By James A. Ellis
LOUDONVILLE – In the 2022 Section II Class A quarterfinals, the Gloversville Dragons pulled off a double-overtime 76-72 upset victory over top-seeded Troy.
The Horses were determined to not let it happen again this season.
The squads faced off again in the Class A quarterfinals; only this time third-seeded Troy did not let its lead slip away as the Horses held on for a 70-64 victory Sunday at the UHY Center on the campus of Siena College.
“Last year we were the number one seed and they broke our hearts,” Troy coach John Killian said. “They went to the foul line 34 times and made 32 and knocked us out as the one seed in double overtime. This year we went out and played them on a Saturday off a back-to-back playing Ballston Spa the night before and were able to grind out a 73-70 win. I have a great respect for [Gloversville coach] Ed Collar over there and those kids are tough. They never quit and you saw that, they battled right to the end.”
Troy advances to face second-seeded Hudson Falls in a Class A semifinal at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls.
Stetson Merritt the Troy offense rolling in the opening quarter, hitting 10 first-quarter points, while Terrance Clark added seven points, while Dom Dorman hit a pair of 3-pointers for Gloversville as the Flying Horses took a 24-17 lead.
Troy stretched its lead to 13 midway through the second quarter before Gloversville went on a 12-2 run to cut the lead to three, 35-32, with two minutes left in the half. The Flying Horses settled down to close out the half with a 7-0 run to take a 42-32 lead into the locker room at the break.
“We knew we had to try to stop Stetson Merritt and Terrance Clark,” Coach Ed Collar said. “Stetson got off to a great start and Dom [Dorman] made a couple of 3s to keep us in it. It just seemed like they were making everything in the first half. We tried to take their stars away and their role players stepped up and were making shots. We tried to figure something out and made some halftime adjustments.”
Senior James Collar found his shooting touch in the third quarter, hitting 13 of the Dragons’ 17 points to trim Troy’s lead to seven, 56-49, heading into the final eight minutes of play.
Gloversville opened the fourth quarter on a 6-2 run to again cut the lead to three, 58-55 before Stetson Merritt hit back-to-back baskets and Legend Merritt added a basket to take the Flying Horses lead back up to nine with just over three minutes left in regulation.
Gloversville put together a final run, cutting Troy’s lead to four, 66-62, with 42-seconds remaining before Clark added a pair of baskets to help close out the 70-64 victory.
“We played a really tough schedule this year and were 10-10 overall and you know how tough the Suburban Council is,” Killian said. “So we were battle tested. I told the guys just now that being battled tested is what helped us close that game out at the end.”
Stetson Merritt finished with 24 points for Troy, while Clark finished with 19 and Legend Merritt added 14 points. The Flying Horses made 12 of 15 free throws in the contest.
James Collar led Gloversville with a game-high 32 points, while Mariano DiCaterino hit for 16 and Dorman finished with nine points. The Dragons shot 18-for-20 from the free-throw line.
“The second half we cut it to three but if we could have tied it or taken the lead it might have changed the a little bit of the thinking on some parts. A couple of key calls here and there and maybe a couple of loose balls didn’t go our way and it was just hard to come back again. I thought our players gave a full effort. A lot of it boils down to shooting the ball. They made more of their open looks than we did. Sometimes you go back and try to pick apart what you could have done more. But sometimes it just boils down to they made the open shots and we didn’t. When you lose at the end the year, the one thing you want from your players, as a coach, is to go out empting the tank and playing with everything you got and being able to say the other team just played well and beat us. Credit Troy, they played well.”
Troy 70, Gloversville 64
Gloversville 17 15 17 15 - 64
Troy 24 18 14 14 - 70
Gloversville scoring: J. Collar 9-14-32, Dorman 3-0-9, DiCaterino 5-4-16, Porter 1-0-3, Halloran 1-0-2, Insonia 1-0-2. Troy scoring: S. Merritt 9-3-24, Tucker 1-0-2, Wiltshire 1-0-2, Faust 1-3-5, Clark 7-5-19, L. Merrit 6-1-14, Gilmore 2-0-4. Team scoring totals: Gloversville: 20-18-64. Troy 27-12-70.
