by Warren Kozireski
Senior Mike DeBack hit his only basket of the contest with one-half second remaining to give Spencerport a 60-58 victory over Irondequoit in their season-opener.
The Rangers trailed most of the first half and by as many as fifteen points midway through the third quarter before rallying.
Senior Devon Pascoe scored seven straight points and Devon Marshall hit a scoop shot late in the third to pull the Rangers to within eight points.
A Shawn Martin jump shot opened the fourth with Jake O’Connell knocking down a three-pointer and Pascoe a pair of free throws to cut the Irondequoit lead to four points with six minutes remaining.
Marshall, who returned in the second half from an ankle injury suffered in the second quarter, hit a layup with 1:42 left to cut the lead to two and, after an Eagles free throw, hit two clutch free throws with 41 seconds left to cut the deficit to one.
After a timeout, Irondequoit was called for a five-second violation trying to inbound the ball leading to the DeBack three-pointer off a broken play and scramble.
“Marshall’s return allowed us to take some of the ball-handling responsibilities away from Martin which freed him up to guard their best guards or a forward,” said Spencerport head coach Chris Crowell about Marshall’s return from injury.
“This was the best first game by both teams I’ve seen in years.”
O’Connell finished with a double-double at a team-high 18 points and ten rebounds. Pascoe had 15 points, eight rebounds and six blocks while Martin netted 11 points with six assists and six steals. Marshall also was in double-figures with ten points with DeBack adding three assists.
