Boys Basketball: Albertus Magnus Finishes Regular Season Strong with Victory Over Clarkstown South

The Albertus Magnus Falcons defeated Clarkstown South boys basketball, 64-59, Monday evening at home in a thrilling victory that came down to the final seconds of the game.

South took it’s largest lead of the night early in third. Down by 14, the Falcons gathered themselves and went on a 15-3 run to bring the game within two by the end of the third.  They followed that up with a second 15-3 run to start the fourth.  Down by 10, South came back hard to nearly send the game into overtime.  They could not quite pull it off however, and the Falcons took home the hard-earned win.

“Obviously we were down 10 at the half, I thought we had a stretch where we was one and done on the glass and we were able to get out and run,” said the Falcons head coach Pat McFadden.  “Obviously, Jack Sullivan’s three was a dagger, but we got in the lane, which we weren’t doing earlier.  But I thought it was the other end, we had a stretch where we rebounded the ball.  Tyler Sayre went up and got some killer rebounds in a crowd.  We were able to get out and run and get the ball in Patty McGuiness’s hands and good things happen when that happens.”

“I think it really started with our stops on defense,” added McGuiness.  “I think that got us motivated to play offense better and take it strong to the rim, and he [Sayre] got a put-back dunk.”

Following the game, McFadden outlined the strategy that brought them the win.

“They have a lot of weapons,” said McFadden.  “Our goal was to try to limit their catches, maybe make them go a little more lateral.  To their credit, they had other kids step up, we were looking to extend the court a little, we got in foul trouble which hurt us in our pressure.  Overall, we stabled our game play, we bent but we didn’t break, and that was the key.”

Despite the loss, Vikings head coach Matt Backs was happy with his team’s performance.

“I don’t think we did anything wrong,” said Backs.  “I think Albertus played well in spurts, I think we played well in spurts, so it’s the same thing as the game, it’s a couple baskets either way.  We didn’t really start out well in the first quarter, but Albertus didn’t play well in the second.  When you play against such an evenly matched team, you see what happens and you go and they just finished.” 

He added, “Point guard play was big for them, McGuiness did a really good job, Sayre had a really strong third quarter and they shared it well and they crashed better in the second half.  As for weaknesses for us, we’ve had trouble in the third quarter all year and it’s something we’ve got to remedy before Wednesday probably but we’ll play and see what happens, we’ve got a day to practice.”

The Falcons were led to their 16-13 advantage at the end of the first by McGuiness, who had eight points that quarter.  South kept it close with the help of Danny Graviano, who led his team with six.

The Vikings were on fire as they took control in the second, finishing at the rim or knocking down shots on the perimeter.  Ricky Benedetto led his team with eight points that quarter to a 37-27 advantage going into the half.  McGuiness led the Falcons again with four points.

South tacked on a couple more to open the third with a 14 point lead.  The Falcons were not about to let it slip away, however and they brought it back to a two point game by the end of the quarter.  Everyone contributed, however it was Jack Sullivan who led his team in scoring with five points that quarter.  Matt Brenner, Mike McCahey and Zach Mager each led South in scoring with two points a piece.

“It’s really exciting,” said McGuiness.  “When you’re down 10 and they went up and scored the first time, from that point on, you’re thinking, I’m down fourteen, are we gonna come back?  And we ended up just getting a lot of stops, getting to the rim, getting fouled, getting foul shots and put-backs.  It was really exciting.”

Sayre added to this, saying, “It’s just not getting down and knowing that we can still get back and we can score quickly when we need to and we can still make plays pretty much whenever we really need to.”

McGuiness opened up the fourth by getting to the line to first tie it up and then put his team in the lead for the first time since the first quarter.  Sayre followed this up with some excellent blocks and rebounds, which culminated in a put-back dunk which he was fouled on to put his team up by seven after hitting the foul shot.

The Vikings never gave up, however, and Mager scored six to combine with McCahey’s four and Clayton Roker’s two to bring them within three with 20 seconds to go.  The Falcons missed their foul shots and South again had the ball with 15 seconds to go.  Mager got a look but could not knock it down and the Falcons went on to win it 64-59.

McCahey and Mager had solid games as they led South in scoring with 15 and 13 points on the night.  McGuiness had an excellent night of it as he led the Falcons with 23 points on the night.

The Falcons improve to 14-4 as they snap a two game slide while the Vikings finish their regular season at 10-8.

“We had lost a couple in a row, so it was important for us to get this one,” said McFadden.  “Obviously now, starting tomorrow, everyone’s got the same record, 0-0, but you like to go in on a positive note.  This would have been a tough one to come back from.  I think the second half tonight got us ready for the sections.”

McGuiness added to this, saying “For us, we lost the last two games, they were two tough losses.  We didn’t play our best, and tonight we didn’t play particularly our best, but finished it strong and it’s good momentum going into the playoffs.”

“It just goes back to getting off the two game slide and just trying to make plays going into the sections and make sure we’re ready to go,” agreed Sayre.

Both teams are waiting on the seeding meeting to find out when they play next.