Cortland Standard .net

By TANEY BEAUMONT
Staff Writer
A trio of local guards earned first-team honors for the recently-completed season in all-league voting by the OHSL Freedom National Division boys’ basketball coaches.
Runner-up Cortland’s potent frontcourt duo, senior Sage Brown and junior Nick Craig, both made the elite squad — Brown for the second year in a row — and were joined there by junior Jarrad Reiner from Homer, which tied for third place.
The other first-teamers are senior guard-forwards Isaiah Williams and Dom DeRegis from league champion Jamesville-DeWitt, senior guard Justin Marsden from fifth-place Mexico and junior guard Mike Melnyczuk from Marcellus, which tied with Homer for third. DeRegis and Marsden join Brown as repeat first-teamers.
The second team includes Cortland junior center Chris Luke, Homer senior guard Jayden Gavidia, junior guard-forward Jimmy Boeheim and senior guard Adrian Autry from J-D, Chittenango junior guard Matt Milliman and, from Mexico, senior guard Jake Cleveland, who was also a second-teamer last season.
Under the format used this past season, each team in both the Freedom National and American Divisions played each of the other teams in the two divisions once each in league play.
Making up the Freedom American first team are freshman guard Mika Adams-Woods and senior forwards Zach Walser and Jack Rauch from champion Bishop Ludden, senior guard Monte Stroman from second-place Syracuse CBA, junior guard Cody Green from third-place Fulton and, from fourth-place East Syracuse-Minoa, senior forward Jah-Meer Duffie.
The second team is made up of freshman guard Charlie Pride and senior forward Jack Carey from CBA, Fulton senior center Chris Jones, ES-M senior guard Brandon Breen and, from fifth-place Oswego, senior forward Zach Gillard.
Cortland coach Jeremy Milligan and Homer coach Sean Malone had the following comments on their first-teamers.
Milligan on Brown: “It is no surprise that Sage was selected for a second consecutive year as a first team all-league player. Despite having a 6-4 athletic frame, he has worked incredibly hard to get to where he is right now. It is gratifying to see Sage’s hard work reaping much-deserved acknowledgment from opposing coaches. His game stats—both defensive (194 rebounds, 77 deflections, 69 steals, all team highs) and offensive (team-high 124 assists, second-best 313 points/14.9 per game) spoke for themselves. Sage’s season resume included nine double-doubles and one triple-double game.
“In addition to turning the heads of all opposing coaches, Sage left his mark in the CHS basketball record book numerous times. He wound up 13th in all-time career scoring with 640 points, averaging 10.4 per game over his career; is sixth in career rebounds with 325 (including being tied for third for single-season rebounding with 194; is second in career assists with 212 (and second in single season assists, 124) and fourth all time for career steals with 122 (including fourth for single season steals with 69, one better than current CHS assistant coach Francis Loiacono).”
Milligan on Craig: “By the conclusion of Nick’s sophomore year, we knew that we had a player on our hands. He’s a gym rat, constantly looking to better himself and play as much ball as possible. By the time this season rolled around we were confident we were going to have one of the best guard combinations in Nick and Sage, and they did not disappoint. Nick was virtually unstoppable in single coverage man-to-man throughout the season. I think that it was because of his ability to get to the basket against man defense (and having a 6-10 center) that forced the majority of our competition to play zone defense.
“Nick led our team in scoring, netting 357 points while averaging 17 per game, field goal percentage, 46 percent (124-of-267), 3-point shooting percentage, 40 percent (20-of-50), and foul shooting, 59 percent (89-of-152). Two of those 357 points included an exciting game-winning shot off a sideline out-of-bound play at Mexico.
“Nick’s hard work also landed him some space in the CHS basketball record books. He tied for 15th in single season scoring, is now seventh in single-season assists with 84 and is 12th in single-season foul shots with 89. We feel fortunate to have Nick returning next season, along with six additional underclassmen.”
Malone on Reiner: “Jerrad was our go to scorer this year and was a guard who had to play as a big man for us almost every game and we wore him down as the season went on, but he never wavered and continued to carry us when we needed him too. We certainly had our ups and downs but Jerrad helped keep us even by not getting to down or too high.”
Reiner started all 20 games this year, leading the team in points scored ( 335, 16.8 points/game average), two-point shooting percentage (93-for-161, 58 percent), 3-point shooting percent (40), free throws made/attempted with being second in FT percentage (77). He also led the team in rebounds (118), was second in steals (41) and fourth in assists (30).