GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland boys’ basketball team put a scare into the number-one seed in the Class AA tournament.

The Dutchmen battled and actually led Christian Brothers Academy, the Big 10 league champion, before falling, 59-49.
"We played the best we could," said Guilderland Coach Ron Osinski about last Wednesday’s game. "I don’t know if we could play much better. We hit some shots. Given what we were playing against, we did the best we could."

Osinski was also pleased with the way his defense played.
"We held them under 60 points," the coach said. "Unfortunately, we didn’t score more than 50. In the third quarter, the same shots we took in the first half we missed. I don’t know if they had more intensity on defense but it played into their hands."

The Dutch were able to hang around late in the contest due to some missed free throws by CBA. But they couldn’t get under double digits in the final minute.
"They were up by 12 at the most with 50 seconds left," Osinski said. "That was due to missed free throws, but we couldn’t make a basket."

The Dutch also watched their lead evaporate in the third quarter when CBA got some good three-point shooting.
"They hit three three’s that stretched their lead," Osinski said. "They were back-breakers."
"It was scripted almost the same as two years ago," he added, referring to the Class AA title game. "They hit a couple of threes and we were down in the third quarter. We were able to come back to make a game of it. This last game, I was pleased we were up at halftime. We were in the game and in the last couple of minutes we had a chance to win it.
"They are a good team and have blown a lot of people out lately," Osinski added. "And that didn’t happen with us. The kids felt pretty good. It was an uphill climb. It wasn’t like a few years ago when we played Schenectady and were the four or five seed. We were the number-eight seed. The breaks just didn’t go our way."

Sophomore Brett Marfurt led the Dutchmen with 21 points. He also played some tough defense.
"He played well," Osinski said. "He defended [Greg] Holle and held him to 21 points and he is tough to defend."

Marfurt, along with classmate Drew Smith, will provide Osinski with a tandem that could lead the way for the next couple of years.
"Drew got eight games in," Osinski said. "I told those two and the younger kids, win or lose, they can understand what we want to do. They got good experience."

The Dutch will lose three starters to graduation — Jimmy Googas, Matt Doherty, and Luke Pagano. Googas led Guilderland in scoring this season.
"Three out of our top six players will be coming back," Osinski said. "Two of them we get for two more years. Brett was our second-leading scorer."

Osinski is pleased with the way the Dutchmen played against a top-seeded team.
"Really, we could’ve gone out there and they could’ve beaten us by 40," he said. "We competed and they knew they were in a ball game. We made them work the whole game and we had the feeling we could win the game up to the last 30 or 40 seconds. We pushed the number-one team on their own court. That’s all you can ask for."