Junior guard Josh Reding knocked down four three-pointers in the second quarter to stake Spencerport to a 16-point halftime lead and senior guard Ryan Gentile scored 11 of his team-high 22 points in the second half in their 60-47 boys’ basketball victory over visiting Hilton on Youth Day.
Hilton’s John Letta hit a trey from the right corner to open the scoring, but that would be the only time the Cadets held the lead. Reding hit a trey of his own with Malcolm McCollough and Ryan Donovan both adding field goals as the Rangers jumped ahead for good.
A 14-0 run from late in the first quarter to early in the second extended the Rangers lead to 14 with a Reding three-pointer and a runner from Gentile made it 34-18 at halftime.
Both teams struggled offensively through the third quarter and Hilton cut the lead to ten points on a pair of free throws and a jumper by Letta with 2:42 remaining in the fourth.
Morgan Kunigan got the Cadets to within nine with 2:11 left, but Gentile hit a long three-pointer with the shot clock running down and followed by hitting both free throws with one minute on the clock to seal the win.
“It was just my mindset—I was really focused,” Reding said about his second quarter shooting. “We had all of these little kids in the stands so I wanted to set a good example for them. We want to go into sectionals with a good mindset.”
Reding finished with 21 points and four assists, Gentile 22 points, McCollough six points with a team-best 11 rebounds and Donovan ten rebounds with four assists for the Rangers.
Letta had a season-best 28 points with Cadet teammates Kunigan and Christian Ranke adding ten and seven points respectively.
The victory locks Spencerport into an eighth-seed for next week’s Class A1 Section V playoffs and a first round home game in the eight-vs-nine matchup.
