ATTICA — The Seneca East Tigers were playing their third game of the year, while Mohawk was opening its season.
The “veteran” Tigers used that to their advantage, going out to a 13-2 first quarter lead, then hanging on for a 61-56 Northern 10 Athletic Conference win here Friday.
The Warriors rallied to make a game of it and eventually tied it early in the fourth quarter. But they could never take the lead.
“I think we were a little battle tested and I don’t think our guys panicked when the game was tight like that,” Seneca East coach Anthony Langhurst said. “His (Mohawk coach Paul Dunn) guys — I think it was a benefit to him because they were super hungry, they were getting after the ball, the 50-50 balls that coaches like me don’t like to see us lose. We knew they were going to be well-coached.”
The Tigers got six points from Landyn Hicks on the block — four on stick backs — and outrebounded Mohawk 16-3 in the frame to get the 11-point advantage after one. The Warriors hit just one of eight shots.
“We came our a little tight. We didn’t follow the things we talked about in terms of guarding (Seneca East point guard) Luke (Mason), attacking them, and ball faking,” Dunn said. “They are jumpers and they are athletic. We wanted to get them in the air to try to get to the free throw line and we didn’t do a very good job of that early.”
Mason had a monster night with 32 points, including 16 of 17 from the line. While the senior only had three points in the first quarter and eight by halftime, his 24-point second half helped keep Mohawk from taking the lead.
“We’ve got to keep expanding and not keep it in the same spot,” Mason said. “We jump out quick, but then we let ‘em back in and then it’s just a battle from there on out. If we can keep it pushed out we might have a chance to have a little calmer game than this.”
The coach explained why the games are so close even with the 3-0 start.
“We’re not built to break away from teams,” Langhurst said. “We’re just going to have to grind and get used to these types of games. Luckily for us, every single one of our games have been like that and our mentality is every possession is like a grind, so I think that helped tonight.”
The Warriors got some traction offensively in the second quarter, outscoring the Tigers, 17-11, to trim their deficit to 24-19 by halftime. Rhett Leeth led the way with a pair of 3-point shots. Leeth finished with five 3s on his way to a team-high 20 points.
“The exciting part about this year is every year I’ve been here, I’ve always known I had a couple guys coming that I know what they’re going to do,” Dunn said. “This year, I have no idea what any of my guys are going to do. I think some of my guys showed what they’re capable of and fought back.”
Mohawk continued to chip away in the third quarter, pulling to within two, 37-35, by period’s end.
Levi Tiell forged the only tie score of the game with a basket on the first shot of the fourth quarter to make it 37-37. Seneca East (3-0, 1-0 N10) responded with a 10-2 run.
The never-say-die Warriors managed to get back to within one on a 3 by Zikki Magallanes with just over a minute left. But Mason — who knocked down 11 of 12 free throws in the final eight minutes — helped seal the win for the Tigers with four free tosses in the final 25 seconds.
“He’s a tough guard. His motor keeps running,” Langhurst said of Mason. “I know I wouldn’t want to guard him. He is a special player. He makes up for some decisions I make. He makes me look smarter than I am.”
“He’s a 94% free throw shooter. Credit him. He is unbelievable being able to draw fouls.” Dunn said. “There were a couple of times tonight our guys did a good job to try to get a stop, and we came put on the wrong side of the whistle.”
In addition to Mason’s 32 points, Jaron Depinet had 11 and Hicks added 10 points and seven rebounds.
Magallanes 13 points seconded Leeth’s 20 for Mohawk, while Tiell had a double-double with 12 points and 13 boards.
“We had some guys that hadn’t played varsity basketball (before this year),” Langhurst said. “The good thing for us is the most important position, point guard, Luke can kind of be sure the guys are in the right spot and take care of the heavy lifting.”
“We’ve got to do a better job of guarding the other team’s best player,” Dunn said. “You can’t give up 32-33 points to their best player.”
Mohawk got a spit on the night by winning the junior varsity game, 37-33. Trent Corfman led the Warriors with 10 points and Cameron Oesch had nine.
Jordan Siesel had a game-high 12 points for Seneca East and Cain Price finished with eight.
Box score
Mohawk 2 17 16 21 — 56
Seneca East 13 11 13 24 — 61
Mohawk (0-1, 0-1 N10): Shots 20-49; 3-pt. shots 9-27 (Rhett Leeth 5, Zikki Magallanes 3, Tristan Bright); Free throws 7-10; Rebounds 31 (Levi Tiell 13); Turnovers 13. Scoring: Tristan Bright 2 2 7, Zikki Magallanes 5 0 13, Rhett Leeth 6 3 20, Jack Sager 1 0 2, Levi Tiell 5 2 12, Andon Clouse 1 0 2.
Seneca East (3-0, 1-0 N10): Shots 16-46; 3-pt. shots 4-18 (Luke Mason 4); Free throws 25-32; Rebounds 33 (Landyn Hicks 7); Turnovers 10. Scoring: Keegan Boes 1 0 2, Luke Mason 6 16 32, Logan Collins 1 4 6, Jaron Depinet 4 3 11, Landyn Hicks 4 2 10.
JV: Mohawk 37-33.