Quarino scores 42 as South Kortright tops Morris in semifinals; Delhi upsets Candor in Class C

Feb. 28—Connor Quarino's 42-point outburst sent the South Kortright boys basketball team to the Section IV Class D championship with a 59-43 win over Morris in Wednesday's semifinal contest at SUNY Delhi.

Boston Quarino and Jacob Staroba added six and five points, respectively, in the win for SK.

Tiger Ross led the Mustangs with 26 points while Asa Dugan netted 12 points in the loss.

Boston Quarino got things started with a three in the corner to give the Rams a lead 15 seconds in.

SK would open an early 9-4 lead with a putback from Jack Byrne before Dugan responded with a three to make it 9-7 with 1:40 left in the opening quarter.

A Ryan Murphy three and an eventual Ross layup with 10 seconds left tied the game at 12 but Connor Quarino made a free throw with a second on the clock to give the Rams a 13-12 lead after one.

Quarino opened the second quarter with a jumper to push it to 15-12 before the Mustangs took their first lead of the day at 16-15 with a coast-to-coast layup from Ross two minutes into the quarter.

Ross would extend the lead to 19-15 with a layup 15 seconds later and a free throw with 5:20 remaining in the half.

Quarino tied the game back up at 19 with a layup and later a steal and score play with four and a half minutes left.

He then hit a three with four minutes left to give the Rams a 22-19 lead and Dugan responded right away with a three-point play to tie it at 22.

Ross made it 24-22 Morris with just over three minutes left before Quarino began to take over the game.

A three gave SK the lead back and he made a free throw with 25 seconds left to make it 26-24.

Following a stop on the defensive end, Quarino nailed another three just before the buzzer to send the Rams to the locker room with a 29-24 halftime lead.

He wasted no time continuing the run with a three 20 seconds into the second half and would go on to score the next six points, capping a 16-0 personal run and extending the lead to 38-24 with four and a half minutes left in the third.

"We try very hard to get the ball in Connor's hands when we need it to be," SK coach Aaron Kaufman said of this sequence. "The rest of the team moves the ball well, they know where to find him to the right spot. The rest of the guys do a good job giving him a lane to the basket and I think that works to our advantage. Our offense is geared around him."

"That's a big turnaround," Kaufman added when asked about the timing of the run to end the first half and open the second half. "We talked about it in the locker room at halftime, that the first two or three minutes of that third quarter was going to decide this game.

"We had a five-point lead. You were either going to put the hammer to them right there or you were going to let them climb back into the game and it was going to be a dogfight the rest of the game. They responded like we wanted. We wanted them to come out and they did."

Ross ended the run out of a timeout with a layup and Dugan hit a jumper to trim the lead to 40-28 with about three minutes left in the third.

A Ross three made it 44-33 with just over a minute to go as the Mustangs chipped away at the lead but Quarino made a free throw in the final seconds to send SK into the fourth quarter with a 45-33 lead.

Morris would get back within single digits with another Ross three to open the fourth, making it 45-36 but Boston Quarino responded with a transition three with six minutes left and the Rams were able to hold off the comeback effort from there.

"We put a lot of time and effort into our defense this week," Kaufman said of holding a usually high-powered Morris offense to 43 points. "We know we were going to use our man for most of the game. We kind of redid our 2-3 to make it look like a different kind of look and I think it worked both ways around for us."

With the win, top-seeded South Kortright improves to 19-2 and will take on third-seeded Edmeston Saturday in the championship game at SUNY Delhi.

"I think it will be the same type of game as today," Kaufman said of the matchup. "Edmeston is athletic all the way around, they play hard. I haven't seen much of Edmeston; my film days are coming the next couple days. Focus on them and what they do, their weak and strong points and we're going to hope for the best."

South Kortright 59, Morris 43

SK ... 13 16 16 14 — 59

M ... 12 12 9 10 — 43

SK: Boston Quarino 2 0-0 6, Jack Byrne 2 0-3 4, Darren Dengler 1 0-0 2, Shane Edwards 0 0-0 0, Connor Quarino 16 6-14 42, Logan Reinshagen 0 0-0 0, JB Trimbell 0 0-0 0, Lance McClure 0 0-0 0, P. Popp 0 0-0 0, S. McIntyre 0 0-0 0, Jacob Staroba 2 1-2 5, J. Hudson 0 0-0 0, Braydon Sparkes 0 0-0 0, Jesse Hungerford 0 0-0 0, Jeff Palmatier 0 0-0 0. Totals: 23 7-19 59

M: Tiger Ross 11 2-5 26, Asa Dugan 4 3-3 12, Ryan Murphy 1 0-0 3, Keegan Fraser 1 0-0 2, Jonah Baldo 0 0-0 0, Levi Waffle 0 0-0 0, Ty Turner 0 0-0 0, Carter Swayer 0 0-0 0, Ryland Boss 0 0-0 0, Marc Hoyt 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 5-8 43

Three-point baskets: SK 6 (C. Quarino 4, B. Quarino 2); M 4 (Ross 2, Dugan, Murphy)

The Delhi boys took down top-seeded Candor 44-40 Wednesday in the Section IV Class C Semifinals.

After trailing for most of the game, the Bulldogs took the lead in the fourth quarter and secured the win thanks to clutch free throw shooting by Lucas Nealis and Ivan Richardson who made five of six from the line in the late going.

Chuck Haight led Delhi with 12 points and five steals while Angelo Krzyston and Seamus deMauro scored eight points apiece and Richardson finished with five points, seven rebounds and four assists.

Jadon Heidl was the top scorer for Candor with 16 points.

Delhi will take on Moravia in the Class C title game Saturday at Tompkins Cortland Community College at 3:45 p.m.

Delhi 44, Candor 40

DA ... 11 10 10 13 — 44

Can ... 14 8 10 8 — 40

DA: Teddy Kelsh 0 0-0 0, Lucas Nealis 1 2-2 5, Chuck Haight 6 0-0 12, Ivan Richardson 1 3-4 5, Tommy Nagy 0 0-0 0, Angelo Krzyston 2 4-4 8, Seamus deMauro 4 0-0 8, Rocco Schnabel 3 0-2 6. Totals: 17 9-12 44

Can: Donald Makie 0 0-0 0, Jakobe Foster 3 2-4 9, Carson Heidl 3 2-4 9, Jacek Teribury 2 0-0 4, Jason Jantz 0 0-0 0, Jadon Heidl 5 2-2 16, Ryan Huizinga 1 0-0 2. Totals: 14 6-10 40

Three-point baskets: DA 1 (Nealis); Can 6 (J. Heidl 4, Foster, C. Heidl)