Gwynedd, PA-John Cagianello's three-point basket with 12:43
left to play broke a 51-51 tie and started Union on a 24-12 run that produced
an 84-70 victory over homestanding Gwynedd-Mercy in an opening round game of
the NCAA Division III basketball tournament.
The Dutchmen, who have now won five in a row to improve to 17-11, will
play at the University of Rochester on Saturday at 7 p.m.
You can hear the game live at: www.wysl1040.com
Starting at 6:45 p.m.
Cagianello, who connected on nine of his 18 field goal
attempts, including five of 10 from three-point range, netted a game-high 29
points. More importantly, the smaller
Garnet stayed with the taller Griffins in the rebounding department as they
came within three, 36-33, including a more than respectable 16-13 on the
offensive boards.
“They are a very athletic and talented team,” said
ninth-year head coach Bob Montana of Gwynedd-Mercy, which ends at 21-5. “You have to give all the credit to our
kids, they stayed with the game plan.
I'm sure some people looked might have looked past us after looking at
our record, but we came in here expecting to win.”
Union did an outstanding job on Griffin 6'8 senior center
Badou Gaye, who came into the game with a scoring average of 19.8 and a
rebounding average of 12.3. Gaye, who
scored over 2,000 career points with over 1,000 career rebounds, was held to 13
points and 10 rebounds.
“I thought we did a good job defensively,” understated
Montana. “We were able to keep their
transition game under control and we were fortunate to hit our open shots.”
The Dutchmen, who led by five at the half, saw Chris
DelBrocco connect on back-to-back three-point field goals (the Girffins' first
of the game), to tie the contest at 47 with 15:43 remaining. Gaye's third slam dunk of the contest
produced Gwynedd-Mercy's first lead, 49-47, since the 15:29 mark of the first
half before senior forward Devon Bruce tied the game on a pair of free
throws. Bruce gave the Dutchmen a
two-point advantage before Gaye's two charity shots tied the game at 51 with
13:15 left to play as Bruce picked up his fourth personal.
Union, which played a deliberate three-to-four pass offense
throughout the game, took the lead for good at Cagianello buried a three at
12:43 to make it 54-51. Junior point
guard Chris Murphy converted a three-pointer after the Dutchmen came up with three
offensive rebounds. After DelBrocco
connected on a pair of bonus free throws with 10:28 left, freshman forward Kyle
Grimm, who had replaced Bruce, scored the Dutchmen's next six points, the final
two from the charity line after coming up with an offensive rebound, to help
Union to a 63-55 lead with 7:44 on the clock.
DelBrocco, who led the Griffins with 20 points, buried a
three with 7:20 left to the bring the
Griffins back to within 63-58, before sophomore guard Joe Murphy sank three
free throws after being fouled from three-point range. That gave the Dutchmen a 66-55 advantage
with 7:20 left, their biggest lead to that point in the game, before Bruce, who
was playing with four fouls, scored the Dutchmen's next five points, the final
two coming on a slam with 5:02 left that gave the Garnet a 71-63 advantage and
put an exclamation point on the contest.
The Guilderland High School graduate finished with 15 points, nine
boards, four assists and did not commit a turnover.
“Devon was concerned about defending Gaye and felt he had to
put the body to him,” explained Montana.
“He picked up a couple of fouls, but he is a senior captain who has
played some in some big games throughout his career and he knows how to play
while being in foul trouble. What he
accomplished tonight is a credit to his desire and work ethic.”
Cagianello's layup off Murphy's feed continued Union's
game-deciding run, giving the Dutchmen a 73-63 lead with 4:22 left before
Bruce's driving layup with 3:47 remaining made it 75-63.
The Griffins tried to get back into the game by sending the
Dutchmen to the line, but Union, which hit all but two of its 20 free throw
attempts (as compared to Gwynedd-Mercy's nine-of-19 effort from the stripe),
knocked down five of its six one-and-one attempts in the final 2:39.
The Dutchmen, who shot 50% from the field, including 50%
from three-point range in last weekend's Liberty League tournament, trailed 6-0
after missing their first four shots.
After a timeout by Montana, Cagianello lit up the gym as he scored 16 of
Union's first 20 points. After being
fouled on a three-point attempt with 13:16 left in the opening half, Cagianello
calmly sank all three of his charity shots to give Union its first lead, 15-12. The Dutchmen led by five throughout most of
the remaining 20 minutes with their biggest margin being six points, 33-27 on a
Cagianello tres with 4:18 remaining and 40-34 as Brian Scordato buried a three
with 1:18 showing.
“I just told the guys to relax , stay the course and make
sure we played our offense,” explained Montana. “In a game of this magnitude you tend to make decisions based on
emotion and energy instead of decisions based on your head. We went back staying within what we were
capable of doing and went back to making decisions with our heads.”
The Griffins, who outscored the Dutchmen 26-6 in the paint
during the opening 20 minutes, held a slim 19-14 rebounding advantage including
a 7-5 edge on the offensive boards.
Cagianello finished the opening half with 18 points while
Scordato had eight for the Dutchmen, who connected on 14 of their 32 overall
field goal attempts (43.8%) including a seven of 18 effort from three-point
range (38.9%). Gwynedd-Mercy, which
shot 51.6% from the field (16 of 31) was oh-for-five from behind the arch. Senior 6'8, 240-pound center Rashid
Santiago, who came into the game averaging 19 points and a dozen rebounds,
finished the half with nine points and just two offensive boards, both of which
resulted in dunks.
Scordato, who scored 34 points against Hamilton in the
Liberty League championship, including an ESPN SportsCenter highlighted 62-foot
field goal, had another outstanding all-around game as he finished with a dozen
points, eight boards, four assists and two steals. Murphy contributed nine points, four assists and two thefts while
Grimm and Mackey added nine and eight points, respectively.