Watertown, IHC advance

The final two minutes seemed to take forever as Watertown High School protected what was once a 14-point lead Thursday night.

The Cyclones saw that advantage whittled down to two points as Indian River made a valiant late rally. But in the end, the Warriors' rally came up short and WHS held on for a 56-51 victory in the Frontier League "A" Division boys basketball semifinals at Jefferson Community College.

Third-seeded Watertown plays city rival and top-seeded Immaculate Heart Central for the title at 6:30 p.m. Monday at JCC. IHC, which won both regular-season meetings with the Cyclones, fell behind early but came back strong in the second half to post a 60-49 win over No. 4 Carthage.

WATERTOWN 56, INDIAN RIVER 51

Coach Jeff Britton told his Cyclones it didn't matter if they won by one or 100 points. But WHS made it a lot more difficult than it should have been with a careless final few minutes after dominating the second half.

"We got a little too uncomfortable with the lead," said WHS junior guard Tevion Cappe, who scored 10 points. "But we made just enough plays to hold on."

After trailing by a point at halftime, WHS (11-5) outscored the Warriors (8-8) by 20-7 in the third quarter to seize a commanding 42-30 lead.

It was still 53-43 WHS at the 2:09 mark of the final quarter when the Cyclones started turning the ball over against Indian River's full-court pressure.

"Instead of taking our time, we rushed the ball up court," Britton said. "We've done that a few times this year, not being able to hold a sizable lead."

Indian River scored seven straight points to cut the deficit to 53-50 with 18.3 seconds left and had possession of the ball. Jarrod Mattingly was fouled taking an off-balance 3-point at the 15.9-second mark, sending Indian River's best foul shooter to the line.

But after making the first, he missed the next two. And following a mad scramble for the rebound, WHS regained possession with 13.8 seconds to go.

Cappe made the front end of a 1-and-1 with 12 seconds to play. On the second miss, Indian River's Shawn Mitchell seemed to have the rebound in his hands, but lost it to Watertown's Dustin Pond, who was fouled. Pond hit one free throw with just under 10 seconds left to build the WHS lead to 54-51.

Mattingly, Indian River's leading scorer, fired up a long-distance three in the closing seconds that missed. Taylor Reardon sealed the win for WHS by making two free throws.

Britton employed a 1-3-1 zone defense, hoping to stop dribble penetration and Mattingly's outside bombing. The Warriors made three 3-pointers in the first quarter, but only one thereafter. And Matttingly was limited to just 11 points.

"We've used the 1-3-1 a little, but employed some different principles tonight," Britton said. "The key was we rebounded the ball a lot better than the last time we played (an Indian River 19-point win), and our offensive execution was better."

Pond led WHS with 17 points and grabbed 23 rebounds. He said the Cyclones "attacked their box-and-one a lot better, and ran the floor for some easy hoops."

Shawn Mitchell paced Indian River with 16 points.

"We didn't do anything right the entire third quarter," said Indian River coach Tim Callahan. "And it took so long for us to score, we couldn't get into our press until the very end."

IHC 60, CARTHAGE 49

Connor Caldwell scored 31 points and Brian Magovney added 15 as the Cavaliers (15-1) wore down the Comets (5-10) after trailing 28-25 at halftime.

Caldwell insisted it was "my worst game of the season by far. If it wasn't for guys like Brian, Ryan Spicer and Patrick (Caldwell), we would have lost."

IHC coach Mike Delaney said his junior star was frustrated against his opponent.

"Give Carthage credit for that," he said. "They came out with a lot more energy than we did, but we finally picked things up the second half."

A Connor Caldwell three-point play finally gave IHC a lead (33-30) midway through the third quarter.

Magovney added three more points and Spicer had five big points to help build the IHC lead to 41-35 after three quarters.

Carthage was limited to just seven third-quarter points and never recovered.

"We followed our blueprint perfectly the first half," said Carthage coach Jeff Ventiquattro. "The tempo was in our favor, and we made Caldwell work hard for every basket. The second half IHC was a little more patient and we weren't."

Caldwell scored 10 consecutive points to begin the final quarter and the Cavaliers pulled away at the foul line.

"Our press gave them a little different look the second half," Delaney said. "And I thought our guards really did a good job of getting into the passing lanes."

Nick Piroli scored 16 points for Carthage.

SOUTH JEFF APPEAL UPHELD

A controversial ending to a Frontier League game between South Jefferson and Thousand Islands will not have to be replayed.

Section 3 granted South Jefferson's appeal to a protest filed by Thousand Islands to the Frontier League of a game won by the Spartans 76-75 on Jan. 20. South Jefferson scored the winning basket after the horn went off inadvertently while Thousand Islands was inbounding the ball with a one-point lead with three seconds remaining.

The game officials awarded the ball to the Spartans on the alternating possession rule, and South Jefferson's Akeebu Lettsome scored with .8 seconds to go.

At a Frontier League protest hearing, it was determined that a rule had been misinterpreted by the officials, and that the final three seconds should be replayed.

South Jefferson's appeal was heard at the Section 3 office Wednesday in Liverpool.

Frontier League executive director Bob Kowalick, who represented the league at the appeal, said he was told by Section 3 officials that the rule book does not allow a protest if the game was officially over and the officials had signed the scorebook.