Sunday Sports: Sackets Harbor Boys’ Basketball looks for a trip to states

SYRACUSE, New York (WWNY) -The Boys’ Section 3 Class D Championship took place at Onondaga Community College with the top seed Sackets Harbor Patriots looking for a trip to the states as they met Hamilton.

In the 1st quarter, the Patriots stop a 7-0 Hamilton run with the Ethan Tracy basket: Sackets Harbor down 5.

Then it was Ethan Shi with the trifecta from the corner: Patriots down 4.

Marcus Castine goes coast to coast for the bucket to put Sackets Harbor within 2.

Tracy comes up with the miss and the putback, tying the game at 9.

In the 2nd quarter, Austin Griner hits the 3, but the Patriots were outscored 21-5 in the 2nd.

Hamilton goes on to beat Sackets Harbor 58-34.

The state boys’ and girls’ basketball playoffs kick off this week, and the Gouverneur Lady Wildcats head in with some momentum on their side.

The Lady Wildcats won the Section 10 Class B Championship with a 49-40 win over OFA and then won the Section 10 overall championship, beating Hammond 35-33. Their 1st overall championship in 34 years.

Coach Sean Devlin’s team opens states with a contest versus Saranac of Section 7 at SUNY Potsdam and Devlin says defense will be the key.

”They’re very good, very athletic. The good news is the game is at Maxcy Hall at SUNY Potsdam. We’ve already played 3 games there, so it will be familiar to us. We haven’t shot the ball very well in the playoffs, but we’ve played pretty good defense and that’s kind of gotten us where we wanted to be. We just need to continue to play defense and rebound the basketball and hopefully some shots will start falling,” said Devlin.

The St. Lawrence Men’s Basketball Team saw their season come to an end on Friday in the opening round of the NCAA tournament, but it was a successful season for Coach Chris Downs’ team.

The Saints finished with a 19-8 record and won the Liberty League Tournament Championship.

A key to the Saints success was the play of Lowville twins Aidan and Gavin Macaulay.

The sophomores were 3rd and 4th on the team in scoring and Downs says the pair have taken on a leadership role despite being underclassmen.

”Most of the time, you really look to your juniors and seniors to kind of uphold the standards of what it is you’re trying to do. Honestly, like I said unfairly, I’ve thrust upon them probably unofficially a lot more responsibility than they probably thought they were gonna have when they got here,” said Downs.

”Coming in here and kind of taking on a leadership position early, it wasn’t really that hard for us, I would say. I mean, it’s like a big responsibility obviously, but we were prepared for it,” said Aidan Macaulay.

”Hopefully, more championships. Honestly, that’s always the goal and now that we have this taste, it’s gonna be great going forward in the next 2 years,” said Gavin Macaulay.

The Clarkson Women’s Hockey Team learned where they will be traveling and who they will be playing in the upcoming NCAA Women’s Division 1 Hockey Tournament.

The Lady Golden Knights will face Minnesota Duluth on Thursday night at 7 PM in Minneapolis with the winner to face Minnesota for a trip to the Frozen 4.

The St. Lawrence Men’s Hockey Team enjoyed an off weekend thanks to their bye into the ECAC quarterfinals off the strength of a 4th place finish in the regular season.

The Saints will now meet Colgate in the ECAC quarterfinals at Appleton Arena in a best of 3 series, with game 1 set for Friday night.

Saints Coach Brent Brekke says having a week off before the start of the post season has both it’s advantages and disadvantages.

”Yeah, it can be a bit of both. We have some guys with some nagging injuries and at this point in the season the only thing that’s gonna help is rest. So for certain individuals, this bye week is real important, but when you’re playing well and you feel good about your team, you’d like to actually probably be playing at times. It’s a bit of a double edged sword with that, but we can definitely use the rest right now for some individuals to kind of get themselves closer to 100 percent,” said Brekke.

The Battle of the Badges 3 took place Saturday night at Jefferson Community College, with 16 bouts on the card.

The Battle of the Badges trophy would go to Corrections.

The event saw first responders, law enforcement and firefighters step into the ring, with fighters coming from all over the state to participate.

Watertown Boxing Club head John Pepe was pleased with the turnout for the event.

”We had a great crowd, a lot of tables filled up. Just great support to all these first responders and heroes and we’re gonna donate some portion to the Northern New York K-9. I’m very proud of my boxers and all the boxers that came out tonight,” said Pepe.

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