GUILDERLAND — The Dutchmen proved they are the kings of the Suburban Council.

The Guilderland boys’ basketball team beat Colonie, 61-56, to win the final game of the Suburban Council’s Tournament of Champions on Sunday night at the Washington Avenue Armory in Albany.
"This was on our list of goals," said senior standout Brett Marfurt after the game. "We knocked this one off. We want to win Tuesday and go unbeaten."

The Dutch play Columbia on Thursday night in a make-up game to try and go undefeated in the Suburban Council. They could be the fourth Suburban Council team to do it, the last being the 2003-04 Guilderland squad that featured current College of Saint Rose senior Steve Dagostino.
"This is one thing we wanted to do," senior Andrew Smith said after Sunday’s game. "We also wanted to go undefeated in the Suburban Council. Now we want to keep playing well for sectionals."

Dutch dominate

Colonie played Guilderland tough in the first half of the contest. Marfurt’s three-point basket with four seconds left in the second quarter gave the Dutchmen a 28-26 halftime lead.

Guilderland came out with some fire in the third quarter.

Marfurt hit a jump shot to open the stanza and junior Jon Terry scored inside to increase the Dutch’s lead.

Marfurt added another jump shot and Guilderland led, 34-26, with 6:26 left in the third frame and forced Colonie to use a time-out.

The Dutchmen held their lead and were on the leading side of a 44-37 score as the third frame ended.

Herb Teford opened the fourth quarter, scoring with an inside basket for Colonie.

Dan Gejay made a foul shot for Guilderland and Marfurt scored on a drive to the basket to keep the Dutchmen ahead, 47-39.

Then came what might have been the play of the game.

Terry knocked a pass away on the defensive end of the court and saved the ball from going out of bounds. Then Terry hustled down the court, received a pass, and went strong to the hoop for a lay-up and drew a foul. He knocked down the free throw and Guilderland led, 50-39.

The Garnet Raiders didn’t go quietly, though, as they went on a 7-1 run to make the score 51-46. Jim Bacher made two foul shots, Tashon Newsome hit a three-pointer, and Tedford made two foul shots in the Colonie run. Guilderland’s only point was a free throw by Marfurt.

Colonie was looking to add to the run but Marfurt stole a pass and was all alone as he went to the basket and threw down a two-handed slam dunk.

Sean Peer came back, scoring inside for Colonie. That was quickly answered as Terry scored inside.

Kyle Mafrici hit a three-pointer that made the score 55-51 with 1:39 left in the contest.

Smith scored on a drive to the basket with 1:19 left to add to Guilderland’s lead.

Newsome made two free throws, but Smith scored on another drive to the basket to make it 59-53 with 46 seconds left.

Newsome made a foul shot and Peer scored inside to make the score 59-56 with 21 seconds left.

Junior Kevin Kost made one foul shot with 18 seconds left, and Smith made one with six seconds left to seal the win for the Dutchmen.
"In the third quarter, we opened it up a little bit," said Guilderland Coach Ron Osinski. "Drew got his fourth foul, but did a good job in the game. We even increased our lead a little. I think, at one time, we got it to 10."
"In the beginning"

The Dutchmen actually were down early in the contest, but did a good job of coming back in the first quarter.
"In the beginning we were down, 11-2," Osinski said. "But I told the kids, if it weren’t for the first two minutes we would have been up 10 at half. Brett hit a big shot at the end of the half."

Marfurt hit a lot of big shots in the game as he led the Dutch with 24 points. Terry scored 16 points, and Smith added nine for Guilderland.

Newsome scored 20 points to lead Colonie. Tedford scored 17 and Peer added 10 for the Garnet Raiders.
"Quinn Connell played good defense," Osinski said of Smith’s sub. "Brett switched off to Newsome, but our defense didn’t hurt us. We got some key rebounds and made a couple of shots."
"The defense really responded," Smith said. "We were able to knock the ball away at the end. We did a lot of good things on defense once we settled down."

The Dutch had sown up the number-one seed from the Suburban Council, and now await the Section II Class AA pairings. The pairings were announced Wednesday and the Dutch will play next Wednesday against the winner of the LaSalle/Albany play-in game.
"This is a good game to prepare us for sectionals," Osinski said of Sunday’s Suburban final. "You have to credit Colonie. They played great and we had to adjust during the game. We’ve played three games this week. We didn’t have a lot of time for preparation."

The Dutchmen beat Shenendehowa, 74-69, in the semifinals of the league tournament.
"This is the best tune-up," Marfurt said. "Colonie is the second-best team in the Suburban Council and better than a lot of Big 10 teams."