By STEVE BRICKLER
IRONDEQUOIT, N.Y. — Victor boys’ basketball earned a 68-64 victory over host Irondequoit behind a game-high 25 points from senior Garrett Clar. Trailing by six late in the third quarter, the Blue Devils embarked on a 19-2 run that went into the fourth quarter and outlasted the Eagles for their fifth win of the season.
The game pitted the defending NYS Class AA champion, Victor, and the defending NYS Class A runner-up, Irondequoit.
“Really proud of our guys and the way we stuck together”, said Victor head coach Tyler Roberts. “It took every one of us to beat a great team like Irondequoit tonight.”
It was the Eagles that struck the first blow, going on a 15-2 run after surrendering the first points points of the game to Colin Kubrich. Isaiah Ballard led the charge with six of his team-high 17 points on a variety of mid-range jumpers for Irondequoit. Goti Bandas added a pair of buckets, Quinn VanKerkhove added a triple and Nikki Yudin added a deuce as well. The Eagles finished the quarter with a 20-11 advantage.
The Eagles continued to enjoy the lead through the second quarter. The Blue Devils cut the margin to four midway through the quarter but the Eagles were able to get to the half with a nine-point edge. Ballard was fouled from outside the arc as time expired in the half and hit all three free throws to give the Eagles a 32-23 lead.
In the third quarter, the Blue Devils picked up the defensive intensity and did a little more pressing and trapping to disrupt the Eagles offense. Midway through the quarter, Victor had taken what had been an 11-point Irondequoit lead on three different occasions and pulled the game into a one possession battle.
The Blue Devils decisive run started late in the third quarter with Irondequoit holding a 45-39 lead. Clar began to take charge of the Victor offense scoring the final 11 points of the quarter for the Blue Devils. The Eagles maintained a 47-45 lead heading into the final quarter.
Victor did not take the lead until the 7:03 mark of the fourth quarter on a pair of free throws by Griffen Hopkins. Hopkins put the finishing touches on the run with an old fashioned three-point play to give the Blue Devils an 11-point lead. Nick Leonard and Randy Johnson also contributed to the run for Victor.
“We stuck with our original gameplan, and I thought our energy level came up,” said Roberts of the second half. “They started missing shots that they were making in the first half and we started to get some runouts.”
Irondequoit got themselves within striking distance, thanks mostly to three triples by junior guard DJ Kemp to get the game back within two possessions for most of the fourth quarter. With under 10 seconds to play Yudin pulled the Eagles within three but a Clar free throw with six seconds left sealed the victory for Victor.
“The kids battled,” said Irondequoit Coach Kyle Trevas. “We started off well but we all know that it’s hard to hold Victor down and once they got rolling, it was hard to stop them. We did everything we could with Clar but he just can find ways to score and finish around the basket. Very crafty.”
Roberts also had high praise for Clar. “Garrett’s leadership has been unbelievable for us this year. He’s a great player, a great leader. We are really proud of Garrett.”
VanKerkhove (14) and Yudin (11) joined Ballard in double digits on the Irondequoit scoresheet. Kemp added nine, Bandas six, Wyles Wynn four and Chase Leonardo three to round out the scoring for the Eagles who fell to 5-4. Irondequoit travels to Mendon next Wednesday night
“The silver lining in it all is we are realizing we can compete with anyone. I wouldn’t trade these guys for anyone,” said Trevas.
The Blue Devils improved to 5-2 on the season. Aside from Clar, Victor got contributions from Leonard (13 including 7-8 from the line), Owen Dake (12), Hopkins (9), Johnson (7) and Kubrich. Victor hosts Hilton, also on Wednesday night.
“We truly just focus on our next game and that’s what we’re focused on right now, but there are a lot of great teams out there,” said Roberts.
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