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Health Sciences Beats Jamestown In United Way Tourney Final

By Christian Storms 5 min read

The Jamestown boys basketball team is filled with a lot of very good athletes, many of whom are also football players on the Red Raiders team that very recently played in a New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class A state semifinal game.

On Saturday night, in the finals of the United Way Tip-Off Tournament at McElrath Gymnasium, against the Health Sciences Falcons (4-0) it was evident that the Red Raiders (1-1) were still shaking off the cobwebs and transitioning into basketball season as the Falcons edged them in the fourth quarter for a 55-54 victory.

"I think a lot of the mistakes we made tonight and some of our poor execution on offense is because it's so early in the season," Jamestown head coach Ben Drake said. "We haven't had that much practice time. Most of these guys played football all the way until almost December. We'll get better as time goes on, but I think a lot of it can be attributed to being so early in the season."

One thing there was no shortage of from the Red Raiders was energy as they brought a lot of it very early. The Red Raiders were all over the Falcons in the first quarter, frustrating the Falcons players and coaches. Jamestown was pressing Health Sciences right out of the gate and from the press the Red Raiders were creating turnovers that led to several scoring chances.

"I thought that we played with a lot of intensity," Drake said about his team.

"I thought we played really hard," Drake added. "Our pressure bothered them for a big part of the game."

While Jamestown certainly was causing troubles for the Falcons, the buckets were not coming easy for the Red Raiders as they had their lowest-scoring quarter of the night in the first.

In the second quarter, Jamestown started to reap the rewards of its press by scoring more buckets directly from Falcons' turnovers. The high-intensity play continued throughout the quarter, but the negative effects started to show themselves as several Red Raiders began picking up fouls, most notably Jaral Farmer. At the half, Jamestown sported a 25-20 lead, but Health Sciences was not going anywhere.

Foul trouble had Farmer on the bench for much of the third quarter and the Red Raiders certainly missed his defensive presence as Health Sciences outscored Jamestown 17-16 in the quarter. Even with Farmer and several other Red Raiders taking turns on the bench, Jamestown did not stop giving out shooting fouls. In the second half, Health Sciences took 22 free throws and made 13 of them.

"We picked up some cheap fouls," Drake said. "When we play hard like that and we're pressing we're going to get some fouls. The ones that we need to eliminate are the unnecessary ones where we make an undisciplined decision and smack someone in the arm."

While on defense Jamestown was giving out free points at the charity stripe, on offense the Red Raiders continued to work hard for every bucket. Jaylen Butera was the motor driving the offense as he scored a game-high 18 points while grabbing four rebounds and managing three steals. Butera's offensive contributions preserved the Red Raiders' lead going into the fourth quarter as he scored nine of the team's 16 points in the third quarter.

Jamestown's 41-37 lead in the fourth quarter very quickly evaporated as Health Sciences scored the first five points to go up 42-41. Jamestown had its last lead after Farmer swatted his third block of the game that was picked up by Trey Drake and hustled down the court for two points and the 50-49 lead.

Health Sciences quickly responded to the Drake score with consecutive three-point plays, first a Michael Whitt corner 3 then Xavier Benton followed up with a hard-fought two points that sent him to the line for one of his 13 free throws.

Trailing by five Jamestown had plenty of chances to get back into the game but the shots were not falling. The Red Raiders shot 31% from the field and 20% from 3-point range which put them in the tough position of trailing late in the game.

Jamestown fought until the bitter end, giving the Red Raider faithful a glimmer of hope. With 1 second left in the game, Drayce Garland hit a 3-point shot that made the score 55-54 and with a little bit of luck, Jamestown had a chance to win if Health Sciences made an error on the inbound. Jamestown clamped on the press, but Health Sciences was able to inbound for the 1 second needed to win the game and the tournament.

"This was a great game for us," Drake said. "To be involved in a good early season battle like this back and forth is really something we can learn from. We made some mistakes tonight, but I thought we played really hard and that to me right now is the most important thing."

After the game the all-tournament team was announced. From Jamestown were Butera, Drake and Farmer; from Health Sciences were Jaylin Gadley and Michael Whitt; from Cardinal O'Hara was Jacob Kanowski; and from Southwestern was Aidan Kennedy. The overall tournament MVP was Xavier Benton from Health Sciences, who scored a team-high 16 points in the championship game.

HEALTH SCIENCES (55)

XBenton 2 11 16, Alvira 0 0 0, Green 1 0 2, TBenton 0 0 0, Hopkins 3 1 7, Staten 2 1 5, Gadley 6 0 14, Lynch 0 0 0, Webster 0 2 2, Whitt 3 0 9. Totals 17 15 55.

JAMESTOWN (54)

Farmer 4 3 11, Paige 3 4 10, Brumagin 0 0 0, Freeney 0 0 0, Drake 3 2 9, Harley 0 0 0, Torres 0 0 0, Butts 1 1 3, Butera 6 5 18, Pryce 0 0 0, Garland 1 0 3, Viele 0 0 0, Colletti 0 0 0. Totals 18 15 54.

Health Sciences 8 12 17 18 -- 55

Jamestown 9 16 16 13 -- 54

Starting at /week.