Class A crown comes down to a top-5 battle between Catholic Central and Glens Falls

GLENS FALLS, N.Y. (NEWS10) — For the second straight season, the Catholic Central and Glens Falls boys basketball teams will meet for a section title. Only this year’s matchup will have even more buildup than 2023’s.

Of all 12 sectional championship games – boys and girls – this will be the only one that features two, top-5 state-ranked teams, per the New York State Sportswriters Association.

Glens Falls, the No. 4 team in the state for Class A, and the two-seed in the sectional tournament, improved to 22-0 on the year Wednesday, overcoming a rare halftime deficit to take down three-seeded Lansingburgh, 60-54, in the semifinal round held out at Cool Insuring Arena. Top-seeded Catholic Central, the No. 1 Class A team in NYS, followed suit with a convincing, 72-36 win over four-seed, Schalmont.

For a Black Bears team that had been beating its opponents by over 30 points per game, trailing 24-21 at the half was unfamiliar territory. But Rob Girard’s bunch rallied out of the locker room, outscoring Lansingburgh 21-8 in the third quarter to take a double-digit edge into the fourth, where they fended off a couple late Knights’ surges to emerge with the six-point win.

“We haven’t had much adversity throughout the year, as everybody knows,” said Girard. “For our kids, it was a little bit different. So, I was really proud of the way they turned it around, and stayed with it.”

So much of the team’s turnaround can be attributed to the sterling second-half play of senior forward Cooper Nadler, who recorded all of his team-high 21 points after halftime.

“The first half, I didn’t play the way I should be playing to help this team,” said Nadler. “The second half I came out; started crashing the boards. Once I got my mojo, it helped me keep going.”

It was Nadler who silenced two Lansingburgh pushes in the fourth quarter. With Glens Falls leading 42-32 at the outset of the quarter, Knights senior guard Markous Green, Jr. rattled off five quick points to cut the margin in half.

Nadler responded with back-to-back field goals, followed by a Kellen Driscoll lay-up that extended the Black Bears’ lead back to double digits at 48-37.

After Lansingburgh had whittled its deficit down to seven points, senior Anthony Huff, Jr. connected from long range to draw the Knights within four. Green followed that up with a pair of free throws, and Lansingburgh trailed just 53-51.

But on Glens Falls’ next trip down the floor, Nadler knocked down a fadeaway jumper, as the Blacks Bears reclaimed a two-possession lead with just 55 seconds left on the game clock, and held on from there.

“We told him (at halftime), “We need you,” and he did it,” said Girard. “I’m so proud of him…that’s what I told him (after the game)…and he can play like that every day, if he wants.”

Nadler was followed closely in the scoring column by Driscoll, who finished with 19 points. Joining both of them in double figures was junior guard Oscar Lilac; he added 11.

Green turned in a magnificent outing, racking up 30 points in his final game at Lansingburgh. The only other Knight to reach double digits in scoring was Da’marion Tucker with 10.

That gave way to Catholic Central, which looked every bit the part of a No. 1 seed (and No. 1 ranked team in the state, for that matter), in its matchup with Schalmont. The Crusaders raced out to a 17-3 lead in the first quarter after sophomore guard Sei’Mir Roberson cashed in a four-point play.

Catholic Central did meet some resistance from Schalmont’s Isaiah Smith, who went on an individual 9-2 run towards the end of the first quarter and early into the second. That drew the Sabres to within six points at 19-13.

But that’s as close as they’d get to sniffing the lead. After Catholic Central’s Xaul Arroyo countered with a three-pointer, Providence College commit Darien Moore scored a transition lay-up, reclaiming the Crusaders a double-digit advantage. That was part of a 14-3 Catholic Central run to close the first half.

Moore and Roberson took care of business in the second half, finishing with 23 and 20 points, respectively, en route to the massive, 36-point win. Junior forward Xavier Pahler also chipped in 15 points, and Arroyo had 10.

Smith was the lone Sabre to reach double figures, as he posted 16 points.

Glens Falls (22-0) and Catholic Central (21-1) will meet Saturday for the title. Tip-off from Cool Insuring Arena is set for 12:45 p.m. The Crusaders won last year’s matchup in the Class B championship game, 73-59.

The seasons come to a close for Lansingburgh and Schalmont, which finish with overall records of 15-7 and 11-11, respectively.