12/3 Most Valuable Thoughts: Hamilton/Oriskany Boys Hoops

Oriskany 90, Hamilton 81

If you like good defense & a slow game that doesn’t get you tired just watching it, then this wasn’t the game for you.

The home Redskins took a quick 9 point lead, then fell behind by as much as 13 before climbing back into it and pulling away late behind a game Ryan Schmadel won’t forget for a long time. He had a big half and a monster 2^nd half to finish with 47 points on the night – we believe that’s Oriskany’s school record for points in a game, topping 42 eons ago.

Schmadel had 6 in the first 2:04, and Oriskany jumped out to a quick 11-2 lead. Dom Silvestri had 5 of his 9 in that run. After being down 13-4, Hamilton responded by going on a 14-0 run of their own to take the lead with 2:27 left in the 1^st on a Logan Bailey 3. It’s a lead they wouldn’t relinquish… for a while. Bailey had a monster game of his own, finishing with 29 on the night. He had 11 of those in the 14-0 run that only took 2:06 of game time. After 1, Hamilton led 20-16. Bailey continued his tear to start the 2^nd – at one point, he scored 18 points in 3 minutes & 57 seconds. That’s getting it done. Off of Bailey’s hot hand & the emergence of a secondary scorer in Zach Wilcox, the Emerald Knights twice extended it to their largest lead of 13, at 33-20 and 35-22, in the middle of the 2^nd.

In my eyes, a big moment happened next. Hamilton had the momentum, and it looked like they were getting ready to break this thing open. There was a stoppage of play for 4 minutes over a disagreement at the scorers’ table. Judging by the tone of the discussion, it appeared to have been a discrepancy between books as to whether Hamilton had 6 or 7 team fouls. However, to put it frankly… momentum done. The stoppage of play made a difference, and Oriskany came out on a tear. Schmadel got going again, scoring 7 more in a 12-0 Redskin run to bring the deficit to 1. Wilcox stopped the Emerald Knight bleeding with 4 points in the last 37 seconds, and Hamilton went into the locker room with a 39-36 lead.

The story of the 2^nd half: hey, someone guard Ryan Schmadel. He went on a tear of his own, as if 18 1^st half points wasn’t enough of a tear. Oriskany tied it twice and briefly took a lead at 46-44 before Hamilton tied it back up and took a just-as-brief lead. A Schmadel 3 point play with 3:29 left in the 3^rd proved to be what gave Oriskany the lead for good at 51-50. The combination of Bailey & Wilcox was still keeping Hamilton right there, but in basketball, there’s no such thing as too much of a good thing. Schmadel had 17 3^rd quarter points, including 9 straight at one point, and after another 3 point play from him, Oriskany held a 60-56 lead after 3. It would only get closer one more time. A Wilcox bucket made it 62-59 with 7:12 left, but Oriskany went on to score 14 of the next 16… but this time, a different suspect. Schmadel had 4 of those, but Marcus Smithling, their point guard & another sophomore, had 8 big ones in the game-breaking run. He finished with 16 in his 1^st varsity game. The Redskins’ largest lead came with 2:55 to go, when a Schmadel bucket (his 43^rd point) made it 83-67. Hamilton didn’t go away just yet, getting it back to 7 with an 11-2 run and hitting 5 threes in the quarter, but Oriskany shot 10/13 from the line in the 4^th and scored 30 big ones in the quarter to take home the 90-81 victory.

Neat-o Stat of the Night: There were 2 stoppages of play in the game – the scorers’ table disagreement in the 2^nd, and another stoppage of the same length early in the 4^th due to blood on the court. In the minutes directly following the stoppages, Oriskany outscored Hamilton 26-2. They went on a 12-0 run following the first one, and followed it up with a 14-1 run after the second one.

Hamilton (1-1): Logan Bailey 29, Zach Wilcox 25, Zach Dow 10, Bryce Belanger 9, Patrick Salmon 6, Andrew Holcomb 2.

Oriskany (1-0): Ryan Schmadel 47, Marcus Smithling 16, Robert O’Neil 10, Dom Silvestri 9, Michael Wilk 3, Shamis Lasher 2, Nick Springer 2, Sam Martel 1.