NEWFIELD –– The No. 13 Marathon boys basketball team got off to a slow start against No. 4 Newfield and the Olympians were unable to climb back, falling to the Trojans 60-40 in the first round of the Section IV Class C tournament Tuesday at Newfield Central School.
Marathon came out flat Tuesday, while Newfield’s offense had everything going. The Trojans’ LeMari Spears was a big reason for the early lead, as he outscored the Olympians on his own in the first quarter. Spears had 13 points and three 3-pointers, giving his team a 21-10 lead.
It was much more competitive in the second quarter, with Newfield outscoring Marathon 13-9, but the Olympians were unable to shrink the lead.
“They came out tough and we came out flat,” Marathon head coach Jim Holland said. “We came alive in the second quarter. But it was a four-point swing where we would’ve been down 11 and ended up being down 15 going into halftime.”
Marathon had its most successful offensive quarter in the third, putting up 17 points with Barrett Trabucco scoring seven, Colton Oram and Camdyn Kashuba adding four each and Austin Poth adding two. The Olympians, though they didn’t have issues on offense, did struggle defensively. They gave up 20 points to Newfield and found themselves down 18 heading into the final quarter.
“In the third quarter we were a totally different team and I thought we played outstanding basketball,” Holland said. “We cut the lead to 10 a couple different times, but No. 15 for them (Malcolm Jenkins) hit a jump shot both times to get their lead back to 12. We were playing great, but they hit a three and had two layups late to put them up 18 heading into the fourth.”
Holland saw his guys play much better in the middle quarters offensively, but Newfield jumping out to an early lead and not slowing down was too difficult for Marathon to overcome.
“Their offense was clicking and it got clicking early, so hats off to them,” Holland said. “When you’re the home team and start seeing the ball go in the hoop like that, it’s tough for us. When we’re only down around five points, we can come back. Once a lead hits double digits though, it’s tough for us to come back. We just don’t score well enough. We have to play great defense or we aren’t going to win games.”
Kashuba finished with 11 points, eight rebounds and three assists, Barrett Trabucco had seven points, Poth had six points and nine rebounds, Oram and Blake Birdsall added six points and Tucker Trabucco and Eli Tickner had two points.
Marathon ends the season with an 8-13 record.
