GUILDERLAND — The ball rested on the back of the rim after Guilderland basketball player Mark Domaracki’s shot. It never fell through the net.

It was a symbol of how things went for the Dutchmen in a 75-69 loss to Saratoga on Tuesday night.

Now the Dutchmen will have to face Saratoga again in a play-in game to qualify for the Section II Class AA tournament.
"Truthfully, they are a better team than where they finished up," said Guilderland Coach Ron Osinski. "They shouldn’t be in a play-in game. They should be representing us as a four, five, or six seed in the league. Unfortunately, they had injuries."

The Blue Streaks, however, had healed. Saratoga was missing guard Garret Bishop for most of the season; his recent return has had a huge impact.
"The Bishop kid changes them," Osinski said. "He makes them go. He gets the ball to people. And Stevens as a freshman is unbelievable," Osinski said, referring to Saratoga’s leading scorer. "I don’t know if we can play much harder. They played harder than us."

Ninth-grader Jordan Stevens showed why he is already one of the better players in Section II. He led all scorers with 28 points and had a thunderous one-handed dunk in the fourth quarter.

Bishop added 19 points, including three three-pointers.

The game was tied at halftime, 31-31, after Guilderland senior guard Jimmy Googas made a three-pointer with one second left.

But then in the third quarter, Saratoga — especially Stevens — took over.

The Blue Streaks scored the first six points of the quarter — four of them by Stevens — to take the lead.

Domaracki made a jump shot for Guilderland, but Saratoga went on an 11-2 run over the next few minutes to open up the lead.

Stevens made a jump shot, which was followed by Guilderland’s only points in the run — two free throws by Luke Pagano.

Daniel Harkins made a jump shot and Tim Hoover hit a three-point shot to make the score 44-35 with 4:03 left in the third quarter.

Stevens then scored on an inside basket and Hoover made a foul shot to make the lead 12 points with 3:08 left.

Matt Doherty ended the run for Guilderland with a three-pointer with 2:52 left. Teammate Brett Marfurt scored after grabbing a rebound and the Dutch cut the lead to seven points.

Too high

Saratoga, however, outscored the Dutch 10-7 in the final 2:30 of the third quarter to take a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter, 57-47.

The Dutchmen couldn’t catch up in the final stanza despite outscoring the Blue Streaks, 22-18.

The scoring was too high for the Dutchmen.
"For us to stay in the game, we can’t give up 75 points," Osinski said. "Then we have to score 80 and we can’t do that. We were fortunate to score 69."

Marfurt, a sophomore, led the Dutchmen with 22 points. Doherty added 15, Pagano scored 12, and Googas chipped in 11 points.
"Marfurt wasn’t bad," Osinski said. "He came up with 22 points. Though I think most of it was garbage stuff. It might be our first 20-point game all year."

It was Marfurt’s first game back from an injury and he got a lot of points off rebounds and inside. And he made two three-pointers.

Fellow sophomore, Drew Smith, scored seven points for the Dutch.

The loss drops the Dutch’s record to 5-9 in the Suburban Council and 8-12 overall. They are on a four-game slide after winning three in a row — including a win over Saratoga without Bishop — a couple of weeks ago. The Dutchmen also beat Columbia and Ballston Spa.

Guilderland lost both of its games in the Suburban Council Division II tournament. The Dutch lost to Columbia in the first game and then Ballston Spa in the consolation game of the tournament.

Now the Dutch will prepare to face the hot Blue Streaks on Friday at Guilderland High School. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
"We’ll make some changes and get ready to come back on Friday," Osinski said. "If we don’t, we’ll go home early and, if we do, we’ll move on. We have to play harder than them. At this point in time, it’s up to the kids.
"Our defense has to do a better job," Osinski added. "But their shooting percentage must have been phenomenal. We were busting our tail and they’d come down and make a shot."