Border Country Sports Blog-January 23rd
Good Morning! With the Border Country Sports Blog, I'm Keith Harrington.
Golden Horde Start Quick in Father-Son Showdown
For a few weeks now Granville boys basketball coach Justin Nassivera has been perplexed about his team's slow starts. More times than not the Golden Horde have recovered to win, but on a couple occasions it has come back to bite them.
Saturday afternoon at the Granville Central School Gym, in his first ever meeting with his father Kevin's Fort Ann team, Justin's squad finally came out of the gate quickly and cruised to a 74-40 Adirondack League victory.
Justin Nassivera joked about the irony of the Golden Horde finally breaking out against his dad's team.
"Of all the days, it had to happen to him," Justin said with a laugh. "It couldn't happen to a better person."
The Cardinals hung around in the early going trailing just 8-7 midway through the first quarter. Granville then exploded for a 15-0 run to lead 23-7 at the end of the stanza. It ended up being a 19-0 run overall, and the Golden Horde used a 19-7 second quarter to lead 42-14 at the half and were never challenged from there.
Granville connected on 12 3-ponters in the contest and were 7-12 over the first 16 minutes.
"We finally got off to a good start. I have been waiting for a couple of weeks now for the flood gates to open up to start a game, and it finally happened today," Justin Nassivera added.
The game marked the first time in the Adirondack League and third time locally that a father and son have met across the bench in high school basketball.
It was Senior Night for Granville as Alex Warrington, Logan Harrington, Connor Farrell, Nathan Rathbun, Christian Stevens and Avery Flory were honored before the game.
Caleb Nelson netted 24 points to lead the Golden Horde. Logan Harrington added 15, with Cody Nelson and Matthew Barlow chipping in nine each.
Dylan Brown, Jack Dornan and Javier Hernandez had eight points apiece for the Cardinals.
Granville is now 7-2, 9-3. Fort Ann is 5-7.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Cosmos Nips Slaters Girls
The Fair Haven girls basketball team took the lead to the locker room at halftime, but Springfield rallied in the third and took the lead in the fourth before hanging on to nip the Slaters 32-30 in an SVL matchup.
Springfield jumped out to a first quarter lead, but Fair Haven went on a 13-0 run to lead 19-11 at the half.
The Cosmos trailed 22-13 with 3:44 to go in the third, but finished the period on an 8-0 run to close within 22-21 heading to the fourth.
Springfield took a 23-22 lead to open the final frame, and the game stayed tight the rest of the way.
Trailing 32-27 with 8.8 seconds remaining the Slaters almost pulled off a miracle finish. Kate Hadwen nailed a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds remaining to slice the deficit to 32-30. Hadwen intercepted the Cosmo's inbounds pass between the 3-point arc and center circle. She got a pretty good look for a potential game-winning bucket, but the shot was off the mark.
Megan Stagner paced Springfield with15 points. Her sister Macie Stagner contibuted 11.
Fair Haven was led by nine points from Brittney Love. Hadwen added seven and Lilly Briggs six.
Springfield is 7-2. Fair Haven is now 9-4.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Whitehall Defeats Ticonderoga
The Whitehall boys basketball opened a double figure lead at halftime and went on to defeat Ticonderoga 61-50 in a nn-league contest.
The Railroaders led 19-13 after a quarter and extended the margin to 33-23 at the break.
A 15-10 third quarter advantage put the game away for Whitehall.
Cash Burgey pumped in 24 points to lead Whitehall. Latrell Evans added 15.
Whitehall raised their mark to 9-4 on the season.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Salem-Cambridge Goes Unbeaten at Duanesburg Duals
The Salem-Cambridge wrestling team had a successful day at the Dominick Kossmann Memorial Duals in Duanesburg. Salem-Cambridge went 5-0 at the meet, defeating Duanesburg-Schoharie, Onteora, Maple Hill, Granville-Fort Ann and Bethlehem.
Salem-Cambridge topped Duanesburg-Schoharie 35-34, Onteora 58-18, Maple hill 48-18, Granville-Fort Ann 42-25, and Bethlehem 40-33.
Henry Dill, Brayton Cary, Lucas Martindale, and Evan Day went unbeaten for Salem-Cambridge.
Quinn Donaldson went 4-1.
Granville also competed at the meet. The Golden Horde went 0-4-1. Besides the loss to Salem-Cambridge, the Golden Horde fell to Duanesburg-Schoharie 38-18, Bethlehem 54-24, and Maple Hill 48-18.
The Golden Horde tied Onteora 30-30.
Brent Perry had a strong match for Granville-Fort Ann going 5-0 at 189 pounds. Perry recorded four wins by fall and a major decision.
Quinn Johnson added four wins for Granville-Fort Ann.
__________________________________________________________________________________
With the Border Country Sports Blog, I'm Keith Harrington.
Photo Credit-Stacie Arnhold
