to take a timeout or two. We were trying to get our guys to go backdoor more. But we were just standing. We just didn’t execute that well. We have a lot of work to do with that.”
Christian Cain led West Genesee with 16 points. Gary McLane added 11 but fouled out with the Wildcats in the lead.
Heath topped the 20-point mark in three games prior to Wednesday including a 28-point effort in the season opener. He came into the contest averaging 19.3 points per game.
Gissendanner scored 12 points. Ballard had six.
Irondequoit will face Greece Athena in Wednesday’s championship game.
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