By Kyle T. Higley, intern
The Fulton Saving Bank 2009 tip off tournament continued Saturday as the Oswego Buccaneers defeated Baldwinsville Bees 64-59. In what turned out to be a game of two halves, Oswego was able to claw it way back from an eight point halftime deficit.
“We were very flat in the first half we just weren’t running our sets or doing anything right. I liked the way the guys came out with a lot more intensity in the second half,†said head varsity basketball coach Warren Shaw.
The Buccaneers were led in the scoring column by Mac Porter who had 17 points, and Joe Brown Jr. who was a force down low for the undersized Bucs with 13 points. Baldwinsville received strong scoring efforts from Chris Whalen who had a game high 19 points, and Kevin Roy who poured in 18.
The game began with the Bees swarming on defense as they would start out in a 1-3-1 trap zone and then fall back into a 2-3, and even played some man to man. As a result, Oswego was unable to find any rhythm offensively throughout the first quarter. Oswego was able to mange only five points of offense in the first quarter, and as a result trailed 14-5 as the second quarter began.
To make things worse Baldwinsville Chris Thayer started off the second quarter with a hot hand reeling off seven points in the first two minutes, and would finish the game with 11. Trailing 28-15 with two and half minutes left in the half Oswego decided to make a defense change. Oswego went to a full court press and would start to change the momentum, as they went into the half trailing 32 to 24.
“I think our intensity and our press rattled them a little. We aren’t very big but we have a lot of speed,†said Shaw.
As the second half began the pressure of Oswego’s full court press began to mount, and they would take their first lead on a Mac porter 3-pointer with 2:10 left in the 3rd quarter. Also, giving Oswego a huge lift was the play of Damian Williams who along with his defense added an unexpected 12 points offensively.
“He brings a lot of quickness to the floor and I think that helps everybody out. We don’t look to him for too much scoring, mostly defense, but he helped out tonight with 12 points,†Said Shaw when talking about Williams.
Oswego kept the pressure coming and started the 4th quarter with a 11-0 run that put the game away. By pulling out a 64-59 win after trailing by 13 points Oswego can take a lot of positives from a game like Saturdays. However, Shaw still sees some thing they need to work on as this season progresses.
“We definitely need to work on our defense we gave up a lot more points than I expected. We also need to work on our foul shooting we were 22 of 46 tonight,†said Shaw.
With this win Oswego will now play in the Fulton Savings Bank tournament championship on Monday at 6:45 p.m. at Baldwinsville high school.
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