Rensselaer Roundup: Riders & Rams Rally

Ichabod Crane 51, Heatly 42

What's cooler than being cool?

Well, Andre 3000 probably would've had Heatly in his head while singing 'ice cold' if he caught this one. Even with the Hornets shooting colder than the temperature, the outcome of the game remained at least somewhat in question until the final minute.

It took nearly 4 minutes for the game's first made field goal, a Sean Daly bucket for Ichabod Crane that brought the game to 4-2, with 4 Heatly free throws beforehand. Despite shooting just 1/13 in the 1st quarter, the Hornets maintained a 9-6 lead after 1 after a Marcel Walls trey banked home with :48.7 showing on the clock. The Riders shot just 3/13 themselves in the quarter and had 7 turnovers. An Austin Horton layup in the opening seconds of the 2nd gave Heatly their largest lead of 5, but Ichabod Crane went on a 9-0 while holding Heatly scoreless for nearly 4 minutes to jump on top by 4. It was a Peter Volkmann bucket that gave them the lead at 12-11 with 5:59 left in the 2nd, a lead they would never relinquish (although Heatly tied it up on 2 occasions after). Following a free throw from Daly and a Jimmy Hollister bucket, Horton hit a 3 to bring Heatly back within 2, where the score remained at 18-16 after 1 half. The numbers resembled Ray Charles & Stevie Wonder playing 2K.. too far? Heatly shot 4/33, and they were within 2. Ichabod wasn't helping their cause, shooting 8/31 themselves. For the math majors, the teams combined to shoot under 19% from the field in the half. Thankfully, it stepped up a little after intermission.

The majority of the scoring in the 1st came from Ichabod Crane's Sean Daly and Heatly's Austin Horton. That continued in the 3rd. A Daly bucket was answered by 2 from Austin Horton to tie it at 20, and once it tied again at 22, Daly scored twice more and a Volkmann three completed a 7-0 run in 1:18 (hey, some quick scoring!) to make it 29-22. Of course, Heatly answered with 2 more buckets from Horton, and Ichabod finished the quarter with a Daly free throw and jumper. Horton Heard a Daly? 32-26 Ichabod Crane after 3. Sean had 18 of the Riders' 32; Austin had 17 of the Hornets' 26. If a team got someone else to step up, they'd win.. enter Brad Kittle. The 6'6" lefty sophomore checked into the game for the 2nd time right before the end of the 3rd quarter. He started the 4th, and gave his coach Will Ferguson ten big reasons to keep in the game. Kittle started out the quarter with a bucket, and 2 Hollister free throws gave them their first double-digit lead. After the lead shrunk to 5, Kittle had baskets on 3 consecutive possessions to give Ichabod its largest lead of 11. His final points of an offensive explosion in the 4th came with 2:10 left, and they put Ichabod Crane back up 11 at 46-35. Of course, Heatly had an answer. A Thomas Weisenforth and 1 and a Horton bucket completed a 7-0 run to sneak Heatly back within 4 with :48.4 left, but Ichabod Crane held Heatly off by making 5 of its last 6 free throws (3/4 for Hollister, 2/2 for Volkmann) as the Riders escaped with a 2nd win. Sean Daly, averaging not much less than 50% of his team's points on the season, led Ichabod Crane again with 20 points. Austin Horton did the same, finishing with 19 for Heatly. The difference maker had to be Brad Kittle - even though Heatly made it interesting, his contribution in the 4th quarter sealed it for the Riders.


Rensselaer 53, Berne-Knox-Westerlo 47

The final score ended up being nearly the same, but you couldn't tell by the start. Whatever these two teams to bring the energy like they did at the beginning of the game... I'll have what they're having. Rensselaer scored the first 5 points in the 1st minute, and BKW's Zack Hilton responded with 5 of his own to tie it at 5 less than 2 minutes in. Then they were off to the races. Before you had a second to breathe, Rensselaer was holding onto a 16-15 lead 5 minutes into the game. The teams each shot in the 60% range in the 1st, with the score tied at 17 after 1. Rensselaer initially gave up the lead on a pair of free throws late in the 1st quarter. The game tied 3 times over the next few minutes, including twice in a much slower 2nd quarter. A pair of Rensselaer free throws gave them the lead back at 26-25 with 1:54 left in the half - a lead they wouldn't give up. A Joel Aguila bucket in the last second of the half gave the Rams a 30-27 edge headed into the locker room.

For as fast as the first half started, the 2nd half started in the complete opposite way. It took until 1:48 left in the 3rd for BKW to score, with that being a Hilton bucket, but Rensselaer only scored 6 over that stretch themselves. Justin Houck split a pair of free throws with no time showing on the clock, completing a 3rd quarter that went 6-3 in favor of Rensselaer. The Houck free throw also ended quite a nasty stretch for his team - the team went a whopping 15:01 of game time without anyone but Hilton scoring a point. He had 10 in that stretch. LaVontae Armwood, the most consistent player for the Rensselaer squad, had a bucket to start the 4th. BKW responded with a Justin Barber trey, which ended the final nasty streak of 15:50 without a field goal made by anyone but Hilton. Another Hilton make brought the score to 41-37 with 6:08 left, the closest it had been since halftime. Rensselaer responded by reeling off 9 of the next 11, 4 coming from Armwood. A C.J. Gil three-ball gave the Rams their first double digit lead of the night at 50-39 with 3:26 left. Slade Pulliam scored for BKW, and after a scoreless stretch, Gil hit 2 free throws to stretch the lead to double digits again with 1:33 left. The closest it got after was the final margin of 6, when Houck made a layup in the closing seconds. Rensselaer held off their opponents without needing to connect on a field goal after the Gil three. Armwood led the winners with 16 points - the game's high scorer was BKW's Zack Hilton, who finished with 21.