Friday, January 16, 2015 by Aidan Joly Photos by Eli Fisher
Saratoga defeated the Ballston Spa Scotties on Tuesday night at Saratoga Springs High School by a score of 59-37, to give the Streaks their first winning streak of the season.
“We’re going to try to keep building on these two wins, and get better,” Saratoga head coach Matt Usher said.
Chris Byno led the team with 16 points, including three from behind the arc. Liam Stewart was the second leading scorer with 13, and Zach Kircher and Sean Grecco added six each.
Saratoga was very accurate from behind the three point line, making seven points from behind the line, three of them from Byno.
“We need guys to be able to score,” Usher said. “Hopefully we can have a few guys ready to step up whenever we need them.”
The Scotties were led by Josh Moseman, who had 14 points, Logan Pritchard, who had seven and Christian Leva, who added six.
Ballston Spa head coach John Lea said of Moseman, “Josh is a good shooter, and when Josh gets going, we need some other players to step up and we didn’t get that tonight.”
The Streaks held Ballston Spa to only 16 points in the second half, after leading 17-11 after a quarter and 27-21 at the half. They more than tripled their lead in the third quarter, leading 48-29, and added 11 points in the fourth for the 59-37 win.
“I started out kind of slow, missed a few shots, and found the way after a while, get the ball in the hoop,” Saratoga leading scorer Chris Byno said of his performance.
Saratoga’s transition offense was a major factor for the team, scoring many fast-break points off defensive rebounds and steals.
“That’s something we’ve been trying to work on, just trying to focus on turning our defense into offense,” said Usher.
Second-leading scorer Liam Stewart said of his game, “The team did a good job distributing the ball and whenever I got the ball in the low post I was looking to score.”
Saratoga improved to 4-8 on the season with this win, and will be at home again on Tuesday, January 20th taking on Colonie.
Saratoga’s junior varsity team also took a win, defeating the Scotties by a score of 60-33. The JV Streaks were led by Brian Hart, who had 13 points. The freshman team also defeated the Scotties by a score of 54-41.
