Wednesday, February 17, 2016 by Aidan Joly
In Saratoga’s biggest game of the season, two players stepped up to help their team advance in the playoffs.
The Saratoga Blue Streaks boys’ varsity basketball team defeated the Albany Falcons on Tuesday night at Albany High School by a score of 72-54 in the first round of the Class AA playoffs, despite Albany’s lead in the third quarter.
At halftime, Saratoga held a 29-23 lead. At the beginning of the second half, Albany came out on fire, tying the game and eventually taking the lead halfway through the third quarter. Saratoga answered the run, immediately taking the lead back and running with it for the rest of the way.
“It was great to see us respond to their run in the third quarter,” Saratoga head coach Matt Usher said. “We handled their run, we stayed composed, and we got the lead back and extended it into the fourth quarter.”
Saratoga was led by the strong offensive efforts of Adam Anderson and Alex Skaine, who had 25 points and 22 points respectively. Brian Hart added 14.
“We were getting frustrated when they started coming back, but you can’t do that because it’s chemistry, and you’ve got to play together,” Anderson said.
Anderson also had four fouls, so he talked about avoiding the disqualifying fifth foul.
“I just tried to keep my hands up, avoid those little cheap fouls, and most of the time when you stick your hand in there they won’t call it, but tonight they did.”
Alex Skaine had a big first half, scoring seven of the team’s 17 first quarter points. He went quiet in the second quarter, following up with 13 points and key shots in the second half, and a solid defensive game.
“I think we were just more motivated as the game went on, and especially for me, because I only had sixteen minutes left,” Skaine said.
The game was also a big turnaround for Saratoga, as they played at Albany in the regular season on January 5th. Saratoga lost that game 44-43 on a key missed free throw, and they went 10/24 from the line.
This time around, it was Albany that free throws were the Achilles’ heel for, converting on just eight of their 22 attempts on Tuesday night.
Albany, who took the #7 seed for the playoffs, was led in the game by Trayvon Reynolds, who had 13 points. Keneef Danzy had 12 points, and Maurice Skeen and Isaiah Scurry had eight each.
Saratoga advances to the quarterfinals of the Class AA playoffs as the #10 seed, and they will move on to play #2-seeded Guilderland on Saturday, who went 16-1 in league play. That game will be played at Hudson Valley Community College, and tip-off is scheduled for 5:30pm. The winner of that game will advance to play either Green Tech or Niskayuna.