Late charge pushes Stillwater over Greenwich, advance to quarterfinals
GREENWICH — It took sophomore Brian McNeil scoring eight of his team’s final 10 points, but Stillwater eventually prevailed in the first round of sectionals on Tuesday, knocking out Greenwich on their home court and winning by a final score of 50-47.
The first half of the game was tight the entire way with neither side gaining a lead of more than four points. Greenwich held a 38-36 lead at the end of three quarters, setting up an intense fourth as the game was still anybody’s for the taking.
The Witches got moving early on in the fourth, and after a three from Carson Mosher, they held a 45-40 lead, the largest of the night for either side. The lead came with under four minutes to play.
That is when McNeil took over the game. He played under the basket in the fourth quarter and scored six straight points in less than two minutes that gave Stillwater a 46-45 lead with under two minutes remaining.
“Our kids made plays at the end. We called a bunch of timeouts, set plays up, and our kids ran them to perfection,” Stillwater head coach Dave Cook said.
Greenwich’s Luke Pemrick scored with 52 seconds on the clock to play, again making it a one-point game. As an answer to this, it was McNeil again coming up big, hitting another key inside shot that put the Warriors over the edge.
“I couldn’t be (prouder) of our team for executing that. Scott (Travis) giving it to me every time, and it’s one-on-one every single time,” McNeil said.
McNeil and Cooper Monast shared the workload heavily on offense for Stillwater, scoring 15 points each. McNeil scored 13 of his 15 points total in the second half.
“The McNeil kid draws so much attention inside that you’re constantly scrambling back to shooters so he doesn’t shoot layups, so he’s a problem,” Greenwich coach Duke Beck said.
Greenwich was there the whole way but never had more than a two-point lead before they jumped out by five late. This forced them to turn the ball over and force bad shots to try to get back into the game. On the final play of the night, Stillwater got the ball from them and threw it down court, securing the win. With all of this, were able to hit the three at a decent rate, however. Mosher led them with 17 points and hit five shots from beyond the arc.
Greenwich’s season ends with a final record of 12-9.
Stillwater advances to the Class C quarterfinals, where they will take on Lake George, who is not only the top seed in the section but the number one ranked team in the state. Cook and the team know what they are going up against but remain hopeful and confident.
“We know we got big mountains to climb in front of us, but we’re going to enjoy this one for tonight for sure. (We’ll) come back to practice tomorrow and we’ll prepare,” he said.
That game will take place on Friday at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m.
