Since the start of the season, the small school poll has seen Fredonia & St. Mary's occupy the top two spots. The Lancers were at #2 for the first few weeks, before the Hillbillies slid into that spot, moving St. Mary's back to #3 over the past few weeks. Last night these two top small school programs got together on the court in Lancaster, and the game played out the way you'd expect a matchup of highly ranked teams to go.
John Piper scored Fredonia's final eight points to help the Hillbillies back up their number two ranking in a 62-60 win at St. Mary's. Fredonia now returns home to face Olean on Tuesday night, attempting to earn a share of the CCAA I West title with a win.
After scoring the opening basket of the game, Fredonia allowed a 14-0 run by the Lancers and were staring down a 14-2 deficit with two minutes remaining in the opening quarter. After a 6-1 run that spanned into the start of the second quarter, the Hillbillies were beginning to settle down and hit shots. But a pair of interior scores from St. Mary's Sean Wilson pushed the Lancer lead to double figures, 19-8.
Fredonia came back with another run, this time a 10-2 push with five points apiece from Patrick Moore and Cam Voss, to get with in three points, 21-18. St. Mary's got back to a 28-21 advantage in the closing seconds of the half, before Fredonia's Jared Burmaster flew down the length of the court to lay one in just before the halftime buzzer sounded, making it 28-23 at the break.
"We were ready for this game and prepped for it big time yesterday, had a great practice, and then you get here and the nerves come out. They know how big the game is, 2 vs. 3, and we haven't been in a lot of close games this year", Fredonia coach Greg Lauer said.
The nerves were long gone as the second half got underway, and Fredonia took control of things to start the third quarter. The Hillbillies got a pair of treys from Moore and went 6/6 from the charity stripe as part of 14-6 run that gave them their first lead on the Lancers since the opening basket of the game.
"The guys settled down, started to hit some shots, started to run our offense, and we started to slow them down a little bit", Lauer said.
A three-point play from the Lancers' Takal Molson prevented the Hillbillies from taking a lead into the final stanza, as the teams headed toward the game's last eight minutes locked at 41-41.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Fredonia went up by four points on a basket fron Noah Voss, leading 51-47. St. Mary's responded with its best stretch of the game, eight unanswered points that gave them the lead back at 55-51, with under two minutes to play.
But the end of the game was a gut check for the Hillbillies, who stepped up and accepted the challenge, turning to senior standout Piper for a lift down the stretch. He scored nine points in the game's most crucial closing moments, that included a baseline drive & finish for the tie, a 3-pointer for the lead, and a pair of free throws to secure the lead late, putting the Hillbillies up 62-57.
"A four-year varsity starter, you expect him to step up in a big game like this, and he certainly did", Lauer said of Piper. "The drive on the baseline was fantastic, the 3-point shot that he hit was big to put us up three, and certainly the free throws were big to get us up. John consistently this year and through his career has given us big shots when we needed them and he did tonight".
Piper led the Hillbillies with 22 points, leaving him just 13 points shy of 1,000 for his career. Cam Voss scored 17 points, and Moore added 14 points.
Molson finished with a game-high 27 points for the Lancers, with Jake Concannon scoring 12 points in the loss.
-centercourt
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