Cambridge tops Spa Catholic in opening round of sectionals

CAMBRIDGE — It was a great night for the Cambridge basketball team, avenging previous losses to Spa Catholic by defeating them 51-44 in the opening round of Section 2 Class C play.

Cambridge came out of the gate running outscoring Spa Catholic 18-13 in the first quarter, with four players notching their name in the scoring column. They finished the quarter scoring nine points in the final 3:16, with Spa Catholic only scoring three.

“I really liked the way we jumped out in the first quarter, I thought that was a great benchmark quarter for us and really set up the flow of the rest of the game.” Cambridge head coach Tim Ogilvie said.

In the 2nd quarter Spa Catholic looked to start heating up, making it a 1 point game half way through the quarter, but Cambridge pulled away heading into halftime with a 25-19 lead, only allowing one point from Spa Catholic’s offense in the final 5:32.

The third quarter played very similarly to the second with low scoring and slow tempo throughout. Late in the quarter a Nick Condry triple knotted the game up at 32 with 1:40 remaining, but on the next possession it was Jeffery Burke hitting a 15-foot jumper to break the tie and send Cambridge into the 4th quarter with a 34-32 lead. Burke added 13 points in the win.

“I thought in the 3rd quarter we came out a bit slow, and we really weren’t playing that well. Towards the end we stepped it up and I liked our effort in the final 2 minutes of the 3rd.” Spa Catholic coach John Catone said.

In the fourth quarter, Cambridge outscored Spa Catholic 15-12, with Spa Catholic bringing the game within three points twice during the quarter after a pair of Jordan Catone threes, but it just wasn’t enough down the stretch as Cambridge cruised to the victory. Catone topped the Saints with 21 points and five triples in the loss.

With the loss, Spa Catholic ends their season at 6-15, and with new Coach Brett Simpson taking over the reins of program next year, the future is up in the air for Spa Catholic.

“I thought we played very well tonight, however, missing 13 foul shots is obviously not ideal. We took good shots and just couldn’t get the ball to go down. But we competed and that’s all I can ask of my guys.” Catone added.

Brian Hall and Nate Murphy paced the Indians with 14 points each.

With the win Cambridge improves to 7-14 and will play at #1 seed Lake George on Tuesday.