By; Aidan Joly
Saratoga and Shenendehowa is considered among the best rivalries in Section II, and it lived up to that title on Tuesday night at Saratoga High School, with two very exciting games that ended in a split.
In the boys’ game, Saratoga defeated Shenendehowa by a final score of 45-37 in a defensive battle.
Saratoga was down by nine at halftime but did not see that as a problem, mounting a ferocious comeback in the third and fourth quarters to make it a three-point Shen lead at the end of three. Saratoga did, however, tie the game up at 25 midway through the third following a Brian Hart jumper. Hart would have 16 points on the evening.
“The nerves settled in, and we just got a lot of shots. We played great in the second half,” Hart said.
Saratoga could not find a way to take the lead until Adam Anderson put a layup in with 4:47 to play and gave the Blue Streaks their first lead of the night, a lead that they did not relinquish for the remainder of the game.
Saratoga has now won six games in a row to close out the regular season.
“I think we’re playing our best basketball of the season at the right time, which is great. We’ve talked about trying to do that,” Saratoga head coach Matt Usher said.
Saratoga was led offensively by Hart and Anderson, who scored 16 points each. Shen was led by Jaia Benson who had 10, Mike Pizziketti with eight, and Evan Warner with seven.
In the girls’ game, it was Shenendehowa grabbing the victory by a final score of 53-42.
The score remained close throughout much of the first half, but Shenendehowa would pull away in the third quarter following a huge eight minutes from Cameron Tooley, in which she scored nine points and was a huge contributor for Shen to pull away.
“They came out there and played like they wanted that game. They didn’t play scared, they played aggressive, they got after it, and that’s how we’ve been playing all year,” Shenendehowa head coach Joe Murphy said.
Early in the game, Saratoga had leads but they would vanish when Shenendehowa would go on a run, including Shen making eight consecutive shots in the early stages of the second half.
“Our bigs got a little tired, and they ended up getting two free shots, which then started some of the outside shooting for them once they got the inside started. We fell a little bit in the second half,” Saratoga head coach Robin Chudy said.
Tooley ended up finishing with 20 points for Shen. Alexandra Tudor added 11 and Catherine Almedia scored eight.
For Saratoga, they were led by Kerry Flaherty and Dolly Cairns, who had 13 points each. Taylor Patnode added on 11 points.
Between the two games, a ceremony was held to honor Tracy Hogben, a Saratoga parent who was diagnosed with brain cancer in the fall. The two teams raised $5,500 towards brain tumor research at Albany Medical Center through T-Shirt sales throughout the past few weeks.
She said of the ceremony, “I’m overwhelmed, speechless, thankful, grateful.”
When she heard the amount of money raised, “I just thought I heard it wrong. I didn’t think there could be a way it would be that much money.”
The Saratoga boys’ team finishes the regular season with a record of 13-5 in league play and 15-5 overall. The girls finish with a record of 13-5 in the league and 14-5 overall. For Shen, the boys’ team finishes 14-2 in the league and are now 15-3 heading into a trip out west this weekend as a tune-up for sectionals. The girls’ team finished 15-2 in league play and 19-2 overall. Sectional brackets are released on Wednesday, so all four teams will find out where and when their first playoff game will be.