GUILDERLAND — The victory came much harder than originally expected.

The Guilderland boys’ basketball team had to hold off a late Shaker rally in the Class AA Section II quarterfinals at the Times Union Center on Sunday.

The Dutchmen prevailed, 63-57, thanks to some deft foul shooting, and advanced to the Class AA semifinals today (Thursday) against Christian Brothers Academy at the Times Union Center in downtown Albany.
"We’ve played a couple of close games lately," said Guilderland senior Brett Marfurt. "We have senior leadership and I want to take free throws if we need them. And Kevin [Kost] made free throws. We’re happy with the win."

Marfurt made five foul shots in the final minute and Kost scored the final two as the Dutchmen held off the Blue Bison in Sunday’s contest.

Guilderland also got a fast-break lay-up from Dan Gejay with 41 seconds left in the game to help with the win.

"Things were clicking"
"I think we had a 19-point lead at one time," said Guilderland Coach Ron Osinski. We were happy with the cushion. We were in some foul trouble but we got a bucket at the end of the first half and we came out in the third quarter and played well. Then things were clicking for them and we had to hold on."

Junior Jon Terry tipped in a missed shot with one second left in the second quarter and the Dutchmen led, 39-22, at the halftime intermission.

John Weinheimer started off the third quarter with a jump shot for Shaker, but Marfurt answered with a three-pointer for Guilderland.

After a jump shot by Shaker’s Greg Bonomo, Terry scored three straight points for Guilderland. Terry made a foul shot and then scored inside to make the score, 45-26, with 5:30 left in the third frame.

Shaker came back with four points, as Ryan Sullivan scored inside and Tom McDonald hit a jump shot for the Blue Bison.

Marfurt scored on a fast-break after receiving a great touch pass from Terry, but Sullivan made a foul shot to make the score, 47-31, with two minutes left in the quarter.

Janique Lanier stole the ball and made a fast-break lay-up for Shaker with 50 seconds left. But Terry scored inside and Marfurt knocked down a three-pointer to keep the Dutchmen comfortably ahead by 19 points, 52-33.

Sullivan finished out the scoring in the quarter with two foul shots.

The early part of the fourth quarter belonged to Shaker.

Weinheimer hit a three-pointer and Lanier made a foul shot to make the score, 52-39, two minutes into the frame.

Bonomo’s three-pointer cut the lead to 10 points with 5:10 left in the contest. His jump shot at 4:48 made the score, 52-44.

The Dutchmen finally scored in the fourth quarter as Kost scored inside with 4:07 left.

Lanier answered for the Blue Bison with an inside bucket to keep the Dutch’s lead to eight points.

Sullivan knocked down a short jump shot with 2:18 left to cut the lead to six and Lanier stole the ball and went to the basket for a fast-break lay-up with 1:12 left, making the score 54-50.

Marfurt made both ends of a one-and-one free-throw opportunity with 1:09 left but that was quickly answered by a three-point shot from Chris Hooks with 55 seconds left.

But the Dutchmen were quick on the inbounds and Gejay got the ball in the open court and made a fast-break lay-up with 41 seconds left to put the lead back up to five, 58-53.

Lanier made two foul shots for Shaker with 29 seconds left to cut the lead back down to three points, but Marfurt was fouled on the ensuing Dutch possession and calmly knocked down both ends of a one-and-one with 24 seconds left.

Weinheimer scored on a drive to the basket with 16 seconds left in the contest. Marfurt made a foul shot a second later to make the score, 61-57.

Shaker got the ball and attempted a three-point shot, but Andrew Smith blocked the attempt and Kost got the ball and was fouled. He knocked down both foul shots, and the Dutchmen were up by six points with five seconds left and could finally breath easily.
"For the first two-and-a-half quarters," Marfurt said, "we played some of our best basketball of the year. We looked good on a lot of possessions."

Marfurt led the Dutchmen with 24 points. Kost added 18 points and Terry scored 11. Smith chipped in with eight points.

Sullivan led Shaker with 20 points. Lanier scored 12 and Bonomo added 11 for the Blue Bison.

"Pressure is good"
"We are happy to advance on," Osinski said. "The pressure is good. We’re a little surprised. We haven’t seen it all year.
"They came down and made us pay for it," Osinski added. "They were driving to the basket and we fouled them and that stopped the clock. That didn’t help much. We shut down. We were not as aggressive. We didn’t attack like we did in the first half."

The Dutchmen will have to play with that aggressiveness for the entire game if they want to beat CBA in the semifinals on Thursday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.

The Brothers beat the Dutchmen in a close contest at the Columbia Holiday Tournament.
"We are now entering the area where we are not the favorite," Osinski said. "CBA is the favorite. We do not have much room for error. The turnovers we made with a 17- and 19-point lead, we can’t have those against CBA. We have to be on top of our game. We have to be at our best for 32 minutes."
"CBA is the match-up we want," Marfurt said. "We lost to them back in December. But that was a while ago. This is going to be fun."