By: Dylan O'Loughlin
BROCKPORT, NY --- Daniel Dailey netted a team-high 17 points along with five assists and only one turnover to lift Brockport to its fourth win of the season against Gates Chili 67-63. The senior poured in 11 points in the second half while teammate junior Brodee Henshaw tallied five of his career-high 12 points in the final quarter of play.
"He (Dailey) means everything to our team," Brockport head coach Jim Erbland said. "He's our most valuable player in this fact that we had someone who could handle that ball pressure tonight. They made him work all 84 feet the entire game and he did a great job getting us into our offense. He did a great job handling Gates' pressure, letting us play at our tempo and then allowing us to play to our strengths."
After a quick six points from Dailey to start the game and take a 6-2 lead, the Spartans started applying a full-court pressure. The pressure held Dailey to zero points the rest of the half but allowed other Blue Devils to get buckets, including a triple from junior Ty Sherman and five points from senior Tyler Judd in the opening quarter.
After Brockport jumped out to a quick 14-3 lead, the Spartans went on a 6-0 run to cut the game to five thanks to threes from junior Jaylen Givens and sophomore Christopher Elliott. Givens went on to score eight points in the quarter and cut the Brockport lead to two after quarter one.
In the second it was much of the same, 11 different players put points on the board in the quarter as five tallied points for Brockport while six scored for Gates. Givens knocked down another three in the quarter to lead all scorers with 11 at the half, but Brockport's Mason Friedo hit a three at the buzzer to give the Blue Devils a one-point lead off an assist from Dailey.
"I mean I love all of these guys, the chemistry is there," Dailey said. "On the bench, we're just letting each other know nonstop what we see."
At the start of the third quarter, the Spartans went on a 7-1 run to take a 35-30 lead. Junior forward Tremier Lewis led the way as he accounted for eight of Gates' first 10 points, but after suffering an ankle injury the momentum shifted.
First it was Sherman who knocked down a three to end the scoring run for Gates. Then the paint presence of Lewis was dearly missed as Dailey, Henshaw and senior Azay Odey drove into the paint multiple times for either a bucket or a trip to the charity stripe.
In the third quarter alone, Odey made four trips to the line and went 5-for-8. Dailey made three trips to the line going 3-for-4, including two shots converting and-one chances. The Blue Devils netted 12 points in the paint during the quarter and outscored the Spartans in the paint on the day 36-28. Brockport won the free throw battle on the day as well shooting 15-for-29 (52%) while Gates shot 7-for-14 (50%).
"A lot of times when we scout teams we say 'Okay, we have to play to our strengths and our strengths are our size and physicality," Erbland said. "Sometimes we have a guy that a big could be negated, but that secondary guy is the one that could really make waves and tonight you saw Brodee Henshaw. He had a mismatch on him where he felt he had a physical advantage, and we were able to execute and get the ball inside with good post entry passes and good downhill drives."
At the end of three though, Brockport found themselves only up 53-50.
Gates got off to a hot start just like the third quarter. After a momentum-swinging dunk by Lewis who returned to the game in the fourth had Brockport on the ropes, Henshaw knocked down a post hook to tie the game at 60. Sherman then connected on his fourth three of the game to extend the lead to three.
The Spartans responded as it was Givens again connecting from long range for his fifth three to reach 21 points on the day and tie it at 63. Those would be the last points Gates Chili scored.
After Henshaw went 1-for-2 at the line to take the lead by one, back-to-back turnovers from the Spartans gave Henshaw another chance to score down low where he converted on another post hook to extend the lead. Gates needed a three to tie with only three seconds left, but a long inbound pass went into the backcourt for Brockport to recover and earn themselves the win.
"The guy was kind of out of position, so I would just use my weight and my body to get around him and find good looks," Henshaw said. "Then rebounding, that means everything to us and really we just got to be some dogs down there and hustle for every ball."
In the win, Henshaw also racked up eight rebounds to go along with his and Dailey's scoring. Sherman added 12 points all from long range while Odey finished with nine points including seven in the third quarter. Judd also picked up nine points.
For Gates Chili, Givens led all scorers with 21 points while Lewis followed with 14 including 12 in the second half. Elliott netted 12 points with half coming from beyond the arc while Joey Vigerzi and Derrik Davis III ended with six points apiece.
With the win, Brockport improves to 4-11 and get their second win in one week, which has not happened all season. On the other hand, Gates Chili falls to 8-5 on the season.
"We had a slow start, I'm not going to lie it kind of sucked, but compared to last year we were determined," Dailey said. "Every single practice, we want to get better. We're not giving up, especially for our seniors. It's our last year, so there's no time to salt and whine about it, we just got to keep working. We have been these last couple of weeks and it's been great."
The Brockport Blue Devils look to carry this momentum into this Wednesday, January 29th as they travel to Eastridge. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. For Gates Chili, they travel to Rush-Henrietta to take on the undefeated Royal Comets this Wednesday at 7:15 p.m.
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