Castleton, NY — The Maple Hill boys basketball team punched out their first win of the season Tuesday in a 51-44 victory over the Coxsackie-Athens Indians. Senior guard Austin Decker led the way for the Wildcats contributing 17 points.
“Austin does a lot of big things for us,” said Maple Hill coach Scott Hanrahan. The second year varsity player set the tempo early, nailing a three and then a layup to put his team up by five before the Indians could throw anything up on the board.
By halftime Decker had added 9 more, bringing him to 14 and the Wildcats 28. Seven greater than-than Coxsackie’s 21, this would turn out to be one of Maple Hill’s largest leads of the night.
“Things were just coming to me in the first half, and then in the second I tried to get the ball to my teammates, and they just started hitting shots,” said Decker, who hit a three early in the second before quieting down offensively for the evening. But defensively the 5’9″ power player continued to shine, something Hanrahan considers a significant improvement from last year. “He does a nice job at the front of our defense, hustling a lot and not picking up silly fouls. It’s a big improvement in our game.”
Coxsackie wouldn’t go down easily, though. After calling timeout, Jake Sterritt scored back-to-back buckets to bring his team within 2, with only 48 ticks remaining on the clock, but the Wildcats weren’t going to let them do it. After soccer-star Garrett Axtmann made it a four-point game, he, Ethan Samarija, and Jack Santore all connected on free throws to produce the final score (51-44).
For junior Nick Butler, who had five points on the night, picking up his first upperclassmen varsity win meant a lot. “I knew it was going to come … it feels good to bounce back,” the three-sport athlete said.
Maple Hill will now prepare for a road game at Cairo-Durham on Friday, at 7:00 p.m.
-Dylan Rossiter(@byDylanRossiter)
Maple Hill scoring:
Austin Decker- 17
Jack Santore- 4pts
Garrett Axtmann- 10pts
Nick Butler- 5pts
Evan Kulpa- 1pt
Connor Hall- 2pts
John Paul Kulpa- 2pts
Ethan Samarija- 10pts
Coxsackie scoring:
John Ecker- 2pts
Isiah Garvey- 13pts
Lorenzo Richardson- 6pts
Tyler Oravsky- 11pts
Jake Steritt- 12pts
