by Gary Danforth
Well, what every Hoosick Falls basketball fan was hoping wouldn’t happen did happen last Tuesday night, January 19. Visiting Hoosic Valley Central School in bounded the basketball after a timeout, down by a 47-45 margin to Mike Lilac Jr.’s Hoosick Falls Central School Panther five, drove the length of the court and hit a game winning trey as the fourth quarter horn sounded to walk out of the River Road gymnasium with a hard earned 48-47 WASAREN League victory. Coach Dan Calhoun’s Indian squad had seen the Panthers’ Quinn Rasmus put a layup home along the left baseline with 4.5 seconds to play. But HV called a timeout and burned the Panther defense for the game winning three-pointer. The shot, from about two feet beyond the three point arc, hit nothing but net as the Hoosic Valley faithful erupted in a deafening roar while Panther fans sat in stunned silence. Everything had to go just right for the Indians, and it did. Make no mistake about it, the Indians are a very good team. Better than the team the Panthers beat back on the Hoosic Valley court on December 4. In some ways it was a fitting end to the hole HFCS had dug themselves earlier in the night. On this night they never could quite mange to pull themselves all the way back from the depths of defeat.
Hoosic Valley came out firing in period one and took it right to Hoosick Falls, jumping out to a 12-0 advantage. In the opening run, HV hit back to back treys for a quick 6-0 Indian lead. It was 12-0 before the Panthers’ Sean Dingman scored inside with 3:34 left in period one. Hoosic Valley, outplaying the Panthers, kept piling it on and broke out to a 17-4 advantage with :30 left in the initial quarter. Only an inside bucket by the Panthers’ Rasmus kept the Panther deficit to 17-4 after eight minutes.
Hoosick Falls came back little by little. John Hayden scored on a drive, and Alex Lilac hit two free throws. An Indian bucket was answered by two Lilac free throws. After HV went ahead, 21-10, two Dingman foul shots and a Lilac trey got HFCS to 21-15 with 2:40 left in the opening half. An HV score was offset by a Dingman drive along the left baseline. The Indians scored again before the Panthers’ Kevin McMahon hit two free throws, closing the gap to 25-19. But Hoosic Valley hit a left baseline jumper with :04 left in the opening half to take a 27-19 lead into the break. The Indians simply outplayed Hoosick Falls over the first two periods. It didn’t help that HFCS was missing sophomore starting guard/forward Tanner Williams for this ball game.
HV scored inside and hit another trey to begin period three, leading 32-21. But the Panthers’ Hutton Rasmus hit a foul shot, and Lilac knocked down a three-pointer to get HFCS to 32-25 with 1:54 left in period three. Hoosick Falls, crawling back into the game the whole evening, ended the third quarter with a 6-0 spurt. Quinn Rasmus scored on a drive; McMahon scored in close, and Dingman knocked down a left side jumper with :02 left in the quarter to get Hoosick Falls within 1 at 32-31 heading into the final eight minutes.
It was an uphill climb all night for HFCS, and they never could quite manage to get there. HV knocked down a trey. Quinn Rasmus scored for the Panthers. Hoosic Valley hit another three-pointer. Quinn Rasmus hit two Panther free throws. The Indians hit another three-pointer. HV was hitting nothing but the bottom of the net on their shots. It was all cotton. The Indians led 41-35. They were trying to bury the Panthers in their own gym.
With 3:32 left, Lilac canned a trey from the right side. Then Dingman buried a three-pointer from the left side, tying the game at 41-41 with 2:45 to play. Quinn Rasmus hit two free throws with 2:27 left and then dropped in two more from the charity line with 1:57 to play, pushing the Hoosick Falls lead to 45-41.
With 1:45 left the Indians converted both ends of a one and one free throw situation. Then HV tied the score with another pair from the line with :53 left. A Panther turnover with 1:26 to play helped the Indians’ cause. Running the clock down, Quinn Rasmus corralled a Panther miss with :29 to play. Lilac called timeout and set up what looked to be the winning bucket as HFCS used Quinn Rasmus’ bucket for what they hoped would be the winning score. But Hoosic Valley executed to perfection and walked off the Panther hardwood with the 48-47 win.
Lilac with 13 points, McMahon with 6, Quinn Rasmus, 14, Hutton Rasmus, 3, Dingman, 7, Mike Brewster, 2, and Hayden with 2 points scored for HFCS. For Hoosic Valley, Kevin White with 25 and Kyle Pallozzi with 17 points led the way.
Rebounding From Afar: This was a great high school basketball game. Hoosic Valley just made a play at the end. The Indians did what they needed to do. Next up for Hoosick Falls is an away contest versus Cambridge this Friday night, January 22. I’m not going to say HFCS lost because Williams was out but it didn’t help any, and Panther fans will be thankful if he is back against the Cambridge Indians. Williams may have been a bigger defender on the Panther perimeter. But the Indians’ treys and the Hoosick Falls turnovers dug the hosts a huge hole. HV hit eight three-pointers. HFCS is now 7-1 in league play and 9-2 overall.