Arlington Advances to Fourth Straight Championship With Overtime Win Over Beacon

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.

It was all Beacon in the first half, as they held an eight-point lead at the half.

In the second half, Arlington began to chip away. When down by 10, Arlington made a switch to play zone defense. Defense led to offense for Arlington.

“It was a defensive effort,” Arlington head coach Jamie Feicht said.  “The zone slowed them down, but it didn’t stop them.”

The Admirals went on an 6-0 run to start the 4th quarter and tie the game at 42.
Beacon was able to go up by four with 2:07 remaining after a Jack Philipbar 3-pointer and steal. But Arlington responded with Rosso Grant scoring four straight points on two layups.

After missed free throws from both teams, the game was sent to overtime. In the extra period, Beacon was shutout, advancing Arlington.

Arlington was led by Grant who finished with 17 points. Malaki Smith had 14.

Beacon’s Joseph Battle led all scorers with 21.

“Beacon is good. I think they’re going to figure it out as the season goes,” Feicht said.

The Bulldogs will play in the third place game against the loser of Ketcham/Lourdes at 1 p.m. on Thursday.

Arlington has won two of the last three tournament championships. The lone time they did not was when they fell to Lourdes in three overtimes in 2019.

“We have to play hard,” Feicht said on Thursday’s championship game, regardless of opponent. “We have to play hard defensively, make our adjustments, slow down offensively, take great shots and we’ll give ourselves a chance to win.”

The championship game will tip off at 6 p.m. on Thursday.