Greece Athena Preps For Slam Dunk Chip

WHITE PLAINS, NY - The last time Greece Athena made the trip downstate for the Slam Dunk Tournament at the Westchester County Center was the 2008-2009 season. The Trojans eventually won the Section 5 championship that season, and made it to the Class "AA" State Quarterfinals, but they were blown out in dominating fashion by Iona Prep when they made the trip south 6 years ago.

As they made the trip back, the Gaels were once again their opponents on Sunday in the Slam Dunk semifinals, and though behind for large portion of the game, big shots late, plus the 23 points and 8 rebound effort from Anthony Lamb '16 helped Greece Athena take the 67-66 win.

While the don't night in and night out face the type of competition of Iona Prep, Trojans head coach Jim Johnson was confident coming into Sunday's game that this wouldn't be a repeat of 6 years ago. Even though going up against a team with two future ACC players in Notre Dame bound Matt Ryan '15 and Virginia committed Ty Jerome '16, he felt his team had the talent to compete.

"This was a good opportunity for us to come down and play a great team, and watching the film on them, I felt like we had a chance," Johnson said.

The rest of the tram agreed. They weren't in awe of the high major college players that the Gaels had, and according to guard Jay Sarkis, playing well on defense was going to be the key to the game.

"We scouted them this week and we were extremely focused," Sarkis said. "We knew we had a good enough offense, and we felt if we played solid defensively that we would win the game."

Out of the gate in this one though the defense came out flat as Ryan buried an uncontested three, and then back to back buckets by Jerome and fellow guard Tom Capuano '15 made it 7-0 quickly, and the good defense and fast start that the Trojans wanted were both gone.

Impatience and forced shots early on were the reason Johnson said they got off to such a slow start, and the defense, which he expected to be solid against their perimeter threats, were late to close out causing them to go down, but the Trojans weren't down for long as Sarkis hit a big three to stem the tide, and then after a Zac DiSalvo '15 three, Greece Athena had roared all the way back behind a 9-0 run to take a 12-9 lead with 1:42 to go in the opening quarter.

Iona Prep closed the quarter strong though scoring the last 4 points to take a one point lead after one, but the game was now a fast paced up and down contest that saw the lead trade hands often in the 2nd. Ryan and Lamb were going back and forth as Ryan had 15 at the half, while Lamb had 14, and it was a Lamb finish backing in late in the half that gave Greece Athena a 30-29 lead at the break.

Lamb, who is one of the best players in Upstate NY, saw early on that his jump shot, which has become a major weapon of his, was not falling in this one, and the way that Iona Prep was defending him gave him confidence that he could score in a variety of different ways inside.

"I wasn't hitting shots and I knew they couldn't guard me going to the basket and finishing at the rim so that is what I did," Lamb said about his offensive mindset in the game.

Johnson said that especially in the 2nd half that he made it known to his team that they needed to feed Lamb the ball more, and put him in positions with the ball where he could do damage.

"We wanted to get him the ball in better positions in the post and get him the ball in space and let him have the opportunity to create," Johnson explained.

That plan did work, but not out of the chute in the 2nd half as once again Iona Prep scored the first 7 points of the quarter to retake a 6 point lead, but each time it looked as if the Gaels might start to pull away, something from Greece Athena was there to hit a big shot, something that Johnson credited to experience.

"It's nice that we have the experience to know how to handle pressure situations, especially in the backcourt," Johnson said. "Jay is a 4 year varsity player, and Zac and Shawn Gaines '15 are 3 year varsity players, so they have big game experience which really helped us."

It helped them because once again they fought back from a game that looked to be getting away from them. Lamb hit a pull up jumper off the glass inside, and DiSalvo then hit on a runner in the lane and just like that Greece Athena was back within striking distance at 36-34 not even midway through the quarter.

If there was a surprise in the 3rd it was effort given to Iona Prep by Jon Brennan '16. The reserve forward did an excellent job in the 3rd putting back misses and finishing in the midrange and he had 12 points in the quarter giving the Gaels a nice lift with Jerome hampered with 3 fouls and headed to the 4th on the back of Brennan, Iona Prep held a 50-46 lead.

The game just had a feel like it would be going down to the final possession, but just how it would get there was still unknown. Jerome knocked down a 3 from the wing to give Iona Prep a 55-50 lead with 6:34 to go in the game, but a 7-1 run culminating in a DiSalvo three gave Greece Athena back the lead at 57-56. Less than 20 seconds later though Iona Prep would answer as Nick Brennan '17 hit a corner three. The Trojan retook the lead soon after at 60-59, but Jerome came down again less than 20 seconds later and knocked down a three to give the Gaels back the lead.

