Cortland Standard .net

MEXICO — Junior guard Nick Craig hit a short baseline jumper with 15 seconds left Wednesday night to give the undermanned Cortland High boys’ basketball team a 57-56 OHSL Freedom National Division win over host Mexico.
The Purple Tigers, missing three players for the entire game and another for the first quarter due to various circumstances, improved to 7-1 in the league (13-3 overall) with the win and are now just a half-game behind Freedom National leader Jamesville-DeWitt (8-1).
The visitors led 14-10 after one quarter before the Tigers (1-7, 5-10) rallied to tie the game 29-29 heading into halftime. CHS was up 43-37 entering the final eight minutes and in fact never trailed in the second half until Mexico senior guard Justin Marsden drained his third 3-pointer of the game with 44 seconds left to give the hosts a 56-55 lead.
Cortland brought the ball down, ran some offense and called a timeout with 24 seconds left to set up an inbounds play from the right sideline.
“We wanted to get Nick the ball,” Purple Tigers coach Jeremy Milligan said. “We did, and he was able to move along the baseline and hit a five-foot jumper.”
Mexico brought the ball past the mid-court line and called a timeout with 10 seconds left to set up a play, Milligan then calling a timeout before play resumed but after Tigers coach Paul Callahan had gotten a look at CHS’s defensive set-up. “We decided as a coaching staff to go from zone defense — we’d been playing 1-3-1 or 2-3 all game — to man-to-man for the first time in many games and it confused them a little. Sage Brown was on their top shooter, Jacob Cleveland, stayed with him and got some help from Nick. Cleveland got off a 3-pointer just before the buzzer, but it wasn’t a good look and fell short.”
Senior Brown and Craig both had three fouls at the end of the third quarter, and when Craig picked up his fourth 1:13 into the final quarter and was forced to sit it opened things up for the hosts.
“We knew that, as usual, Mexico was a 3-point shooting team,” Milligan said. “They hit the same number of 3-pointers, 10, as they did two-pointers in the game.”
Brown had a double-double with a game-high 24 points and 10 rebounds for the winners, who suited up just eight players. He also had four deflections, three assists and two steals.
Craig finished with 20 points seven rebounds, four assists and three deflections while senior guard Trae Libbey had eight points and senior forward Nate Turkow five points to account for all of the winners’ scoring. The Purple Tigers had a 32-23 rebounding advantage.
“Sage’s gutsy performance helped lead the team,” Milligan said. “Nick played an outstanding game; Mexico likes to play man-to-man on defense, but when they did they weren’t able to contain him, which forced them to go zone. Trae hit a couple of big 3-pointers in the fourth for us.”
Junior guard Joe Gardner led Mexico with 15 points while Marsden finished with 13 and senior guard Cleveland had 10.
“We were very patient on offense and hit 50 percent (22-for-44) from the floor for the game,” Milligan said. “All of our players did an outstanding job and did well finding Nick and Sage; being without (6-10 junior center) Chris Luke the last couple of games has taken a toll on us defensively when we’ve played zone. It was a very well-executed game — we had nine turnovers and they had five — and a great battle of two hungry teams that we were able to win at the end.”
CORTLAND JVs were also involved in a close game, losing to Mexico 47-45. The Purple Tigers (4-4 league, 9-6 overall) trailed 30-21 at halftime but rallied to take a narrow 37-36 lead after three quarters before the hosts outscored them 11-8 over the final eight minutes for the win.
Sophomore guard Gary Reagan led CHS with 13 points, complemented by sophomore forward Duff Steve with 11. Mexico’s Joe Clark took game honors with 21 points while Jace Eastman added 11.
Cortland hosts Homer Friday on Senior Night, with the JV game tipping off at 5:30 p.m.