MARAUDERS BREEZE PAST TORNADOES-CLASS D OVERALL TITLE TILT NEXT
2012 Section III Class D1 Champs…NY Mills Marauders….Players flash the four sign as Mills makes it four straight Section III Class D titles.
Jeff Pexton-MHTS-Photos-Jeff Pexton-MHTS-PGI
Miss the game? Hit the link for MHTS/ESPN instant replay!
The New York Mills Marauders boy’s basketball team won the Section III, Class D-1 Championship this evening with a convincing 67-43 win over Poland, in front of a standing room only crowd at Herkimer County Community College.
Tonight’s win brings the tradition rich program its 12th sectional championship, the most ever for a Section III Class D team.
The win sets up a Class D overall final matchup on Sunday afternoon in the Carrier Dome with Sackets Harbor, who defeated Faith Heritage 61-36 in the Class D-2 Final tonight.
That game will pit the State’s #1 team in Sackets Harbor and the #3 ranked team in New York Mills. Sackets defeated NY Mills by a score of 68-63 back on January 21st and is undefeated in 21 games thus far this season.
The Marauders head into Sunday’s showdown at the Carrier Dome winners of nine straight games and have won 14 consecutive Class D sectional contests dating back to 2009.
New York Mills only loss in Class D, since the 2009-10 season, was that one to Sackets.
Mills forward Nick Comenale (22) runs into tough going late in the game against Poland's Mark Shelhamer (20).
Although tonight’s final score was lopsided in the end, Poland came out fast and furious in the early going, scoring the first 5 points of the ball game and ended up with a 14-13 lead at the end of the fast paced first quarter.
Tornadoes guard Zacchary Cavoly buried a three pointer with time running down to take his team to the first break with the lead.
The second quarter belonged to the defending New York State Champion Marauders and sophomore Nick Comenale, who scored 11 of his game high 21 points in the second.
The slightly built kid with the springy hair nailed three pointers on two consecutive trips down the floor to spark his squad into the lead, for good.
The Tornadoes, who just couldn’t seem to get anything to fall despite having some open looks at the basket, especially off the boards. Comenale also picked up 4 of his 10 rebounds in the second period for the Mills.
It was obvious from the get go that Poland head coach David Tabor’s game plan was to send his guards flying into the paint, in hopes of getting Mills big man Matt Welch to accumulate some fouls.
That strategy paid off, to a certain extent, as Welch spent more than five minutes of the second quarter on the bench with 3 fouls.
Poland's Dustin DuBrule (15) flies to the rim for two.
Despite the absence of Welch underneath, Comenale’s effort, along with a 5 point second quarter from point guard JT Ross helped the Marauders outscore the Tornadoes 21-9 in the second quarter to send the Mills to the intermission with a 34-23 lead.
With Welch on the bench to start the third quarter, Mills sophomore Zach Vennaro chipped in 5 points to help increase the NY Mills lead to 51-35 over an exhausted Tornadoes club who was showing signs of running on fumes trying to keep pace.
New York Mills doubled up Poland by a score of 16-8 in the final quarter and went on to take the D-1 banner by a score of 67-43.
Poland, who entered tonight’s matchup as the Class D-1 7th seed, was led by sophomore guard Mark Hennings, who scored 9 points in the loss.
The Tornadoes finish the season with a record of (12-7). Three of the Tornadoes seven losses came at the hands of the Marauders.
New York Mills, the D-1 first seed, improved to (19-2) on the season. Senior Matt Welch had 16 points and 9 boards, while JT Ross chipped in 12 points for the Marauders.
Congratulations to Poland on a fine season and a solid run in the tournament, including a big upset over #2 seed Oriskany to reach tonight’s final.
Mills point guard JT Ross whistles a pass down low.
MHTS By the Numbers:
BOX SCORE
1 2 3 4 Final
Poland 14 9 12 8 43
NY Mills 13 21 17 16 67
Speaking of numbers, New York Mills has now taken it out on the Tornadoes beating them 20 straight times. These two Class D powers have quite the history including five meetings in the Sectional Tournament in the last seven years.
Again speaking of numbers, tonight’s third meeting with Poland made it the Marauder’s 14th appearance in the Section III finals since 1979.Overall the Marauders have claimed 19 CSC Championships, the most every by any CSC school.
Lastly…speaking of numbers…. New York Mills is looking to make it back to back runs to the New York State Class D Finals as defending state champs.
Scoring Summary:
Poland:
Ross Agen-9
Mark Jennings-9
Dustin DuBurle 7
Zacchary Cavoly-6
Mark Shelhamer-6
Justin Dexter-2
Trevor Pillmore-2
Reid Hampel-2
The Marauders had their usual traveling road show on hand tonight at HCCC.
New York Mills:
Nick Comenale-21
Matt Welch-15
JT Ross-12
Zach Verrano-9
Nick Etienne-8
