By Zach Harnischfeger
BROCKPORT, N.Y. ---- The Brockport Blue Devils and Greece Olympia Spartans battled it out on Tuesday night. The Blue Devils had problems slowing down Spartans senior guard Caiden Evans as his 43-point night helped the Spartans escape with a 70-66 win.
“We have a lot of heart and determination,” Greece Olympia head coach Joey Tisa said. “We did not shoot the ball well particularly from the free throw line. We missed 17 in the first half and we were still up one. Because we're really committed on the defensive end of the floor our principles are really coming together. It was a battle down low for boards and down the stretch we made some big free throws, especially from Caiden Evans.”
Both teams were quiet for the first two minutes of the game until Spartans senior center Terry Griffin Jr. got the scoring started with a 3-pointer. After some fouls and missed shots from the Spartans and 11 points by Brockport senior guard Daniel Dailey, the Blue Devils led 16-11 after one. Dailey finished the night with 25 points and connected on five 3-pointers.
“On offense, we had great ball movement,” Dailey said. “We penetrated, which led to kickouts and left me open for some threes.”
In the second quarter, the Spartans slowed down Dailey holding him to three points and Evans exploded offensively totaling 14 points. The Spartans used a 10-0 run at the end of the quarter to take a 31-30 lead at the half. Evans scored 21 points in the first half.
“Attack, attack, attack,” Evans said. “Last year I feel like I settled a lot on threes instead of getting to the basket first and using my size, speed, and moves so that's one thing I wanted to use more this year.”
In the third quarter, Blue Devils senior guard Tyler Judd was able to get going after being held to two points in the first half. He scored nine points in the quarter, but the defense struggled and once again the Blue Devils found themselves down by one, 47-46, heading into the final quarter. Judd finished the night with 13 points.
“We have to find the defense that works for us,” Brockport head coach James Erbland said. “I think we're going to continue to work on our man-to-man and it's going to grow and get better through the season.”
With 2:32 left to play in the fourth quarter, Evans sunk two foul shots to put his team up 60-59. One minute later at the 1:15 mark, Spartans junior forward Connor Welker drained a 3-pointer to give Greece Olympia a 65-61 lead. Evans made eight straight foul shots and finished the quarter with 14 points to give the Spartans the win. Evans went 16-for-25 from the free throw line.
With the win, the Spartans improve to 2-0 on the season. With the loss, Brockport drops to 1-2 on the year. The Spartans host Greece Odessey on Friday night at 7 p.m. and Brockport hits the road to take on Canandaigua on Friday night at 7:15 p.m.
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