Cortland Standard .net

The Cortland High boys’ basketball team was hot early on, cooled off, then got hot again Friday night against visiting Marcellus on Coaches vs. Cancer Night at Shafer Gym.
The end result was the Purple Tigers’ ninth win in a row, 59-35 over Marcellus, which improved their record to 5-0 in the OHSL Freedom National Division and 10-2 overall.
Senior guard Sage Brown and junior center Chris Luke led the Purple Tigers with 14 points each. Brown also got his hands on six rebounds to go along with five assists and two steals, while the 6-foot-10 Luke added nine rebounds and three blocks to his scoring total.
The hosts, who never trailed, needed 30 seconds to score the first six points of the game but only scored six more o points the rest of the quarter and took a narrow 12-8 lead into the second. A 10-7 edge in that eight-minute stretch gave them a 22-15 halftime lead.
The third quarter was a different story, as the Purple Tigers outscored their visitors 24-12 to take a 46-27 lead and reduce the final suspense to how big the final margin would be.
“The second half saw us come out much more focused and determined, especially in the third quarter,” CHS coach Jeremy Milligan said. “We dominated play with a well-balanced offensive attack with six players scoring. Trae Libbey and Aiden Stehm connected on 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions off feeds from Nick Craig, who had five assists. A minor adjustment made in our half-court trap led to several turnovers in this quarter that resulted in transition buckets.
“After a fast immediate start, and then a bit of a lethargic turnover-prone first half, I’m pleased with how our team responded in the second half. We did a much better job of reducing our turnovers with only five in the second half, focused on hitting the boards — we up 11-10 in rebounds at halftime and finished with a 38-18 advantage — and did a better job of getting out in transition and executing our sets,” he added.
Milligan also noted that team also did a good job of executing its quarter-court 2-3 zone defense, which caused Marcellus to rush a number of its shots as the visitors went 13-for-40 from the floor (33 percent) to Cortland’s 20-for-43 (47 percent).
Junior guard Craig, who left the game early with a leg injury but came back in the second half, finished with 10 points to go along with his assists as well as six rebounds and two steals.
Junior guards Mike Melnyczuk and Kyle Cangemi scored 13 and 10 points, respectively, for Marcellus.The Mustangs fell to 2-5 in the Freedom national and 3-9 overall.
Tyler Gavitt, a sixth-grader at Barry School, was Friday’s CHS Fan of the Game.
CORTLAND JVs beat Marcellus 51-39 in the prelim, outscoring the Mustangs 15-4 in the fourth quarter to take control of a close game and improve to 3-2 in the league and 8-4 overall. Sophomore forward Duff Steve had a game-high 20 points for the winners, complemented by sophomore guard Gary Reagan with 13 points and sophomore forward Sheridan Crane with 12. Jared Gates scored 14 points to pace the visitors.
The Cortland varsity visits Ithaca Tuesday in a non-league 7 p.m. start, and both Purple Tiger squads travel to Syracuse CBA Friday for league contests, the JVs getting things underway with a 5 p.m. tipoff.