Cortland Standard .net

By TOM VARTANIAN
Staff Writer
Homer Central coach Sean Malone got exactly what he hoped for Friday night when his leading scorer was on the bench with early foul trouble, a solid team effort.
Senior guard Jake Hayes came off the bench and scored a career-high 16 points, while senior forward Drew Cottrell netted eight points. The result was a 56-53 OHSL Freedom National Division boys’ basketball win over visiting Marcellus, giving the Troujans a four-game winning streak.
The Trojans’ leading scorer for the season, Jerrad Reiner, did net nine points on the night including both ends of the decisive one-and-one with 1:34 left to give Homer a 56-51 advantage en route to improving to 3-1 in division play and 6-4 overall. Those six wins match the Trojans’ total from all of last season, as do the three league wins.
The Mustangs headed home 2-4 in league play and 3-8 overall.
“We did a good job of picking Jerrad up when he got in the early foul trouble,” Hayes said. “He’s not going to be on his game every single night and we have to come together as a team those nights. We did that tonight.
“It feels great,” he added about his big point night. “I’ve been working on my shot. My teammates got me the ball tonight. It was a fun night. It’s been a lot of fun this season.”
“To be honest, this was probably the first game all season where we did get in foul trouble early. We had three of our main starters have two fouls in the first quarter,” said Coach Malone, Reiner, Cottrell and Dowdle those troubled Trojans. “Jerrad really hurt us when he had to sit, but Vinny (Vincent Harris) came in and gave us some good minutes. He was a little antsy at times, but he did what he had to do to get us to the second half.
“Drew has really been working on that little short-corner shot,” he added. “He still took a shot at a three, but we had a talk about that. He knows to play to his strengths and he did that. Jake Hayes also played very well. He plays physical for us and really does a lot inside for us. You can really call this a team win.”
HAYES ADDED FIVE rebounds and three steals to his high point night. Dowdle also pulled down five rebounds while Jacob Rivers grabbed four rebounds to go with three assists.
Reiner made one-of-two free throws before the opening tip, awarded by the referees after Marcellus center Charlie Rogalia was given a technical foul for a dunk during warm-ups. Dowdle, Reiner and Cottrell added buckets for a quick 7-0 Trojan lead just over a minute into the game.
A basket by Jayden Gavidia, a driving lay-up by Reiner, a lay-in by Brad Sovocool (five steals) off a Reiner steal and another jumper by Cottrell put the Trojans up 19-7 with 1:45 left in the quarter. Homer would finished the quarter on top 21-9 and a Hayes bucket.
Hayes opened the second quarter scoring with another jumper. Harris would give the Trojans a 15-point lead at 32-17 with a nice putback after the offensive rebound. The biggest Trojan advantage, 34-17, came off a Gavidia lay-in with 2:33 left in the half. Homer led 38-22 at halftime.
The second half saw Homer start making mistakes and turning the ball over. Marcellus cut the margin to 12 points, 50-38, as the third quarter ended before a furious Mustang rally in the fourth quarter made the game a toss-up.
With 1:47 to play, Mike McInyczuk (17 points) cut the Home lead to 52-48 with a fastbreak lay-up. McInyczuk added a free throw with 2:26 remaining as the Homer lead stood at 52-49.
Hayes hit a nice short floater off a spin move in the paint with 2:05 to go as the Trojans led 54-49 before Mike Dillon (18 points) hit two free throws to pull the Mustangs to within 54-51.
ANOTHER HOMER FAILED attempt in their offensive zone gave the ball back to Marcellus. With 14.7 seconds remaining. Reiner tied up a Marcellus player to force a jump-ball possession. The Trojans got the ball and Reiner would be fouled. The junior hit both ends of the one-and-one for a 56-51 Trojan lead.
McInyczuk got and offensive rebound and scored on the second chance as the Mustangs trailed 56-53 with seven seconds to play.
Gavidia was fouled, but missed the free throw. Marcellus got the rebound and called timeout with four seconds left. The inbounds pass went to Dillon in the far corner, but his game-tying attempt banged off the rim as he was double-teamed. Kyle Cangemi grabbed the offensive rebound and his shot at the buzzer rattled the rim and fell away.
“I told Coach Malone we gave up 15 lay-ups and our defense was atrocious in the first half,” Marcellus coach Jim Marsh said. “We settled down in the second half. We used a different press and we did a better job. Sometimes when you’re on the road, you’re not ready to go and that was evident in the first quarter as we gave up 21 points.
“Homer came out aggressive,” he continued. “They have some good athletes, but we have a young team with just three seniors. I like our grit. I don’t always like our intelligence, but I like our grit.”
Homer will return to OHSL Freedom Division action Tuesday traveling to Fulton with the JVs starting at 5 p.m. with the varsity game will follow.
HOMER JVs got off to a slow start, but the Trojans picked up momentum as the game progressed to pull out a solid 52-40 victory over Marcellus.
Leading 35-32 after three quarters, Matt Guerrera jumped started a 17-point fourth quarter barrage for the Junior Trojans (8-2 overall) with a 3-pointer. Lannis Dodge hit a deuce, Stephen Walter drove the lane for a lay-in and Bryant Quinlan nailed a trey to complete 10-0 run that forced Marcellus to call a timeout.
Riley McEvoy hit one-of-two free throws after the break and Dodge hit a short jumper as the run went to 14-0 with 3:10 left in the contest. From there, Homer cruised to the win.
Nick Femano (10 points) and Jerrod Gates (12 points) had 18 of the 20 Marcellus first half points, but a halftime adjustment by Homer coach Jeff Tabel limited the duo to four second half points.
“Our halftime adjustments on how to defend them worked well as the kids did a great job on their two bigs,” Tabel said. “What a boost when Dodge, Quinlan and (Alex) Recor come off the bench and account for 32 of our 52 points. It helps when your bench is ready to go at any time.”
Dodge finished with 17 points. Quinlan added 12 points on four-for-six shooting from 3-point range. McEvoy finished the game with nine points.