By MIKE ROSE
BERGEN, N.Y. — Braedyn Chambry poured in 17 of his game-high 26 points in the second half as the No. 1 seed Byron-Bergen Bees buzzed past the No. 8 Eugenio Maria de Hostos Charter Hornets to advance to the Class C2 semifinals, 67-39.
After earning a bye in the first round the Bees were a little slow out of the blocks before ultimately exploding from the second quarter on.
“We haven’t played in 10 days so I think that may have had an impact,” Byron-Bergen head coach Roxanne Noeth said. “Second half we just settled down a little bit, took care of the ball a little bit better, got the ball inside to Braedyn, got a three from Brody (Baubie) in the corner and just hustle, we hustled.”
EMH jumped out to an early lead as Miguel Chevere scored the first four points of the night for the Hornets. The Bees responded to take a 6-4 lead behind Colin Martin and they would not trail again the rest of the night. Brendan Pimm added seven of his 15 points in the second quarter as the Bees led 26-14 at the break.
In the second half, Chevere and Seth Patterson did their best to power the Hornets back in the game. Patterson scored nine of his 18 in the third quarter but ultimately it became the Chambry show. Chambry scored eight of his team’s 20 in the third quarter as the lead ballooned out to 17 after three.
“Honestly it felt we were the better team than them and we weren’t playing like it,” Chambry said. “We just had to put the pedal to the metal and get it done.”
Noeth was urging Chambry to take over the game the way she knew he could at halftime.
“While we were on him, trust me,” Noeth said. “At halftime, we’re talking to him about ‘you gotta be the guy,’ you gotta go out there and take care of business and I think sometimes it takes him a while to get to that mindset but then when he does he’s really hard to stop.”
Baubie made his mark in the third as well scoring eight of his nine in the quarter. The Bees saved their best for last posting their highest-scoring quarter of the night in the fourth to put the game well out of reach.
Byron-Bergen will play in the semifinal round for the second consecutive season after falling to Wheatland-Chili in the Class C3 semis last season in overtime. The Bees know things will only get more difficult from here.
“It’s the fundamentals,” Chambry said. “We can miss shots, maybe mess up a dribble or two but gotta be mentally bulletproof, can’t have any mental breakdowns. We gotta do everything right and we can’t forget to do anything. We gotta stay focused and just work hard.”
“We’re gonna have to make shots and we’re gonna have to defend,” Noeth said. “Any of the four top seeds have a chance to win this bracket and on any given night I like our chances. The kids worked their butts off, they our executed the game plan really well today. We’ll see, we’re gonna have to bring it no doubt.”
Byron-Bergen will take on the No. 4 York Golden Knights in the semifinals on Tuesday night, with the time and location of the game to be determined.
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