By DYLAN O’LOUGHLIN
SPENCERPORT, NY — After the cross-town rivals defeated Greece Arcadia and Honeoye Falls-Lima in the first round of the More Than a Game high school boys’ basketball tournament, the Spencerport Rangers and Brockport Blue Devils met in the championship hosted by Spencerport High School. After trailing 9-7 at the end of one, the Rangers outscored the Blue Devils 22-13 in the second quarter and kept the lead en route to a 53-46 victory.
“This is my seventh year here and we never won one of these, and we’ve gotten a lot of participation trophies,” said Spencerport head coach Richard Vleck. “We talked about that, we put our goals up on the wall, and this was a big one; Win our tournament. We took a big step last night, we knew tonight would be a challenge and I’ll tell you what, our practices aren’t easy, they’re tough, sometimes we’re not where we want to be, but tonight feels pretty good.”
After a 63-37 victory last night led by senior guard Cameron Khuns with 15 points and senior forward Hunter Streb with 14 against Honeoye Falls-Lima, the senior captain duo did it again as Streb led the way with 14 points and Khuns dropped 11. Junior Christopher Harris and senior Jevon Jackson both finished with six points apiece all from beyond the arc while Jah’Mere Pritchett finished with five points.
In the first quarter it was highly defensive on both sides. Both teams opened up with half-court presses and were able to cause multiple turnovers but could not capitalize on the other end. It was a low-scoring 7-7 tie as the seconds winded down on the first eight minutes, but after a turnover on an in-bounds pass by the Rangers, Brockport senior guard Daniel Dailey capitalized as he scored a lay-up at the buzzer to take the lead.
That was the only lead that the Blue Devils had all game. The Rangers started the quarter with a three-pointer by Khuns and held the lead for the rest of the game. To go along with multiple defensive stops, the three-point shooting became contagious as senior Aiden Grinnell knocked down a three and Harris tallied two as well, including a buzzer-beater to end the half and give Spencerport a 29-22 lead.
“We just had to keep pushing it,” Streb said. “We started off slow, but then we started knocking shots down and doing everything we had to. So, we knew coming out of halftime we had to keep doing that.”
That’s exactly what the Rangers did, but not without a fight from the Blue Devils. Junior guard Ty Sherman kept Brockport within striking distance as he scored 12 of his game-high 17 points in the second half. To go along with great defense by teammates and football defensive backs seniors Azay Odey, Tyler Judd, and junior Ayden Matthews causing multiple turnovers on Spencerport, the Blue Devils cut the lead to one, 47-46 with under two minutes remaining.
The Rangers responded though, as Khuns and Streb took over the game scoring the final points for Spencerport. To go along with the buckets, Spencerport’s full court press to end the game was too much for the Blue Devils as they caused multiple turnovers, including two by senior Tony Kanaley on the final two possessions of the game for Brockport.
To go along with Sherman, Dailey and sophomore Ethan Hart both finished with six apiece while Odey and senior Tyler Houseman tallied four points each. Sherman believes that this Brockport team can only get better from here.
“I thought we did great as a team,” Sherman said. “We moved the ball a lot, which helped me especially at the end of the game really get into it. I think we’re going to have a great season. Those guys (Odey, Judd, Matthews), they’re a giant part of our team. They make a big impact on our scoring, and I think that we can really play together and build chemistry, especially in practice. If we keep playing together, it can only get better.”
A 2-0 start to the season for Spencerport comes as the result of hard work from the offseason starting to show.
“It means a ton to win,” Khuns said. “Over the summer, Coach Vleck has us doing a ton of open gyms, summer leagues, almost like we’re in-season during summer. So, we’re a very hard-working program and though the results may not always show that in past seasons, we’re getting what we deserve.”
Spencerport looks ahead to Hilton this Wednesday, Dec. 11th with tip-off scheduled for 7:15 p.m.
On the other hand, Brockport falls to 1-1 after the tournament and shift its focus to this Tuesday, Dec. 10th as they host Greece Olympia at 7 p.m.
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