They look at the ball handler’s shoulders.

“‘Reading the shoulders’ as we call it,” the Wildcats head coach said. “It’s a way I let my guys read the situation.”

Holding just an eight point lead with 7:25 left in the third quarter on No. 4 North Collins in Friday’s Section VI Class D championship game at Jamestown Community College’s Physical Education Complex, Emory left it up to his team to do just that.

Three straight steals, a 3-pointer by Gerald Carris and back-to-back breakaway buckets by him and teammate John Swabik later and the once 0-2 Wildcats never looked back en route to a 54-40 victory over the Eagles for their first sectional title since 2014.

The Sherman bench celebrates during Friday’s Section VI Class D championship game victory over North Collins at Jamestown Community College’s Physical Education Complex. P-J photo by Cameron Hurst

“That was huge,” Emory said of the sequence. “That’s what turned the game.”

The minutes before, however, proved to be a battle with both teams refusing to flinch defensively from the beginning with Sherman holding just an 8-5 advantage after the first quarter that came as the result of six straight points culminating with a 3-pointer by Justiss Hannold, who finished with a game-high 21 points, as time expired.

See SHERMAN, Page B2

From Page B1

“Early, (Carris) wasn’t hitting shots like he normally does and he picked up the slack for Justiss in the last game and this time it was the complete opposite,” Emory said, noting Hannold’s struggles in the first half of Tuesday night’s semifinal victory over Forestville.

In the second quarter, however, the Wildcats were finally able to break through North Collins’ full-court press, using a 13-3 run over the last 10 minutes of the game to take a 10-point lead at the half.

“We were stunned by that,” Eagles coach Jan Warren said of Sherman’s ability to break the press. “They’re a lot quicker and a lot bigger than I thought they were.”

Sherman, defensively, also caused fits for North Collins leading scorer Tyler Robinson, who finished with a team-high 12 points, while also forcing foul trouble on point guard, Christian Loretto, who fouled out with 11 seconds left in the third quarter.

“Early on they were hesitant to take a few chances and then (Sherman’s defense) started to get feel (for Robinson) and get (Loretto) into foul trouble,” Emory said. “We just wanted to make it hard for (Robinson) to score without fouling and we did a pretty good job of that.”

But Emory insisted that no moment was bigger than the sequence at the beginning of the third quarter, resulting in an eruption from the Sherman bench.

“We had talked about how they cut into Panama’s eight-point lead in the first four minutes and it became a ballgame,’ Emory said noting the Panthers’ struggles to stifle a similar North Collins’ run coming out of halftime in the Eagles’ semifinal upset on Monday.

“We said those first four minutes, we’re either going to extend the lead and kind of make it a little bit more comfortable or we’re going to be in a knock-down drag-out ,” he added. “We got the advantage in those first four minutes.”

Emory also credited his team’s balance between offense and defense.

“It’s definitely a luxury,” he said of Swabik’s 16 points and Carris’ 9. “The rest of our team, as long as we play hard on the defensive end, if we’re holding people in the 30s or low 40s, most nights that’s going to win you the ballgame.”

That’s something his team has learned throughout the season, Emory said, noting his team’s 0-2 start to the season.

“We started off 0-2 because we had a great and wonderful and long football season,’ he said, referring to team members who helped contribute to Clymer/Sherman/Panama’s Class D football state championship in November. “Those first two games, we were still football players. As time went on we started to become basketball players.”

Now those basketball players look toward a date in Section V’s Class D crossover champion at Buffalo State next week, with potential opponents being Avoca, Genesee Valley, Elba or Prattsburg.

“Most of those teams have been ranked (by the New York State Sportswriter’s Association) and our guys look at that because of football,’ he added with a laugh. “I told them, ‘Don’t worry about rankings. Let us be the sleeping giant. I don’t mind that at all.'”

Still, the veteran head coach couldn’t help but smile when thinking of the run that could lie ahead.

“This is just a great group.”

NOTES: Swabik and North Collins’ Chris Smith were named Character Athletes of the Game …. The Far West Regional is scheduled for noon Saturday, March 14 at Buffalo State.

NORTH COLLINS (40)

Klawinski 0 0 0, Loreto 0 1 1, Warsaw 1 3 6, Robinson 4 3 12, Sweet 3 0 7, Smith 4 1 9, Fricano 4 1 5, Ebersole 0 0 0, Pagan 0 0 0, Parnitzke 0 0 0, Kehr 0 0 0, Luna 0 0 0. Totals 16 9 40.

SHERMAN (54)

Hannold 7 5 21, Swabik 5 6 16, Carris 4 0 9, Meeder 0 0 0, Swan 0 0 0, Sears 0 0 0, Gormley 3 0 6, Fisher 0 0 0, Mitchell 0 1 1, Burgess 0 0 0, Majchrzak 0 1 1, Lamoni 0 0 0. Totals 19 13 54.

3-point goals–Hannold 2, Carris, Warsaw, Robinson, Sweet.

North Collins 5 14 9 12 — 40

Sherman 8 21 16 9 — 54