Blue Devils go to big house

Blue Devils go to big house

A 55-48 win over ninth seeded Canandaigua was about as far as anyone expected eighth-seeded Brockport to advance in the Class AA boy's basketball Section Five Tournament. But then came a 43-41 upset of top-seeded Brighton on the road and the slipper fit perfectly.

In the semi-finals against fourth-seeded McQuaid, the story continued as the Blue Devils took a 17-14 lead after the first quarter and continued to lead through most of the second.

Down by just three at half-time after getting 15 points from senior Jake Russell in the first half, Brockport still trailed by just four points after 24 minutes with Adam Werner and Joel Blocker each scoring a pair of field goals in the third quarter.

But the Knights scored the first nine points of the final stanza and outscored the Blue Devils 17-11 over the final eight minutes for a 57-47 victory.

Russell was held off the score sheet in the third quarter and finally hit from three-point land with under two minutes remaining and finished with a game-high 18 points.

"They started pressuring and trying to take away the outside shot," said Russell, who will play at Roberts Wesleyan next fall. "I thought we could take them, but that run in the fourth killed us and we couldn't come back."

The Blue Devils finished last season with just six wins and were fifth in Division I this season with a 5-7 division record before beginning their playoff run.

"We had a little trouble offensively and they made some big baskets," said Brockport head coach Charlie Hage. "You get down to a good team like that by nine or ten points it's a little difficult to come back. We didn't move the ball well and they played good defense. "To beat the number one seed and get to where we did, we're very proud of these kids. Any time this year a team really took it to us, the next game we'd win. You can't keep these kids down. It was great to be at the big house and they wanted to get to the finals. We gave it our best shot and that's all I could ask for."

Brandon Brechue and Werner both finished with seven points and Blocker added six. Brechue led all players with 11 rebounds. McQuaid had three players in double digits led by Mike Labanowski with 17. The Blue Devils finished the season with an 8-14 record.