Panthers Give Lake George All It Can Handle
Hoosick Falls 16 12 9 8 45
Lake George 9 14 12 13 48
Friday, 3/1. Sectional final held at Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls. The Hoosick Falls Panthers came into this game against the currently #1 seeded, undefeated, defending NYS Class C champions as big underdogs. The Panthers, a #2 seed, lost to the Warriors by 25 just six weeks earlier during the regular season with a healthy Tristain Williams, who scored 15 points in that meeting. But Williams has been out for some time and he was out for this game. There was no way the Panthers could keep pace with Lake George without him. But they did. They stayed with them so well that they scared the bejeepers out of the Lake George Warriors right up to the final whistle.
The Panthers (22-2) led every quarter but the last one, where they could only put eight points on the board and the lead slipped away. They never gave up, but in the end Chris Becker, the Warriors’ six foot, seven inch solid center, was the difference. He came through with 16 big points for the Warriors. The Warriors final score of 48 was their lowest score of the season, so the Panther defense certainly rose to the occasion.
It was just the Panthers second defeat of the season, ending with a 21-2 record.
Jon Kempf led the Panthers with 18 points, from both inside and outside. Max Kipp added 14 and Isiah Burnett chipped in 10. Lake Georges’ Mason Flatley a double digit scorer who scored 20 or more points five times this season, was held to nine points.
Lake George played Madrid-Waddington Wednesday evening at Saratoga Springs High School.
The winner of that game will play Moriah of Section 7 on Saturday, March 9, beginning at 1:45 at Beekmantown High School, six miles north of Plattsburgh on Route 22. From there, the contests will be held at the Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghampton. The upper bracket (Section 2 – Lake George) semi-final game begins at 9 am on Saturday, March 16. The lower bracket game begins at 10:45 am. The championship game is scheduled to begin at noon on Sunday, March 17.