By VICTOR MENENDEZ
MENDON, N.Y. — Heading into the game with a combined record of 33-1, Pittsford Mendon hosted No. 2 NYSSWA Class AA Pittsford Sutherland on Friday night in a potential sectional preview. Mendon used a dominant end of the first half and start of the third quarter to hand the Knights their first loss in 350 days, 73-66.
After falling behind with 2:30 remaining in the second quarter, the Vikings went on a 7-0 run to close out the half, taking a five-point lead into halftime that they never looked back on.
“The boys did a really good job with the scouting report,” Pittsford Mendon head coach Bob Nally said. “We’ve been working on this one for quite a while, since the middle of December. We put a lot of thought into this game knowing we’ll see them again.”
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The first quarter of this game saw the lead change eight times, with Mendon ending the quarter on top 21-15 thanks to three makes from beyond the arc from Amari Coleman, who finished the game with 16 points.
“Instead of running slower sets, we ran more of a motion, high-paced offense,” Nally said. “We noticed at one point during the middle of the game they were getting a little tired so we were talking about pushing the tempo, getting out on misses, trying to get the transition buckets and not letting them settle into their outside man.”
After another 3-pointer from John Leitner to open the second quarter to stretch the Mendon lead to nine, the Knights came roaring back, going on a 13-2 run thanks to five points from Zach Neiderer, four from Sam Byrne and three from Teddy Winter.
“We got to a point where we were trying to go a little early,” Nally said. “I think guys were looking for their shots and not sharing it. Sutherland plays great defense — they have great athletes, so if you don’t want to play good basketball, if you’re not gonna share the ball, those looks become really tough.”
Five points from Cole Halpin, who finished with a team-high 17, closed out the quarter for the Vikings, ending the Sutherland run and securing the halftime lead for Mendon.
Back-to-back 3-pointers early in the second half from Trevor Nally and Jack Nally stretched the Mendon lead to 12.
Another two buckets from the Vikings pushed the lead to 15, capping off a 14-4 run to begin the first half and a 21-4 run going back to that 2:30 mark in the first half for Mendon.
“I think that as they started to go on a run and we saw that lead from them grow a little bit bigger — again, we haven’t dealt with that adversity a whole lot, so the response to that was a little bit of ‘let’s try to get it all back at once’ rather than execute offense, score, stop,” Pittsford Sutherland head coach Derrick Kemp said. “I think those situations, especially in this game, were the best thing we needed because it prepares us for what we haven’t seen yet. So I’m happy that we were able to take that away, hopefully we can incorporate it going forward.”
Heading into the fourth quarter trailing by 13, two quick buckets from Sutherland, including a 3-pointer from Neiderer closed the deficit to eight points. Mendon bounced right back, going on a 14-5 run, capped off by Coleman’s fourth 3-pointer of the night to stretch the Vikings lead to a game-high 17.
Neiderer scored 10 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter, bringing the Knights to within six points, but Mendon maintained their lead, securing the win.
The Vikings held Jackson Birch, who scored 23 in their previous matchup, and who had scored 20 or more in six straight, to 18 points.
“Undefeated was never part of the goals for our year,” Kemp said. “It was fun while it lasted, but credit to them, that’s a really good team, we knew that it was going to be a tough game coming here.”
Byrne tied Neiderer for the game-high in points with 19, 11 of which came in the fourth quarter. Other scorers for Sutherland included Winter (4) Ethan Wachter (6), Tyler Allen (1) and Chase Dermody (1).
Trevor Nally and Joshua Shadders got into double figures for Mendon with 12 and 10 points respectively. Shadders also grabbed 10 rebounds. Other scorers included Jack Nally (5), Leitner (9) and Carmen Esposito (4).
With the win, the Vikings improve to 17-1, their 14th win in a row, with their only loss being to Sutherland on Dec. 19. They’ll host Brockport in the penultimate game of their regular season on Monday at 7:15 p.m.
The Knights fall to 17-1 as well with the loss. They’ll host Honeoye Falls-Lima in the penultimate game of their regular season on Monday at 7:15 p.m. also.
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