Clymer (17-6) followed that up with a win over Section V’s Andover/Whitesville 63-49 in the Class D Far West Regional, advancing to their first ever New York State Public High School Athletic Association semifinal game against Section III’s Sackets Harbor on Saturday at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton on Saturday at 10 a.m.

“It’s been busy,” Clymer head coach Irv King said about preparing for the team’s first trip to states. “Practice has gone well, I think we’ve had a really good week of practice. We’re hoping to win Saturday, so this week has been all about scouting three teams and trying to get ready because Saturday morning to Sunday morning is a real quick turnaround.”

Once again the Pirates come in as the underdog as the New York State Sportswriters Association’s fourth-ranked team seeking another upset victory.

“I think it’s a great place to be,” King said about being the underdog. “We can kind of feel not expected to win by the ones putting the rankings together. I think it’s a little extra motivation for the kids.”

The Clymer boys basketball team defeated Section V’s Andover/Whitesville 63-49 in the Class D Far West Regional to advance to the NYSPHSAA final four for the first time in program history. P-J file photo by Cody Jacobson

While the Pirates are making their first trip, Sackets Harbor (22-3) reached the final four last year and lost to another Section VI team, eventual state champion Panama 74-53 in the semifinal.

“In a sense, we’ve played three games in the last 35 days,” King stated. “We’ve had so much time to prep and get ready. Suddenly it’s possibly the two biggest games you’ll ever play in program history. One is fine, but then you’ve got 24 hours to be ready for the next.”

The Pirates hope to make it a second straight win in the semifinals for Section VI, leaning on its starting five that has done the heavy lifting to get this far. Clymer had four of its five starters reach double-digit scoring in the Far West Regional against Andover/Whitesville.

“I’m truly confident in the fact I know they’re going to show up and give it everything they’ve got,” King said about his team. “They’re level-headed kids, they’re smart, they use their heads. They’ll stick to the gameplan, they will trust each other, in a lot of regards it’s just another basketball game.”

Senior Carson White paced the Pirates in the regional with a game-high 25 points, while seniors Kam Einink and Roman Wassink provided 11 and 10 points, respectively, and junior Eli Mitchell had 12. The threat of multiple scorers has proven valuable all year for Clymer, but the true strength has been the team defense from everyone on the roster and played a massive role in reaching the state final four.

“I would say I’m a defensive minded coach,” King added. “This team though, because of their length, can make life really tough on people. They’re athletic, some pretty decent jumpers and hands. A batch of these guys are football players too, they spend some time in the weight room, they’re strong, they can certainly play physical and handle physical play. They work well together, we’ve always talked that communication on defense is key and they’ve been doing a real good job in the playoffs.”

Based purely on the numbers, Sackets Harbor does not have as much firepower as Andover/Whitesville, but the Patriots will have states experience and four players capable of scoring double-digits.

Sackets Harbor defeated Section IV’s Edmeston 56-45 in the regionals to reach states, paced by top-scorer Spencer Oliva with 17 points and Andrew Tracy with 16. Oliva averages 21.5 for the Patriots, while Tracy provides 9.4 and Nicholas Cocco adds 10.7.

“I feel like we really play pretty similar styles,” King said about Sackets Harbor. “They score right about what we do, I would say they play a pretty close tempo to us. One thing I think, what I expect to see is they will play a lot of different defenses. Last week we went and watched them Sunday and they started out in a zone, suddenly they’re down by 11 and switch to a man and claw their way back and won by 11. They’re capable of playing a lot of different things, we’ve had to prep for a lot where last week I would have said expect nothing but man and zone out of bounds. Sackets Harbor seems to have the ability to do a lot of different things.”

Despite not having the flashy scorer, Clymer provides a deep squad on both sides of the floor with White averaging 15.1 points, Wassink 11.8, Blake Beckerink 9.1, Mitchell 7.4 and Einink 5.6. A driving factor of that success is the height and athleticism from the starting five with Wassink at 6-foot-6 and both White and Mitchell measuring at 6-4.

Sackets Harbor is not the only team returning to states as state runner-up Bridgehampton-XI will play in the other semifinal. The Killer Bees dropped the state championship to Panama last year 78-69 and are the state’s top ranked team coming into the tournament.

Bridgehampton (20-2) brings back its top two scorers from last year in seniors Alex Davis with 15.1 and Jai Feaster 13.1, while junior Jordan Harding and sophomore Eddie Dawson IV have made strides with 12.2 and 10.7 this season, respectivley.

If Bridgehampton hopes to get back to the final it will need to get past No. 2 Bolton of Section VII which lost in the subregionals last season and is in the final four thanks to a 70-65 win over Section X’s Heuvelton.

The Eagles (24-1) also have multiple pieces on offense with junior Jaxon Egloff scoring 16.4 points per game and seniors Liam Foy at 16.9 and Jace Hubert at 15.8.

“We’ve watched film of both,” King said about the other semifinalists. “Obviously, Bridgehampton played Panama last year in the state finals and we watched that being as close as we are with Panama. We’ve watched enough that I’m comfortable if we’re lucky enough to play them, we know enough to have a gameplan going in.”

No matter Clymer’s success in Binghamton this weekend, this year still remains the best in program history, but these Pirates will certainly be looking to keep playing for one more game.