GUILDERLAND — It was a tough holiday season for the Guilderland boys’ basketball team.

After coming off two impressive road wins against Suburban Council foes, the Dutchmen suffered losses going into the holiday break and then split two games during the vacation.

Guilderland lost to Niskayuna on Dec. 19 and then lost to Christian Brothers Academy, 70-39, in the opening round of the Columbia Holiday Tournament on Dec. 27. The Dutchmen bounced back with a 63-51 win over Queensbury in the consolation game the next night.
"We are in a bit of a funk," said Guilderland Coach Ron Osinski. "We lost some confidence with the kids. And I don’t think playing CBA was a way to build confidence. Hopefully, we got back on track and we can build on the game against Queensbury. Hopefully, we can move forward and keep getting better."

"We lost our fight"

Guilderland played well early against CBA, considered the best Class AA team in Section II, before the Brothers pulled away.
"In the first quarter and two or three minutes in the second quarter we competed," Osinski said. "We did well against CBA. I don’t know if they wore us down or what. We lost our fight and that was disappointing. We were not competitive in the latter stages of the game."

Guilderland trailed by just four points, 14-10, at the end of the first quarter, but were outscored in the next three frames — 17-8 in the second, 21-12 in the third, and 18-9 in the fourth.

Brett Marfurt led the Dutchmen with 23 points.

Bouncing back

Guilderland bounced back the next night against Queensbury.
"Consolation games are tough," Osinski said. "It was an important game after losing two in a row. Against CBA, they beat us to loose balls and contested shots. They ran and executed better. CBA took us out of our defensive and offensive schemes. They are a really good team. I don’t know if any other team in the area can compete with them. They’ve got a lot of size and some kids who can shoot the ball. They are tough inside and outside.
"Against Queensbury, we did a better job," Osinski added. "We made some mistakes. We could’ve had a sizeable lead at the end of the first half, but we got careless with the ball in the second quarter, instead of building on the lead. We had a 20-point lead, but they cut it to 11 because of careless ball handling."

The Dutch led, 15-9, at the end of the first quarter and 31-24 at halftime. Guilderland built the big lead in the third quarter but couldn’t totally shake the spunky Spartans.

Marfurt led the Dutchmen with 26 points and Mark Domaracki scored 17 points.
"Brett played well in both games I thought," Osinski said. "He didn’t score in the first quarter [Thursday] night. He’s been consistent throughout the season. Mark came on and scored a lot early last night.
"Uwane Okure played a good floor game," Osinski added. "We defended very well and he brought the ball up the court well. Taylor Walden hustled and was scrappy inside and did a lot of things. He didn’t score a lot of points, but he does some good things."

Osinski saw more effort from his players in the second game of the tournament.
"I thought we hustled more," the coach said. "We got on the floor and that led us to get quick baskets. We went down and got the ball."

"Too far to come back"

However, nothing went right for the Dutchmen against Niskayuna on Dec. 19.
"The first half was very similar to the Columbia game," Osinski said. "We didn’t shoot the ball well and it had an effect on us. We were down, 32-11, at halftime. From their standpoint, they shot the ball real well and played much better than I’ve seen them play. We didn’t execute well and we got down 21 points and it was too far to come back."

The Dutch ended up losing by a score of 56-42.

Guilderland gets to play a home game on Friday — something it hasn’t done in a long time.
"We haven’t been home in a month," Osinski said. "December 5th was our last home game. It’ll be good to be back in familiar surroundings."

The Dutch will have a tough challenge awaiting them on their return to the GHS gym. They will have to play a tough Saratoga team that is unbeaten in league play and features two all-league caliber players in Jordan Stevens and Garrett Bishop.

After Friday’s contest, the Dutchmen will host Bethlehem on Tuesday and Averill Park on Jan. 12.