SECTIONAL PREVIEW: ICHABOD CRANE BOYS’ & GIRLS’ BASKETBALL

Greg Dedrick
ccSCOOP Sports Editor

Both the Ichabod Crane boys’ and girls’ basketball teams have elected to play in sectionals this year and have been seeded in Class A, which is Section II’s second-largest class. While the boys competed in the Patroon Conference, the girls continued to play their Independent schedule. Both approaches were successful as each squad garnered a home game in the first round. The teams will play back to back on Tuesday night at Ichabod Crane High School: the girls hosting Gloversville at 6, and the boys hosting Averill Park at 7:30.
 
ICC Boys
The Riders (15-5 overall, 15-3 in league) will host Suburban Council’s Averill Park (3-17 overall, 2-14 in league) on Tuesday night. Averill Park is a perennial Class A power but is having a down year after the graduation of “All Everything” point guard Gerard O’Shea, who led his team to a Class A title just two years ago.

Despite the seemingly lopsided records, the Riders feasted on a Patroon Conference schedule that included no team in a class larger than B. Out of conference, the Riders fell to Class B Broadalbin-Perth and also Class A top-seed Scotia. Averill Park only notched three wins this season, but all three wins came against AA competition. Having played in what is considered the second toughest conference in the area will certainly help the battle-tested Warriors, who come in better than record shows.

ICC mixes a group of veteran and young talent led by senior guard Sean Shattenkirk, who stepped into the starring role after a season in the shadows last year. After starting the season off hot, scoring in double figures in eight of the season’s first ten games, Shattenkirk has hit for double figures in just four of his last ten games. Helping out at the guard position will be junior Josh Ingham, who has become a reliable threat from deep, hitting at least one three-pointer in eleven straight games. Up front, the Riders rely on a duo of juniors—Chris Larm and Derick Horn, who both rack of the rebounds and the points. Larm does most of his scoring down low, while Horn is best when putting the ball on the floor from the high post and attacking. A big key may be a leg injury that cost Horn most of the Chatham game and all of ICC’s finale against Cairo-Durham.

Averill Park features plenty of size, with four players listed over 6' 4”, but only one of those players is a legit threat to score. Instead the Warriors rely on four main players to score, led by senior Evan Boyle. A pair of sophomore guards, Matt and Mark Joe come in next, while 6' 5” Matt Hotaling is the only big man who is a consistent scorer. Still none of the players are go-to offense threats, and while they have three players who can hit threes, none are lights-out shooters.

If the Riders come in healthy, their big men can score against a large AP front line, and the Riders defense can limit the number of threes hit by their opponents, ICC should be able to pull out a tight defensive battle.
 
Prediction: ICC 42—Averill Park 35

ICC Girls
After playing an Independent schedule this season, the Riders racked up a record of 10-10, squaring off with many opponents much larger than they would have faced had they been in the Patroon Conference this season. Their first round opponent, Gloversville plays in the highly competitive, mainly Class A Foothills Council.

In general the sectional committee tries to avoid matching up teams in the first round who were in the same conference or who have played each other this season, but in this case the Riders and the Dragons have already met twice. Ichabod Crane was on the road in the first game and came away with a 13-point win. In the second match-up, with the Riders at home, they escaped with a 4-point win.

In their first win over the Dragons, ICC was led by Alli Pullen and Rebecca Smith, who both reached double digits, while Rachel Dellehunt’s 18 points paced the Riders in the second contest. That has seemed to be the story of Ichabod Crane all season long with a varied offensive attack. Four players have scored over 100 points this season for ICC, with a fifth player just seven points shy of that mark. Smith, a junior, has scored 200 points this season as an undersized power forward who plays with great toughness and energy down low. On any given night, it could be Smith down low, Dellehunt slashing, or Pullen from the outside leading the Riders. A key will be finding a consistent outside scoring threat as Pullen leads the team with 18 three-pointers. The next highest total and only other player in double figures is senior Courtney Barry with 11.

Gloversville has three players who have scored over 100 points this season, but none averages 10 points a game. This is a team who at times struggles to score. They’ve been held below the 40-point mark seven times this year.

The Riders have already defeated this team twice, and although people say it’s always tough to beat a team three times in a season, ICC certainly seems to have an edge. So long as they get consistent scoring from at least two of the big three, they should have no problem getting into the next round.
 
Prediction: ICC 53—Gloversville 44