The Albany Cup, last year it was played at Albany Academy and was a very heated game. Albany Academy came out with the win. Well this year bigger venue, and played under the SLAM HS x Zero Gravity Basketball banner at the Washington Avenue Armory.

It was the Eagles of Green Tech who jumped out the early lead and surprised the Cadets. They were out to a 6-2 lead about halfway through the first quarter and that's when the nerves of the game started to settle down for the Cadets. It was then that Andre Jackson, Marcus Jackson and August Mahoney started to impose their will on the offense end. They were down only by three at the end of quarter as Green Tech held a 13-10 lead.

The first two minutes of the second quarter went the Cadets way as they scored six quick points in the first minute and a half. It was soon after that Andre Jackson, the junior star threw down a thunderous alley-oop on a pass from the other star Mahoney and they had a 24-16 lead at that point. As the quarter ended, Academy held a six point lead at 28-22 and it felt as if Tech maybe had the chance to stick it out and make a game.

When the third started it was clear and quick that whatever message Coach Brian Fruscio told his Cadets, it worked as they started to impose their will on the game on the defensive end, making it tough for the Eagles to even pass, as they won the quarter 21-13 and took a 49-35 lead into the fourth where they help the lead and came out with a 67-53 win behind a game high 19 points from Marcus Jackson, while Josh Rodriguez led the Eagles with 19.

“It was our game plan to come out and jump on them early.” Said Eagles Coach DJ Jones “We wanted to control the glass, get out and run and put pressure on them full court. I don’t think they expected us and maybe even underestimated us a little bit. However a couple calls went against us and it changed the tempo of the game.”

While Andre did not score the majority of the teams points, he did not need to as Academy played the team game on Saturday Night.

“It was a great experience to play against some of my friends i play pickup with everyday.” He said. “Even though I did not score a lot today, I did what i had to do for the team, got rebounds and found the open players. They took away some of the things I wanted so I had to go to the other players and i am fine with it, we won so I’m happy with that.”