Cortland Standard .net

By TANEY BEAUMONT
Staff Writer
There was a different look to both starting lineups Friday night as the Cortland High boys’ basketball team hosted rival Homer Central on Senior Night at Shafer Gym.
Purple Tigers coach Jeremy Milligan started his five active seniors to mark the occasion for host CHS. The Trojans from Homer were without two starters, senior forward Drew Cottrell and senior guard Jayden Gavidia absent due to illness.
It all ended up as a 60-35 win by the Purple Tigers, who improved to 8-1 in the OHSL Freedom National Division and 14-3 overall.
Homer is now 3-7 in the division and 6-10 overall.
After the two teams split the first 10 points of the game, it was the visitors who did a better job of warming to the occasion early on, scoring the next seven points and nine of the next 11 to take a 12-7 lead.
The Cortland basket in that stretch was scored by 6-foot-10 junior center Chris Luke, whose presence upon entering the game late in the first quarter helped change things dramatically.
The hosts trailed 14-12 after one quarter, but held Homer almost scoreless in the second, a 3-pointer by senior guard Brad Sovocool 54 seconds before halftime the visitors’ only scoring in the stanza. By then, CHS had scored 12 straight points and took a 24-17 lead into the intermission.
The Trojans scored the first four points of the third quarter to pull within three at 24-21 but could get no closer, Cortland responding to take a 38-27 lead into the fourth and outscoring its guests 22-8 over that eight-minute stretch as both coaches substituted freely.
Senior guard Sage Brown had another double-double for the winners with 13 points and 12 rebounds, plus six assists. Junior guard Nick Craig led the scoring with 18 points and also added six rebounds and three assists, while Luke scored 16 points and pulled down five rebounds, CHS with a 41-31 advantage on the boards. Senior guard Justin Prentice had one of his better games with eight points, including a trey, and junior guard Johnny Phillips also had three steals.
Homer was led by sophomore guard Jacob Rivers with nine points (on a trio of 3-pointers) while Sovocool (two 3-pointers) added eight points and also had eight rebounds, one more than senior guard Jake Hayes. Senior guard Dean Riley dished out five assists and also had two steals, as did junior guard Jarrad Reiner.
“I THINK OUR OWN play took us out of the game early,” said Purple Tigers coach Jeremy Milligan, whose team beat host Homer 53-45 in a non-leaguer on Dec. 16. “We executed well and got good looks but were unable to covert that into points. We felt like we had counters to their 2-3 zone and did a nice job of running our sets but were unable to finish a number of baskets.
“We did a great job of getting the ball into Chris,” he added. “We didn’t shoot as well as we usually do from beyond the arc, just 2-for- 14, so we had to focus on getting the ball inside.”
“We missed some easy ones in the first half, but we battled and kept it a tight game until the end of the third,” Homer coach Sean Malone said. “We tried to front Luke, but he’s too big. Without the two starters we weren’t able to match up man-to-man and played zone, throwing them different looks. That’s why we rotate what we do in practice. Overall we did well. I thought James Denkenberger (junior guard-forward) stepped up and played well tonight.
“We almost put up a doughnut in the second quarter, but our defense wasn’t bad. Luckily Brad made that three for us. We told them at halftime that with all of that we were still only down by seven. We just weren’t scoring any points. Rivers hit a big three early in the third (to make it 24-21) and kept us in it, then they had a big fourth quarter. It all comes down to their size.”
“Our top concern was with their two top 3-point shooters, Reiner and Rivers,” Milligan said. “Reiner is a versatile player and their top scorer. We wanted to keep him in check (he scored six points). We were also concerned with Rivers’ ability to shoot the ball.
“Sage and Nick have really done an outstanding job of complementing each other and pose a lot of problems for opposing teams, and Justin used his athletic ability to attack the basket on the weak side of their zone. He was also able to hit a three for us.”
“WE JUST GOT HOT in the second half,” Craig said. “Coach told us at halftime to keep playing the way we know how to and the shots were going to fall. We kept finding open teammates, and they kept hitting. Homer came out hot, but then struggled to play defense and get some stops. It was just another game for us, but a big one. It was fun.”
“I was keeping my head up, and Sage got really good passes to me,” Prentice said of his success. “I just tried to go hard to the basket. We’ve struggled the last couple of games with Chris out (due to illness); when he wasn’t there we got down a little, but tonight we kept finding him for points and rebounds.”
Senior guard Aidan Stehm also returned after missing three games due to injury, scoring his only points — the first of the game — on a 3-pointer 45 seconds in.
The Purple Tigers scored narrow road wins against Fowler, 60-57, on Tuesday and Mexico, 57-56, on Wednesday without Luke.
After going 10-for-32 (31 percent) from the floor in the first half, Cortland hit at a 50 percent clip in the second (14-for-28) to finish 24-for-60 (40 percent) for the game. Homer was 7-for-22 (32 percent) and 6-for-33 (18 percent) in the second to wind up at 24 percent (13-for-55) for the night.
Honored in pre-game ceremonies were the Purple Tigers’ five active seniors — Brown, Prentice, guards Aidan Stehm and Trae Libbey and forward Nate Turkow — plus forward Quinn Kennedy, out for the season with an injury, and cheerleader Alexa O’Hara, plus the upperclassmen’s parents and families. Also recognized were Milligan, his assistants Tom Neugebauer and Francis Loiacono, and Mike Dexter, the team’s scorekeeper for 25-plus years.
Nick DeRado, a student at Barry School, was the Fan of the Game.
CORTLAND JVs improved to 10-6 with a 53-37 win over Homer, reversing the Trojans’ 55-33 home win back on Dec. 16. Sophomore forward Duff Steve led the Purple Tigers with 22 points while sophomore forward Sheridan Crane and sophomore guard Gary Reagan added 10 apiece.
CHS led 21-10 after one quarter and 34-18 at halftime before each team scored 19 points in the second half.
Freshmen Lannis Dodge (one 3-pointer) and Bryant Quinlan had seven and five points respectively, for Homer, which got at least two points from 12 different players.
Cortland’s squads host Bishop Ludden on Tuesday, the JVs getting things started at 5:30 p.m. The two Homer teams visit Oswego Monday with a 5 p.m. JV start and travel to Syracuse CBA Tuesday with a 5:30 p.m. JV tip-off.