BY MIKE ROSE
GLENS FALLS, N.Y. – It was a night where seemingly nothing went right for the Lyons Lions. It ended with their season coming to a close as the Moravia Blue Devils advanced to the Class C State championship with a 56-45 win.
“I’m sad to see my seniors go,” Lyons head coach Dean Schott II said. “They’re better people than they are players and they’re great players. No one thought we’d be here and we didn’t play good today but it wasn’t for a lack of them giving me everything they had every single day. I’m just really gonna miss them and the town is gonna miss them.”
Early on Lyons seized control. JJ Johnson imposed his will inside scoring six in the opening quarter. Dez Bell finished the quarter with a bucket to give the Lions a 15-10 edge after one and their early momentum carried into the second.
Lyons led 20-15 early in the second thanks to another Johnson bucket before Jaheim Morris picked up a technical foul. Abram Wasileski went 1-for-2 at the line for the Blue Devils and moments later Johnson picked up his second personal foul and landed on the bench with 5:09 to play in the first half. From there everything changed. Moravia closed the half on an 11-3 run and went into the break ahead by four. Lions players besides Johnson shot 6-for-19 from the floor in the first half.
“We weren’t making open shots,” Schott said. “They were triple-teaming JJ, then JJ went out and they didn’t have to do that anymore. But during that period the only we were scoring really was JJ still. Shots didn’t go down, got a little frustrated, it can happen. They’ve been perfect kids. They were due a day, it just came at the wrong time.”
In the second half Moravia never let the Lions claw back into the game. Johnson scored the first bucket out of the break to cut the margin to two but that would be as close as Lyons would be the rest of the night. Kyle Proper scored four points of his game-high 21 in the third and dished out a pair of assists as the Blue Devils’ margin extended. On the opening possession of the fourth quarter, Johnson fouled out of the game. He finished his sophomore campaign with 13 points and nine rebounds in the game.
Moravia’s lead grew to as many as 16 in the fourth quarter they salted the game away. Wasileski added 19 points for the Blue Devils. Proper tacked on eight rebounds and five assists to his statline.
Lyons finished the night 20-for-53 (38%) from the floor and 3-for-21 (14%) from three. The Lions’ 45 points was their lowest-scoring game of the season. They finish the season with a record of 23-3 and as Section V Class C1 and Class C regional champions.
“How hard they played, how much they loved each other and how much I loved them and how they captured the hearts of the town,” Schott said of how he’ll remember this team. “Some people don’t give us the credit we deserve sometimes and we’re the bad guys and the villains. That wasn’t the case with this team. Lyons embraced them and loved the crap out of them and they deserved it.”
Schott hopes his returning players build off this season’s experience.
“I just told JJ and Stephen (LeBrecht), don’t forget this, remember it,” Schott said. “Those two will be two of the best players around next year. And the JV team lost one game this year, they would be on anyone else’s varsity. We’ll be back.”
Moravia advances to the NYSPHSAA Class C Boys’ final where they will square off with Haldane (I) on Saturday night after they won their Friday semifinal 67-59 over Moriah (VII).
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