SECTIONAL PREVIEW: HAWTHORNE VALLEY BOYS’ BASKETBALL

Greg Dedrick
ccSCOOP Sports Editor

On Wednesday night, Hawthorne Valley, the twelfth seed in Class D, will travel to fifth-seeded Salem for the first round of Sectional play. The Wildcats went 7-11 overall and 5-11 in the Central Hudson Valley League to earn their seed. Their opponents, the Generals, piled up a record of 13-6 overall, 11-4 in the Adirondack League.
 
The Wildcats have four players who have scored over 100 points this season led by 6' freshman wing Christian Peterson. Peterson has the ability to score both inside and out and finished the season scoring in double digits in ten out of eleven games. Julian Miller, a 5' 9” sophomore, is the team’s second leading scorer for the season, averaging the most points per game and also hitting a team-high 31 triples. Junior center Emil DeJong is 6' 7”; he’s not a big scoring threat, but his size is certainly a factor.

Salem has four players with more than 100 points this year—three of them have topping 200. Other than those four guys, only one other player has even topped 50 points in the year. The Generals feature plenty of size on the wings, but nothing like the 6' 7” DeJong. All four of Salem’s main scorers bring size to the table. Leading scorer Ryan Jameson is 6' 2” but is far from a post player, having knocked down 51 three-pointers this year. The inside duo of Austin Eastman and Tom Tomlinson both stand 6' 3” but do much of their work in the paint. Senior guard Alex Baker scores both inside and out, knocking down the second most threes on his team, while slashing to the hoop and drawing a team-high 50 fouls.

The Generals are a team who like to get up and down the court and score, having been held at under 50 points just four times this season. Hawthorne Valley also likes to score, going for over 50 in every win this year. Neither team goes particularly deep into their rotation to find scorers, so whoever can get their top players going will have the best shot. Hawthorne Valley is young and has played well down the stretch, but I think it’s going to be Salem’s size on the wings that will lead them to the win.
 
Prediction: Hawthorne Valley 44—Salem 63