Thursday, December 24, 2015 by Aidan Joly
In one of the most highly contested games of the season, Saratoga could not pull it off.
The Troy Flying Horses defeated the Saratoga Blue Streaks on Tuesday night at Saratoga High School in overtime by a score of 79-76, an instant classic.
With 20 seconds left in the game, and Saratoga trailing 71-68, the ball was put into the hands of their Adam Anderson, who hit a three-pointer in the final seconds to send the game into an extra period.
“Adam played a great game tonight,” Saratoga head coach Matt Usher said. “But he does a lot of the little things for us.”
When overtime began, the Streaks scored the first five points of overtime, then led 76-71 with two minutes left. Saratoga started to turn the ball over, and Troy would go on an 8-0 run, and a last second shot by Darius Wicks that would have sent the game into a potential second overtime, but the shot was just off, ending the game.
“Down the stretch, I thought we made the plays,” Troy head coach Rich Hurley said of his team’s performance in the final minutes of the contest.
Daniel Buie had a huge game for the Flying Horses, leading the team with 24 points. Jack McLaren had 17 for Troy, and Brandon Holmes had 14 points. Elijah Davis added on 11 points, with a total of four Flying Horses scoring in double figures.
Anderson led Saratoga with 22 points, and Connor Sullivan had 14 points for the Streaks in his first game of the season. Brian Hart also got in the mix, with nine points.
Fouls were an issue for the Blue Streaks, as Anderson and Alex Skaine fouled out of the game and three separate players had four fouls.
“They’re quick, but we did not adjust and make smart plays in the first half,” Usher said of his team getting into foul trouble.
Another addition to the Streak’s foul trouble was a technical foul called on Anderson in the third quarter after a block, for taunting. That was Anderson’s third foul of the night.
Tuesday was also the 2015 “Silent Night” game at Saratoga, where the fans remained silent in the bleachers until Saratoga scored their 10th point of the night, which was an Anderson layup with three and a half minutes left in the first quarter. They led 10-6 after this.
The Saratoga JV team fell to Troy by a score of 52-37.
Troy improves to 6-1 on the season after the win, and have now won six consecutive games. Saratoga falls to 4-3 on the season, and will be back in action after the holiday break at home on Wednesday, December 30, taking on Queensbury. That game will be at 7pm.