MORAVIA –– Powered by a strong second quarter, the No. 1 Moravia boys basketball team gained a comfortable lead over No. 8 Southern Cayuga and never let up leading to a 78-54 win in the quarterfinals of the Section IV Class C tournament Friday at Moravia High School. The Blue Devils move onto the next where round where they will face No. 5 Elmira Notre Dame Tuesday at Tompkins Cortland Community College at a time to be announced.
Moravia took an 18-15 lead into the second quarter, where the Blue Devils’ offense unleashed a fury of points to put them up 46-27 heading into halftime. It didn’t matter who was taking the shot for Moravia, it seemed like nobody could miss.
Zach Szachta had one of the hot hands for Moravia not only in the second quarter, but the whole game. He hit three 3-pointers in the second, another three in the quarter prior, and another in the third quarter, accounting for all but one of his 16 points on the night. Joe Baylor added seven points in the second, Dillon Palmer added five points, Riley Jones had three and Noah Corbett and Jairen Francis had two.
The second quarter for Moravia was huge in its win. Not only was it shooting the ball lights out, but the defense was not allowing any easy looks for Southern Cayuga.
“A quarter like that settles us in,” Moravia head coach Todd Mulvaney said. “Our motto talks about just winning the little battles. The way we were playing defense was making it really difficult for them to get shots up. When we’re hitting shots like we were, now every possession for them matters.”
Moravia didn’t let up after halftime, and Baylor made sure to help put away Southern Cayuga any chance he got. The star dominated in the paint and seemed to find his way to an open lane and layup any time he chose. He went on to score 16 points in the second half and finished with a game-high 30.
Baylor’s consistency on offense wasn’t a shock, but with the supporting cast lighting up the box score with him (seven different players scoring and three reaching double figures), Moravia proved to be far too much for its opponent.
“It’s so important for teammates to step up and hit shots, especially when they’re denying me,” Baylor said. Zach (Szachta) knocked down some big shots tonight. A quarter like the second gives us so much confidence.”
“The balance on offense is awesome and helps us tremendously,” Mulvaney added. “Some of our guys hit some big shots and it’s good to see them shooting the ball like that.”
Another key for Moravia Friday was slowing down Southern Cayuga’ star Isaac Brozon, who was coming off of a career night where he scored 57 points in the first round against No. 9 Deposit/Hancock. Brozon did finish with 28 points Friday, but the Blue Devils consistently forced him into tough shots, and many of his points came with an already large deficit. They knew he would score his points, but they wanted to make sure nobody else on the Chiefs hurt them.
“We wanted to make him take difficult shots and I think we forced him to do that,” Mulvaney said. “He hit some, but it was a matter of still defending the rest of their team. What makes them difficult is that they have guys that can balance it out and spread scoring. If you let the other guys hurt you, that’s where you get in trouble.”
“It’s difficult to stop him,” Baylor added. “We knew he was going to get up shots and score, we just wanted to take away the other options and let him try and do everything.”
Behind Baylor’s 30 points and Szachta’s 16, Jones finished with 15, Francis added six, Palmer added five, Corbett had four and Weston Walker had two.
