GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland boys’ basketball team got a chance to take part in the Suburban Council Tournament of Champions and, as has been customary this season, the team gave two different performances.

The Dutchmen lost to Shenendehowa last Thursday but came back to beat Averill Park on Saturday in the consolation match.

The Dutch fell behind Shen in the first round of the tournament. They trailed 16-8 at the end of the first quarter and 30-16 at halftime.

Guilderland would go on to lose, 54-41, to the Plainsmen.

But on Saturday, the Suburban Council Gold Division co-champions came back for a 51-34 win over Averill Park, the White Division champions.

The Dutch trailed 18-15 at halftime, but came back with a 19-8 third quarter and a 17-8 fourth quarter to get the win.

Brett Marfurt scored 23 points to lead the Dutch and Drew Smith added 14 points.
"Against Shen, I didn’t think we did a good job," said Guilderland Coach Ron Osinski. "I was disappointed in our effort that night. They beat us to loose balls and out-rebounded us.
"We went back and talked about it," Osinski added. "And, in the second half against Averill Park, we played pretty good. Hopefully, we can continue that into sectionals."

The games didn’t count in the league record or toward sectional seeding. The Dutchmen are the number-six Suburban Council seed and will take on LaSalle Institute in Troy on Wednesday. The Cadets are the number-three seed from the Big 10.

The Dutchmen beat LaSalle handily in the first game of the season back in November. But that doesn’t give Guilderland an advantage, Osinski said.
"At that point in time," Osinski said. "We were playing quarters and halves different than we had all year. It was early and we had a full line-up and we only had a pre-season scrimmage, so we were ready to go. Neither one of us knew each other. We take that game with a grain of salt."

The time off between games might help his team, Osinski said.
"In our case, when you can say it’s one game and done," the coach said. "We really have an opportunity go beyond this game. We have a chance anyway if each and every kid plays the way they can and have gotten better as a team and individually, we can go deep into sectionals. But if we go backward and do things that we did to give up games, then we just had a lot of practices for one game.
"We’re going back to basics," Osinski added. "We’re making things simple and it’s good we don’t have two days to do that. It’s a chance to get our feet back together and play together and all understand each other."

Girls

The Guilderland girls’ basketball team lost both of its games in the Suburban Council Tournament of Champions.

The Lady Dutch lost to Shenendehowa in the first round and lost to Averill Park in the consolation game. The Lady Dutch will go to sectionals going as the number-three seed.

Guilderland will host Bishop Maginn on Wednesday. Maginn is the number-six seeded team from the Big 10.