Some teams might've wilted after fighting for the lead twice and relinquishing it again quickly each time, but that is where Johnson says his team deserves a lot of credit.

"I give my kids a lot of credit on that," Johnson admitted. "Jerome is such a good dribble penetrator, he didn't shoot it very well, but then he hits a big one. We came back though and got it inside to Anthony and we were able to get the lead back."

They did get the lead back as Lamb was big on the inside and then Gaines, who hadn't even a shot in the game up until this point, connected on an enormous three to give the Trojans the 65-62 lead with 1:37 to go. Brennan came right back down and putback a Ryan miss as Greece Athena didn't have anyone on the weak side to box out Brennan, and then off a Trojans turnover, Jerome hit a runner in the lane with 44 seconds to go to give Iona Prep a 66-65 lead.

Greece Athena called a timeout to design a play, a play that was meant for Sarkis, who in the biggest moment of the game, came up huge.

"We had a great play set up. Anthony picked my guy and then they overplayed it and I got to the FT line and put it up," Sarkis explained about thee play. "I got a good little shooters roll."

He certainly did as the ball seemed to stay on the rim for a second before falling in with 20.7 seconds to go in the game, and Greece Athena now up 67-66.

Iona Prep now had their chance, but a force pass to Ryan was batted away and off a scrum the ball was pushed out of bounds, and was called last touched by the Gaels and Greece Athena regained possession up 1 with 7.1 to play.

Having to foul now, the Gaels had only committed 3 fouls in the half, so it would take 4 fouls to get the Trojans to the FT line. Iona Prep committed 2 fouls, but on the third attempt, the pass to Lamb was low, and with 5.7 seconds left, Greece Athena committed a turnover, giving the ball back to Iona Prep with one last chance. While others at least may have been nervous giving the ball back to the Gaels, Lamb didn't have a worry in the world, believing that the turnover meant nothing.

"The next play. That's all I was the thinking," Lamb said about the turnover. One more play and we win."

Confidence did seem high for Greece Athena as they had to make one more stop. Ryan got the ball and passed it to Brennan in the corner. He was immediately double teamed by a closing Lamb and Sarkis, and as Brennan attempted to throw the pass cross court, it was knocked down and picked off as time expired and Greece Athena got to celebrate knocking off Iona Prep 67-66.

Lamb had the game high 23 points and 8 rebounds, but credit to Sarkis and DiSalvo as well for their efforts. Sarkis added 18 points and 5 rebounds, with DiSalvo pouring in 17 points as well in the win.

Jerome paced Iona Prep with 19 points in the defeat while Ryan had a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds as well in the solid all around effort.

It was Greece Athena though who were victorious, and Lamb after the game said he really didn't have many doubts coming in that this would be the ultimate outcome, a victory for his Trojans.

"We knew as a team we were better than them, and we knew if we could do a good job against those guys (Jerome and Ryan) that we would win," Lamb said.

They did just enough to get the win, and while there was a lot of celebrating from the Trojans players and fans, Sarkis knows that even though this was a big win to make a statement to the rest of New York State, that they still have one more game to take care of before they can really celebrate.

"One more to go," Sarkis said with a smile.

And for those who didn't know how good the Rochester based Trojan team was, this was a game as Johnson said, to put them on the map, but for Lamb, he says none of that matters, because this team has destiny on their side.

"If they know or not it doesn't matter because we are going to win the State."

Spring Valley Overtakes Archbishop Stepinac, 76-67

After trailing 36-30 at the break, Spring Valley came out the locker room and dominated with Iona commit, forward Kai Mitchell '15 scoring 23 of his game high 28 points in the 2nd half to help his team rally for the 9 point win.

Rickey McGill '15, another Iona commit for the Tigers, kept the Tigers in the game for the first half as he was able to attack the basket and find room around the rim to score as Spring Valley was struggling to find many good looks at the basket in the opening 16 minutes.

Stepinac's Jordan Tucker '17 shot poorly in the fourth quarter but finished with 20 points, while leading scorer in the CHSAA, Kylan Guerra '15, scored 19, but with Spring Valley shooting over 60% from the floor in the 2nd half, the tide shifted and the Tigers took control on the way to a big 76-67 victory.

Spring Valley advances to Monday's Slam Dunk Tournament Championship Game where they will square off with Greece Athena for the title at 7pm. League foes and rivals Iona Prep and Stepinac will meet in the consolation game scheduled for Monday at 1pm.