Cortland Standard .net

By TANEY BEAUMONT
Staff Writer
The Cortland High and Oswego boys’ basketball teams both looked better Friday night at Shafer Gym than they did in their first meeting on the same floor early last month.
The fifth-seeded Purple Tigers, though, were still the better team, downing the scrappy Buccaneers, seeded 12th, 58-48 in the first round of the Section 3 Class A tournament.
CHS had won the teams’ first meeting 44-28 back on Jan. 9.
“The first game was a bad one for both of us,” said Cortland junior guard Nick Craig, who led all scorers with 20 points and also had six assists, five deflections and two steals. “We knew coming in that we could play better and so could they. We did, so did they, and we were able to overcome that.”
Senior point guard Sage Brown had 16 points for CHS and junior center Chris Luke scored 15 in a strong return after missing last Friday’s regular-season finale, a 67-60 loss at Jamesville-DeWitt, due to an injury. Both ended up with double-doubles, Brown with 11 rebounds — plus seven assists, four deflections and two steals — and Luke with 10 rebounds.
Oswego, which closed out the season at 8-11, hung tough for most of the contest and, when senior forward Zach Gillard connected for two of his team-high 19 points 4:48 before halftime, the visitors had a 20-12 lead. CHS scored the next eight points — four by Craig — to tie it.
The teams then traded baskets, the Buccaneers grabbing their last lead of the game, 24-23, with 1:31 left before halftime on a basket by senior guard Emmett O’Brien, before the hosts responded with the last six points of the half, four from Brown, to take a 29-24 halftime lead.
Craig contributed five more points to a 9-2 run by Cortland to open the second half that made it 37-28 for the hosts before Oswego clawed back to pull to within six, 43-37, at the end of three quarters.
SENIOR GUARD TRAE Libbey hit a pair of big 3-pointers — with a minute left in the third and with 5:13 left in the game — at key moments to give the winners some breathing room, and finished with those six points. Junior forward Bronson Gagliano, with a late free throw, was the only other Purple Tiger to score points in the contest. Craig hit five free throws in the fourth quarter as Cortland pulled away down the stretch.
“I just needed to calm down,” Libbey said of his clutch shots. “I had a couple of turnovers early that made things stressful. We started to run our plays more effectively in the second half. People passed the ball and we worked it around to get open looks. We knew a little about Oswego, and ran some of their plays in practice to help us know what we were up against.
“The coaches told us at halftime to just stay focused, just play like we can, and we did,” Craig said. “My teammates just found me open and I was able to capitalize.”
“Oswego came out with intensity despite taking a bit of a lop-sided loss in our first meeting,” CHS coach Jeremy Milligan said, his team now 15-5. “Their work on the offensive boards impressed me in the first half. Give them a ton of credit; they executed well and were able to get the ball in to their best scorer, Gillard, who we were aware of. They got Chris into some early foul trouble (two in the first 5:30 of the game), which gave them an advantage against our zone.
“We were looking to score in transition. We talked at halftime about the need to go after defensive rebounds more aggressively to counter them off the offensive glass and outlet the ball to Sage to get out in transition. I didn’t get the impression that our guys came in thinking this would be an easy win; we prepared the last three days for Gillard being a major scoring threat, and he proved that he is.”
“WE PLAYED WITH a lot more intensity this time,” Oswego coach Jim Lamacchia said. “We wanted to be strong with our offensive rebounds. Our 1-2-2 gave them some problems at the beginning. I was happy with our effort. Our guys executed better and worked together.
“Cortland is a well-coached team that I think can win the next game (against No. 4 Jamesville-DeWitt, which downed No. 13 Homer 77-49 Friday) if the ball bounces well for them.”
Luke (13 points and 10 rebounds) and Brown (11 points and 14 rebounds) both also had double-doubles in the teams’ first meeting as well.
“I think having two players with double-doubles (in the first sectional game) is an encouraging sign,” Milligan said, “and I think the team realizes that we have two outstanding guards in Nick and Sage, who helped us take over the game. We felt very good with the ball in their hands down the stretch.
“The team did a very good job tonight of looking for them. Sage gave us good senior leadership and Nick is very dangerous in transition. We relied on them both heavily down the stretch and they did a great job.”
Buccaneers senior guard Tyree Varner scored 13 points to complement Gillard. Cortland finished with a 39-31 rebounding advantage, Gillard with 11 boards and Varner with eight to pace the visitors. Each also had two steals.
As noted, the Purple Tigers will visit Jamesville-DeWitt (also 15-5) Tuesday in a quarterfinal game, this time with Luke. “Having Chris will help us on the court and give us a psychological boost, while posing big problems for J-D defensively,” Milligan said.
“I think we can take them,” Craig said of the upcoming contest. “We have to box out and hit our open shots.”
“It will be a good matchup, and we’re excited to play them again,” Libbey said. “It was a good game the first time.”