GLOVERSVILLE — The Gloversville boys’ basketball team has been showing a remarkable ”next-man up” attitude this season. Despite being without starters Jordan Collar and Jaiden Artis due to illness, the team managed to secure a victory against Johnstown.
Coach Ed Collar turned to Rowan Halloran and LaBron Hudson, normally the first two players off the bench, to fill the voids in the starting lineup. They responded by delivering a double-double of 11 points and 13 rebounds, and adding nine points to the Dragons’ 55-39 victory over the Sir Bills Tuesday at Gloversville High School.
“The last couple of years, we seemed to start with kids being sick or injured, and this year, it was me being out,” Collar said. “Jared DeMagistris stepped in for me as an interim coach before I was able to come back last Friday.”
The next-man up attitude is something that Collar said he looks for from his players.
“It is what we have expected from this team,” he said. “Going into this season, we knew we needed balanced scoring from everyone because we weren’t going to have anyone scoring 30 points a game. We are settling into our roles now. A guy off the bench knows he has to come in ready to play. LeBron came in off the bench and gave us good energy. Rowan and I talked before the game about him getting a double-double tonight, and he came through.”
Halloran said his teammates were instrumental in him getting comfortable in his starting role.
“Coach told me to be aggressive,” Halloran said. “The team helped me out a lot getting the ball to be early, and I was able to crash on the glass and get some rebounds.”
The Sir Bills got off to a fast start, with Andrew Lake hitting a 3-pointer and Ryan Hoyt hitting a basket to stake Johnstown to an early advantage. Gloversville finished the opening quarter with Rocco Insonia hitting a pair of 3-pointers in an 8-0 run for a 12-8 advantage.
Braeden Fennessey put the Sir Bills back in front, hitting three 3-pointers in the opening minutes of the second quarter, only to have the Dragons come back to close out the opening half on an 11-0 run to carry a 25-19 lead into the locker room at the half.
Gloversville stretched its lead to 13 before Maddox Pedrick and Dylan Hulbert hit back-to-back 3s to cut the Dragons’ lead to seven.
Johnstown could not close the gap any more as the Dragons settled down to pull away for the victory.
“Johnstown plays well as a team,” Collar said. “We are normally a zone team, but we thought we matched up a little better tonight going man against them. We gave them some open looks in the first half, but made some adjustments at halftime to take that away. We started to get some stops and get out and run a little bit.”
Insonia led all scorers with 17 points, nine rebounds and three blocks, while Dom Dorman connected for 11 points to go with two steals and two assists for Gloversville.
Fennessey and Hoyt paced the Sir Bills with nine points apiece. Hoyt had six rebounds, Hulbert pulled down six boards to go with three points and Lake finished with five points and four assists.
“We still have a couple guys out and everyone stepped up their game tonight,” Halloran said. “Rocco [Insonia] had a good game, and the whole team stepped up together. It was a good team win. Everybody played their role.”
Tuesday’s game was the final Foothills Council contest in the Dragons’ Lair between the Dragons and Sir Bills as Johnstown will be making the move to the Western Athletic Conference next season.
When asked if the inter-city rivals will meet in non-league competition next season, Gloversville athletic director Mike DeMagistris said, “Our league [Foothills Council] has to make a decision on how we are going to play our games. Right now, we play everybody in our division twice and everybody in the other division once for 13-game schedules. Now we may play 16 league games, but we haven’t made that decision yet. Once we decide that, then we can go out and find our non-league games.”
Gloversville 2-4 overall, 2-2 Foothills) will travel to play Broadalbin-Perth Friday night, while the Sir Bills (4-2, 2-2) will look to get back in the win column Friday at Glens Falls.
Johnstown 8 11 8 12 — 39
Gloversville 12 13 17 13 — 55
Johnstown: Hulbert 1-0-3, Bramer 1-0-2, Hoyt 4-0-9, Yetto 2-0-5, Pedrick 1-0-3, Lake 2-0-5, DeMarco 1-0-3, Fennessey 3-0-9. Gloversville scoring: Hudson 4-0-9, Dorman 4-1-11, Halloran 4-2-11, Porter 2-2-7, Insonia 6-3-17. Team totals: Johnstown 15-0-39. Gloversville 20-8-55.
Great teamwork and resilience by Gloversville! #NextManUp
Great win! #NextManUp
Disagree – Strategy was flawed, they got lucky.