The Cortland boys basketball team left little doubt against its rival Saturday night. The Purple Tigers controlled from the opening tip and cruised to a 56-37 win over Homer in the Tom Neugebauer Holiday Tournament finals at Cortland Jr./Sr. High School.
The win marked Cortland’s first time winning the tournament since 2019, and first time winning since it was renamed for Cortland volunteer assistant coach Tom Neugebauer three years ago. Cortland head coach Jeremy Milligan was extremely proud of his team’s performance.
“It’s a great feeling,” Milligan said. “I’m really, really proud of the boys. They’ve been working super hard. They’ve been focused on getting better each day and it’s showing on the court. They’re trusting each other and defensively we are a tough matchup. I’m pumped we got to win the holiday tournament because it was a season goal for the boys and I’m happy to do that for our longtime assistant Tom, who is just a fantastic guy and a wonderful coach. A cool thing to close out 2024 for us.”
Cortland raced out of the gates on a 16-0 run and it was all but over from there. The margin never dipped below double digits again. Defense has become the calling card of this Cortland team and the Purple Tigers imposed their will on that end against the Trojans. Homer ended the first quarter with more turnovers, five, than points, three, with Cortland causing havoc with its athleticism and physicality.
“We try to have a defensive game plan for each opponent and I’m really proud of how well the guys understand that,” Milligan said. “It shows their basketball IQ. It speaks volumes about the athleticism of our team, the buy-in, the understanding of help defense. Things are clicking. Just proud of the efforts of everybody, and it’s not just the guys that are gobbling up the bulk of the minutes. The guys in practice are working hard. Everybody is steadily improving and helping each other grow.”
“I think it’s just our competitive nature,” Cortland’s Zach Muir said. “Everyone is going out there thinking, ‘I’m going to beat this guy in front of me.’ We just keep the energy up through everything and compete every second.”
The suffocating defense continued into the second quarter, with Cortland holding the Trojans to 12 points in the first half. Owen Johnson took over offensively, scoring nine of the Purple Tigers’ 16 points. Caden Albright’s 3-pointer capped off a dominant first half and sent Cortland into the break with a 20-point edge.
Homer continued to fight into the second half, but Cortland was too much. Homer head coach Ken Updike still was proud of his team’s fight.
“That’s a proud moment,” Updike said. “We had a discussion at halftime about things you can’t draw on a board and things you can’t scheme that are valuable. I think you saw the kids embrace some of those things that we discussed.”
Caden Albright finished as the lone player in double figures for the Purple Tigers with 10 points and was named the tournament’s MVP. Johnson and Jaxson Gambitta finished with nine points each, Owen Michales and Cal Albright each had six, Muir, who was named to the All-Tournament team, scored four and Jamir Bell and Joel Carr each added a basket for Cortland.
Max Franco led Homer with 14 points, Kaden Durham and Brycen Poole had seven each, Ryan Beard knocked down a 3-pointer and Dane Francis and Benny Wilbur each added a basket. Franco and Durham joined Caden Albright and Muir on the All-Tournament team. Groton’s Conor Eldred and McGraw’s Calob Sutton were also selected to the team.
The win marks Cortland’s fifth in a row and continues a remarkable turnaround from a four win 2023-24 campaign. Milligan is enjoying the run his team is on and believes they’re capable of maintaining it.
“It’s incredibly fun and it seems like a special group of guys who are really gelling together,” Milligan said. “We’ve had some great leadership and the fact that you look at the scorebook (Saturday), the fact we only had one guy in double digits, we’re very balanced. I think on any given night we have a lot of different weapons which is going to make us dangerous as the season goes on.”
The loss makes Homer 1-5 on the season and Updike is hoping his team can learn from the bruising it took Saturday and what Cortland has been able to accomplish in its turnaround.
“We’re talking about educational athletics that is attached to what we’re trying to teach young people in our schools,” Updike said. “The Cortland boys didn’t like the way their season went last year, so they spent time working. They sacrificed, they worked hard and spent time in the gym to change things. That’s what we’re trying to teach young people, that you don’t always get what you want and sometimes you need to put in more effort to get what you want the next time the opportunity comes around. From an educator and a coach, I think it’s great. From the opposing coach, maybe there is some self-assessment there on our part on how we prepare, manage ourselves, how we communicate and how we get ready for games. We play these games to get to February so we can play in sectionals. If we can learn something about ourselves from this, then I’ll take it. But it has to be something we value. You lost, but why did we lose? Can we change some of those other things I talked about and be successful?”
Cortland will look to make it six in a row at 6:45 p.m. Friday, when it hosts Pulaski. Homer will try to get back in the win column at 6:45 p.m. Friday at Chittenango.
