Over their final five halves of the 2022 Duane Davis Christmas Tournament, New Paltz looked like one of the best teams in the field.
It was a strong showing for New Paltz on Thursday, as they took down John Jay, 68-56. “It’s a great win for us. They’re an AA school, a big school, and that’s a great win for us,” New Paltz head coach Danny Diklich. “We haven’t had too many close games this year, so for us to come out on the other side of a close game instead of losing like the other day against Arlington.”
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It’s not often in basketball where following a loss you have a chance to redeem yourself less than 17 hours later. Ketcham made the most of their opportunity and followed up a difficult Wednesday semifinal loss with a 61-54 victory in the Third Place Game over Beacon.
“It was a good hard fought win,” Ketcham junior Owen Paino said. “We were down after a bad loss [last night], Lourdes is a great team, but we felt like we could’ve done better. We knew Beacon was going to be tough too, we just came out ready to play and forgot about last night.” It feels like deja vu.
For the fourth consecutive tournament, Our Lady of Lourdes has advanced to the Duane Davis Championship Game and will take on Arlington, a rematch of the last three tournaments. Lourdes advanced through the semifinal stage with a dominant 70-40 victory over Ketcham. For the fourth consecutive tournament, the Arlington Admirals are headed to the Duane Davis Memorial Christmas Tournament Championship.
Their path certainly wasn’t easy, after beating New Paltz by two in the quarterfinal, it took them until overtime to take down the Beacon Bulldogs, 56-50. After falling in the quarterfinal to Lourdes on Tuesday night, John Jay bounced back in a big way to take down Marlboro, 62-28.
“It’s a great team win for us,” John Jay junior Gavyn Pacheco said. “Coming into the tournament this year we didn’t do too well, so coming in this year showing everyone we can play and can compete it’s great for us as a team. We’re making strides for us to be dangerous.” It was raining three-pointers for the New Paltz Huguenots on Wednesday, as they knocked down 10 en route to an eight-point victory over FDR.
“It’s big for us, we needed it,” New Paltz freshman Cayden Dones said on the victory. “It was a big game for us. We play them again in two weeks, so we needed this one.” The Huguenots came out firing immediately, holding a 13-4 lead after the first quarter. It was more of the same in the second, as a Dones 3-pointer at the buzzer gave New Paltz a 17-point lead at the halftime break. Defending their home court, Lourdes made a statement in its opening game of the tournament, taking down John Jay-East Fishkill, 78-65.
It was a high-scoring affair that started with Lourdes holding a 16-14 lead six minutes into the game. The Warriors ended the first quarter on an 9-0 and then extended their lead to 16 at the halftime break. Arlington was able to hold off a New Paltz comeback to advance to the semifinals, 54-52.
After the first 16 minutes, it appeared it would be all Arlington. At the halftime break the Admirals led by 14. But New Paltz didn’t shy away from the comeback. The Huguenots started the second half on a 15-4 run to cut the deficit to four. Beacon and FDR played closely from the opening tip, with neither team holding a lead larger than five at any point. In the end, it was Beacon pulling away with a 54-49 victory over FDR.
After the game was tied at half, Beacon took a four-point lead and held an advantage the entire third quarter. With 4:45 remaining in the game, FDR took its first lead of the game from a Garfield Merchant put-back. After trailing for 31 of the 32 minutes, Ketcham capitalized when it mattered most to lead them into the semifinals with a 57-54 victory over Marlboro.
Marlboro dominated early, holding an 18-9 lead after one quarter. After opening the lead up to as many as 10, Ketcham made a switch to a 1-3-1 press which capitulated them on an 8-0 run to tie the game with under a minute to go in the first half. Marlboro held a two-point lead at the halftime break. |
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