TURIN –– The No. 3 DeRuyter boys basketball team hung around with No. 2 Madison for a half, then allowed a 33-11 third quarter than put a comeback out of reach in the Section III Class D semifinals Tuesday night at South Lewis High School. Madison won 80-60.
The Blue Devils, now 21-1, will face No. 1 Sackets Harbor in the championship game at 2:45 p.m. Saturday at SRC Arena at Onondaga Community College.
DeRuyter allowed the first 13 points of the second half after trailing 38-26 at the break. It ended up being a 20-4 Madison run before the Rockets could string together a couple buckets to stop the bleeding.
“We did everything the opposite of what we were supposed to do coming out of the locker room,” DeRuyter head coach Ric Barnes said. “The messages were, ‘Play hard, rebound the basketball, look to push the ball and take quality shots.’ When they went on that run to start the second half, I don’t think we got a shot. We gave the ball up, which happened against them at home, too. When you don’t take care of the ball, you’re not going to succeed.”
Madison big man Justin LaMunion caused problems all night for DeRuyter, but was especially effective in the first and third quarters. He finished with 10 points in the first. nine in the third and 27 overall.
Barnes said the plan in 3-2 zone was to front LaMunion and force lob passes that could be intercepted by the weak-side defender. The weak-side defender was also responsible for boxing out, but the rotations weren’t there consistently enough.
Madison led by as much as 36 points –– at 73-37 and 75-39 –– in the second half. DeRuyter closed the game with a 23-9 fourth quarter.
DeRuyter hung around for a half, with a 17-2 Madison run in the first quarter providing the difference. LaMunion was again a problem in the Blue Devils’ big surge in the first.
Madison forced Devens Whalen to do a lot of heavy lifting offensively, shutting off Dan Holl almost entirely. Whalen responded with 16 of his 21 points in the first half. Three first-half fouls and a rolled ankle right before halftime slowed Whalen down the rest of the way.
Holl has been on a tear recently and still scored a “quiet” 21 points, according to Barnes. The Rockets just couldn’t consistently get him involved offensively while the game was within reach.
“He went to where we wanted him to go,” Barnes said. “Obviously, Dan’s not the tallest guy, so it’s hard to see him down on the baseline when there’s bigger guys. He had to move out on the perimeter and that takes away one of our weapons on the baseline. They did a good job of pushing us to go where we didn’t want to go.”
DeRuyter limited Jacob Burns, Madison’s other top scorer, to 13 points. He scored 24 points and went 5-for-9 from three in Madison’s win on Feb. 7 at DeRuyter and poured in 28 points in the Feb. 4 win at Madison.
“I think he deferred,” Barnes said. “He was satisfied with, ‘OK, these guys are going to take care of business and I’m a senior, I’ve been there before. You score all the points and I’m happy.’ That’s a guy you want on your team.”
Whalen and Holl each led DeRuyter with 21 points, Josiah Hannafan and Braden Metcalf both contributed five points, Jackson Millett made a 3-pointer, Dylan Foster scored three points and Jonah Baxter knocked down a pair of free throws.
DeRuyter closes its season with a 12-7 record. The Rockets’ only seniors are Metcalf and Jeremy Prince, leaving Barnes hopeful this group can build off a sectional semifinal appearance.
“We’ll hope, since we’re so loaded with juniors, that we can be in the position they’re in next year,” Barnes said.
