Albertus Magnus Boys Basketball Begins Playoff Run with Dominant 83-34 Victory Over Putnam Valley Tigers

The Albertus Magnus Falcons opened their boys high school basketball playoff run in top-form Friday evening with an 83-34 first-round win at home over Putnam Valley.

The Falcons came out hard and took control from the start with efficient execution on the offensive end and tough, hustle play on the defensive end.  Putnam Valley fought hard to the end, but they were unable to contend with the Falcons all around stellar effort and lights out shooting.

“With Putnam Valley, or anybody in the sections, you know you’re going to have to fight,” said the Falcons head coach Pat McFadden.  “Obviously, a great start is the key and in the first four minutes, I thought we really had great intensity and got after it real hard, and that set the tone.  Obviously, Jack Sullivan made a bunch of threes, which made it easier for us.  But both offensively and defensively, I thought we were on top of our game tonight.” 

He added, “In sections, anything can happen and it’s all on the line, and I think our kids responded real well, so we were very happy about that.”

Falcon forward Kyle Sullivan agreed, saying “It’s nice, because we’re coming off a tough end to the season, losing that game to TZ and Spring Valley, but definitely coming out and putting up a good first game definitely helps.”

For Putnam Valley, the loss was a tough end to a very successful second half of their season.  They knew they were the underdogs, however, coming in off back to back wins to get there they had the momentum behind them.  Unfortunately for them, they could not match the Falcons’ lights out shooting.

“Our guys worked hard to get here,” said the Tigers head coach Rich Byrnes.  “They qualified late.  They had to win their last two games to get in, so they did a whole lot better at the end of the season than at the beginning.  We knew we had to shut down #43 and #10, so we tried to do that early on and #11 stepped up and banged four threes in the first quarter, so that hurt us.  We crawled back, recovered in the second quarter and went down at the halftime down by 20.  But they came out and just were on fire in the third quarter.  I don’t know how many shots they missed in the second half, but it couldn’t have been too many.  So we fought hard, but they just had all the guns this time.”

He added, “Our season was the second consecutive season that we made it to the sectionals and our kids fought through it.  We’re in a very tough league, with a lot of A schools.  So that was tough, but we thought it had prepared us, but nothing could have prepared us for all these shots that were going in tonight.”

The key to the Falcons dominant performance was the impressive scoring ability of not one, but five of their players, who were all in double-digits.  Pat McGuiness and Tyler Sayre led their team in scoring with 15 points each.  Jack Sullivan was next with 12 points, from four threes in the first quarter.  Arnelle Dandridge and Kyle Sullivan brought it home with 10 points each.

“We found Pat and Jack and Arnelle found spots inside for us.  We were able to just convert points and make easy layups with contact,” said Kyle Sullivan.

Though not in the double digits for scoring, Marcus Almonor brought an intensity to the game both offensively and defensively that was impressive to see.  Whether it was leaping in the air for the rebound, dishing the ball to a teammate, or diving on the floor for a loose ball, Almonor left it all on the floor.  He finished with six points.

For the Tigers, Steven Mazzerisi and Brandon Schmelmer led the way with 15 and 10 points, respectively.  Both had excellent nights overall, but could not match the Falcons scoring ability without more assistance offensively from the rest of their team.

“We were definitely expecting a physical game,” said Kyle Sullivan.  “We got off to a nice start and really didn’t let them claw back.”  As for the defining factor, he kept coming back to the strong offensive start, saying, “[It was] just the first quarter and coming out strong.  Jack got a bunch of open looks, my brother, and he hit a bunch of threes in a row and that really just got us going.”

Sayre expanded on this, saying, “We knew that they wanted to kind of slow us down and keep it in the half-court, so we knew we had to speed up the game and speed up the way they wanted to play and make them play our game.” 

He added, “We haven’t really seen them live, so I didn’t really know what to expect.  They played hard and kind of did what we knew they were going to, try to gimmick the defense and just put up a lot of shots.”

The Falcons came out hard in the first as they passed well and executed efficient offensive plays, all the while outshooting and out-rebounding the Tigers on the offensive end while forcing turnovers on the defensive end.  As a result, the Tigers trailed 25-4 going into the second quarter.  Jack Sullivan counted for 12 of those points as he knocked down four wide-open shots from the same spot beyond the three-point line.

Mazzarisi kept the Tigers alive with 11 of their 18 points in the second quarter, however the Falcons kept pace with 17 of their own to end the half in the lead 42-22.  The Falcons then came out in the second half on fire as they outscored the Tigers 24-6 in the third quarter and 17-6 in the fourth

“It’s at home, it’s at our place, so that adds a little to it and then we just came out and played harder than they did and played better,” said Sayre.

The Tigers finish 5-14 for the season.  The Falcons improve to 15-4.  The dominant win sends the Falcons on into the post-season with confidence.

“It’s huge, because we know we need the momentum and we’ll take any advantage we can get going in,” said Sayre.  “We want to go in knowing that we’re playing well.”

“The kids obviously are in a great atmosphere,” said McFadden.  “The student body’s turned out.  I’m very happy, especially for our seniors.  It’s a great group and I’d love to keep it going.”

The Falcons play next at home on Wednesday, Feb. 23, at 7 p.m.