Huskies basketball team tops Heuvelton in semifinals

POTSDAM — The Franklin Academy Huskies boys basketball team on Tuesday took a 62-41 victory over the Heuvelton Bulldogs to take the Section X Overall Semifinals played at SUNY Potsdam.

Next up for the Huskies is the Section X Overall Championship game at 7:45 p.m. on Friday against the Potsdam Sandstoners at SUNY Potsdam.

On Tuesday, the Sandstoners beat Lisbon 68-29 to advance to play the Huskies in the championship match.

THE GAME

The playoff win for the Huskies turned out to be the story of two games. The first three quarters being one, and the fourth quarter being the other.

In the first portion, the game was totally dominated by the Huskies – and the second by the Bulldogs, who added some bark to their bite by scoring more points in that stanza than they did up in the first three.

The Huskies took charge right off the bat, and outscored the Bulldogs 14-4 in the first quarter, followed by an 11-8 edge in the second quarter and held a 25-12 lead at halftime.

In the third quarter, as they did for most of the season, the Huskies controlled the action with a dominating performance. The local boys outscored Heuvelton 23-8 and with nearly a 30-point lead – 48-20 – entering the final quarter, the Huskies seemed to have the game in the bag.

But the Bulldogs still had some fight left and outscored the Huskies 21-14 in the quarter, however the deficit was far too great to overcome, and the victory went to Franklin Academy, who move on in the basketball playoffs.

After the game, Huskies Head Coach Tim Lamay told the Telegram that he was pleased with the team defense, and added that the bump in scoring in the second portion of the game was simply due to the Bulldogs starting to hit more of their shots. He also praised his opponents effort to fight back.

“I was extremely happy with our team’s defensive effort last night. We had great senior leadership that led us on both ends of the court,” Lamay wrote in an email. “Heuvelton made some shots in the fourth quarter that they weren’t making earlier in the game. Give credit to them for continuing to play hard all the way through the end.”

Heuvelton’s Coach Josh McAllister said after the game that one of the reasons the Huskies won was because of the team’s stature, and added that this game served as a warm up for his squad.

“Both teams play the same way but they were bigger than us at all five positions. We got good looks but just couldn’t put them down and they pulled away,” McAllister told Johnson Newspapers. “But this game will definitely help us get ready to meet Bolton Landing in the states. To us it was like playing in an uptempo scrimmage.”

Coach Lamay said his team will now focus on the next round of the playoff schedule.

“We have a very tough Potsdam team to face on Friday!,” he said.

GAME STATISTICS

Franklin Academy had a balanced offensive attack with 10 players making the score sheet.

Leading the way for the Huskies was Brad Poupore who scored 19 points. Also contributing with points: Ryan Hesseltine with 10 points; Blake Hanna with 8 points; Isaac Baker with 7 points; Mason Bresett, Brady Fitzpatrick, and Cam Keating with 4 points each; and Dylan Barse, Trenton LaCroix and Eli Stone with 2 points each.