Monday, March 23, 2015: Scotia-Glenville, Shen cap big Section 2 weekend

   Leading off today: It was Joe Cremo's day. Then again, every day seems to be Joe Cremo's day when there's a basketball game to be won.

   The Scotia-Glenville senior made the shot that started the key sequence of the game, delivered a double-double and canned two free throws with 23 seconds left to complete a 54-49 win over Greece Athena as two unbeatens played for the NYSPHSAA boys Class A basketball championship Sunday at Glens Falls.

   Cremo, the tournament MVP for a second consecutive year, finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds. The Tartans won their 53rd consecutive game by delivering a vicious body blow in the first half and then holding off the Trojans down the stretch.

   Cremo's 3-pointer from at the buzzer from just inside the half-court line tied the score at 19 and was the spark to the Tartans' 19-0 run that built a 35-19 lead. Scotia-Glenville made five 3-pointers in the key sequence, capped by one more from Cremo.

   "We weren't going to win trading buckets with them. Their defense is very good," Greece Athena senior guard Brendan Wind told The Times-Union. "We kept giving up easy buckets and didn't string together some stops, and the lead kept increasing."

   Scotia-Glenville let Athena draw closer by going through 1-for-13 shooting funk in the third quarter. But buckets by Cremo, Dan Clune and Scott Stopera in the fourth quarter extended the lead to 48-36 before the final Athena push.

   Boys Class AA: Junior point guard Kevin Huerter came through with 25 points, eight rebounds and five assists, and senior guard Thomas Huerter added 22 points and seven rebounds as Shenendehowa downed Brentwood 76-63 for the title to cap the weekend at the Glens Falls Civic Center.

   The championship is Shenendehowa's first since the 1987 tournament.

   "Our team, all year long, has been a good group effort of guys going out and fighting together," senior Thomas Huerter said.

   Senior center Brandon Fischer contributed seven points and nine rebounds, and senior forward Matt Alverson went 3-for-3 from the field.

   "We knew from the very tip that if we played 32 minutes, there isn't a lot of teams that are going to have the stamina to stay with us," Kevin Huerter said.

   Brentwood went 6-for-14 on 3-pointers in the first half to build a 32-30 lead. The second half wasn't nearly as kind as the Indians went just 10-for-29 from the field and just 2-for-12 on 3-pointers.

   Meanwhile, the Plainsmen made 16 of 27 shots after the half, and the Huerter brothers combined for 17 of Shen's 28 points in the fourth quarter.

   Noteworthy: The NYSSWA's Steve Grandin passed along a gem of a stat.

   With the Scotia and Shen Sunday sweep one day after Lake George triumphed, Section 2 improved to 9-0 in boys basketball championship games over the past three years.

   Making that stat even more amazing, Section 2 was just 8-21 in championship games from 1979 through 2012.

   Girls Class C: Northern Adirondack scored the game's first seven points at Hudson Valley Community College, but it was all downhill from there. Cooperstown closed the first quarter on an 11-2 spurt, outscored the Bobcats 20-7 in the second quarter and cruised to a 61-34 for the school's first outright NYSPHSAA championship in any sport.

   Tournament MVP Liz Millea had 13 of her game-high 30 points in the second quarter.

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   "It's the best, Jerry," Cooperstown coach Mike Niles said, quoting a famous line from the Seinfeld TV sit-com. "I don't think it is going to sink in for a long time."

   Cooperstown turned the momentum in the first quarter by switching into a diamond press.

   "I think we didn't know them as well, since we didn't have as long to prepare for them," Millea told The Daily Star. "I think it took us a couple of minutes to get into the defense and know who did what for them. Once we figured that out we were able to make adjustments."

   Millea finished with eight steals, seven rebounds and four assists for Cooperstown, which forced 30 turnovers.

   Girls Class D: Heuvelton edged previously unbeaten South Kortright 61-54 to become the fourth Section 10 team since 2007 to take home a championship.

   Heuvelton went on a 14-5 run beginning late in the third quarter to go up 48-40 with 6:33 to play.

   Sophomore Paige McCormick, named the Class D MVP after scoring 23 points to go with three steals and three assists, finished 8-for-8 at the free-throw line.

   "They're the biggest team we've seen all season," South Kortright Coach Josh Burroughs told The Daily Times. "They had size and length, and not only that, they were talented players. They knew how to defend and how to time shots going up."

   Former S-WR coach dies: Don Jantzen, who helped build the Shoreham-Wading River wrestling program into prominence and whose sons combined for six state titles as Wildcats, died March 4 at the age of 60, the Riverhead News-Review reported.

   Jantzen joined S-WR as an assistant in 1992 and became head coach in 2001 when Paul Jendrewski accepted a promotion to athletic director. He retired after the 2007 season when his youngest son, Corey, clinched the second of his two state titles.

   "He will be missed by the whole community, not just the wrestling,” Jendrewski said. "He was a really good person. One of my best buddies."

   Jantzen was known for his expertise in the technical aspects of wrestling. "He was probably the best on Long Island," Jendrewski said.

   Jesse Jantzen graduated in 2000 with four NYSPHSAA championships, a Suffolk County record matched last month by Ward Melville senior Nick Piccininni. Jesse went on to win an NCAA title while wrestling at Harvard.