Pictured are the Randolph Cardinals after knocking off Section V's Lyons 57-47 to claim the Class C Far West Regional.

ROCHESTER — It’s been 19 years since the Randolph Cardinals boys basketball made it to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Final Four at Glens Falls. With Section VI titles and Far West Regional appearances since, the Cardinals just haven’t been able to get over the hump to get back to Glens Falls.

That changed on Saturday afternoon at Gates Chili High School where the Cardinals finally got over the hump. Head Coach Kevin Hind and the Cardinals long wait to get back to Glens Falls came to an end with Randolph locking down Section V’s Lyons 57-47 in the Class C Far West Regional.

“I took a team in 2003-2004, I’ve coached a lifetime since,” Hind said about Glens Falls. “We’ve been a basketball family, lived in the gym, dreamed of getting to Glens Falls with Tyler (Hind). We got cut off a couple times, won three sectional titles in four years, but just couldn’t get over that hump. … We’ve coached since 2003-04 to get back there — Ben Drake is one of my best friends and he says ‘Glens Falls, where the streets are paved with gold’ and that’s just how I think of it. … Going to Glens Falls is everything and it’s what I’ve dedicated my life to the last 20 years.”

Coming into Saturday’s contest, the Section V champion Lyons was averaging just over 80 points per game, so Randolph made some defensive changes just ahead of its biggest game of the season. Saying that the defensive adjustments worked would be an understatement. Randolph limited Lyons to nearly half its average point total and held its top scorer JC Walker to just 11 points and no field goals in the first half.

“We put in a new defensive scheme here midweek,” Hind said about the gameplan. “I woke up in the middle of the night and said we’re doing this, we’re going to throw this at them and if it doesn’t work then we’ll just get out of it. We don’t have a 6’5″ guy to chase around, but we just did it 5 on 4. The middle of the zone yesterday was five offense on four defense just working to eliminate penetration, keep your man in front and box him out. As a team more athletic than us you cannot just give them easy layups to the basket.”

Randolph claims the Class C Far West Regional plaque. P-J photo by Christian Storms

While Randolph managed to lock down Lyons’ biggest asset, there was no answer for the triple threat offense that the Cardinals brought to the table. The task would be to shut down seniors Jaiden Huntington and Carson Conley and sophomore Drew Hind.

Lyons managed to limit Hind below his average with 11 points, but the problem with Randolph is that there are three scorers to worry about defending and the other two stepped up big.

On the back of a monster 11 point third quarter, Conley scored a game-high 24 points and Huntington scored all of his 18 points in the first half.

“It’s definitely a strength in our offense,” Conley said about him, Huntington and Hind as a scoring threat. “If they have one defender that can really guard they can put him on one guy, then the other two can shoot. We all have that confidence and it’s so crucial in big games like this to not play scared and shoot the ball and they fell today.”

With Lyons strength being its bigs, Randolph turned it into a 3-point contest and it kept touches out of Walker’s hands. In the first quarter, Lyons couldn’t stop any of the Randolph shooters and Huntington made it pay the most scoring 8 points then replicating that in the second quarter to help the Cardinals build a 35-25 halftime lead.

Randolph's Jaiden Huntington hoists the Class C Far West Regional plaque. P-J photo by Christian Storms

“The gameplay going in was hoping that the big guy is guarding him,” Coach Hind said about Huntington. “He can shoot it, most people don’t know how well he can shoot the basketball, but he can shoot it as can Carson and as can Drew.”

Lyons improved its defense in the second half and was aided by some cold shooting from the Cardinals. However, the lone Randolph player to not cool down was Conley. In the third quarter, Conley scored every single basket for Randolph and it gave the Cardinals the cushion it needed in the fourth quarter at 46-35.

Lyons made a push in the final quarter, but soon it was battling both the clock and the tenacious Cardinals defense. The lowest Randolph’s lead got to was a two-possession game, but Conley went 4 for 4 from the charity stripe as Randolph closed out the game 57-47.

“We’re overwhelmed with excitement,” Conley said about getting to Glens Falls. “All the memories coming back to third grade and all the work we put in has just led up to this point. We couldn’t be more grateful.”

Randolph will now take on the winner of the contest between Section IV’s Moravia and Section III’s Dolgeville.

Randolph's Jaiden Huntington connects on a three during Saturday's Far West Regional. P-J photo by Christian Storms

“We put the work in to be here and this is very deserving,” Conley said about Randolph advancing to the state final four. “It’s just keep rolling now. We’ve got all the momentum in the world now, we feel really good and this excitement we’re going to ride right to Glens Falls.”

RANDOLPH (57)

ONelson 2 0 4, Kelly 0 0 0, DHind 4 2 11, GNelson 1 0 2, Conley 7 6 24, Huntington 6 0 18. Totals 20 8 57.

LYONS (47)

Briggs 2 0 4, Walker 3 5 11, Sides 6 0 16, Lopez 1 0 3, Bell 0 0 0, Williams 1 0 2, Horn 0 0 0, LeBracht 3 1 9, Johnson 1 0 2, Wood-Asbury 0 0 0. Totals 17 6 47.

Randolph 21 14 11 11 — 57

Lyons 14 11 10 12 — 47