Canajoharie withstands Fort Plain rally
By MIKE ZUMMO, The Leader-HeraldArticle Photos
FORT PLAIN - The Canajoharie Cougars dominated the second quarter of Tuesday's Western Athletic Conference interdivisional game against the Fort Plain Hilltoppers and were looking to run away.
However, the Hilltoppers pulled them back with a dominating effort of their own in the third quarter as they trimmed a 25-point deficit to six early in the fourth quarter, but didn't have enough steam to get over the hump as the Cougars held on for a 57-46 victory.
"I was a little leery coming out," Canajoharie coach Rick Palumbo said. "I didn't think we'd be ahead by 20 at halftime, especially in a Fort Plain game. I thought, in the third quarter, we came out a little complacent and when they started making shots, we had some guys trying to do too much by themselves, instead of collectively running the offense."
Whatever went wrong with the Cougars in the third quarter, the Hilltoppers took full advantage of it, after getting blown out 22-5 in the second quarter before switching the offensive scheme.
"I said to them, right before we went out, 'Let's play a 2-1-2 and put Ryan on the high post and put Gattman low and you two exchange in there,"' Fort Plain coach Craig Phillips said. "That's how we got things going."
Justin Smith started the third quarter for the Hilltoppers with a 3-pointer 35 seconds in and Tyler Barhydt followed with a driving layup to get things going. Ryan Kane then grabbed a steal and turned that into an easy basket, pulling the Hilltoppers (1-2 overall) to within 16 points.
Chris Gattman took over in the middle, scoring four straight points to cut the lead down to 12, and his layup with 7:13 left in the game cut the Cougars' lead to 41-35.
He lead Fort Plain with a game-high 19 points.
"The Gattman kid, we just had no answer for him tonight," Palumbo said. "He had a great night. He got the rest of their team going and he started picking up some steals and got some easy baskets and we started falling apart a little bit."
The Fort Plain defense, meanwhile, held the Cougars (3-0 overall) off the scoreboard for the first seven minutes of the third quarter. Their first point of the quarter came with 2:58 remaining on a Dane O'Neil free throw. Anthony Taylor scored on a driving layup with 1:53 left for the Cougars' only third-quarter field goal.
"We played awful in the third quarter, but we pulled it out in the fourth," said Payton Stahler, who led the Cougars with 14 points.
After Stephen Moshier scored on a putback, Stahler helped right the Cougars, not with a shot, but when he passed off to Zach Weaver under the basket, who converted the layup and restored Canajoharie's 10-point lead.
Stahler hit a free throw and Taylor converted a three-point play, helping the Cougars' re-establish their lead in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter.
"We decided to spread it out and get into our sets a little bit more and try to work the ball a little bit more," Palumbo said. "We had to get back to some rebounding. We didn't rebound at all in the third quarter and I think we got back to rebounding. That helped us a little bit too. Little things like that got us going again."
The Cougars got off to a slow start as well, which enabled the Hilltoppers to jump off to an early lead when Gattman had his way on the inside and scored the Hilltoppers' first eight points.
He scored 10 of Fort Plain's 13 first-half points.
"Gattman's a horse for us, but we've got to get somebody else to score," Phillips said. "Somebody else has got to do the job. If we hit a couple of perimeters, that's going to loosen him up."
The Cougars slowly closed the gap and tied the game at 8-8 on Taylor's free throw and Stahler grabbed a rebound and went coast-to-coast for a layup before Adam Klock and O'Neil hit a pair of 3-pointers within 12 seconds of each other to turn a 10-8 lead into a 16-8 lead heading into the second quarter.
After making his first 3, Klock grabbed a steal, which set up O'Neil. Klock also knocked down a 3, 57 seconds into the second quarter, giving the Cougars a 19-8 lead.
"Adam Klock hit some major 3s and he got us all going, and opened some lanes for everybody," Stahler said. "It gave us a huge lift and everybody fed off of that."
Two of his 3s were in the middle of a 19-0 Canajoharie run that quickly put the Hilltoppers behind and a stretch that Palumbo said was the best any team he's coached has played. Fort Plain's Ben Clute hit a 3-pointer to stop the bleeding somewhat, but the Cougars started a 10-0 run to take a 33-11 lead.
"We were just awful in the second quarter," Phillips said. "We got down so many that we worked so hard to get back. I think we had it down to five or so, but we had nothing left."
Canajoharie 57, Fort Plain 46
Canajoharie 16 22 3 16 57
Fort Plain 8 5 20 13 46
Canajoharie
Moshier 5-0-10, Stahler 5-3-14, Taylor 3-4-10, Klock 3-2-11, O'Neil 3-1-8, Weaver 2-0-4. Totals: 22-10-57.
Fort Plain
Gattman 8-3-19, Clute 2-2-7, Smith 1-0-3, Barhydt 1-0-2, Resch 2-0-4, Kane 2-0-4, Baker 2-0-5, Eley 1-0-2. Totals: 19-5-46.
3-point goals: Canajoharie 5 (Stahler, Klock 3, O'Neil), Fort Plain 3 (Clute, Smith, Baker).
