The Varsity Boys’ Basketball Team took on the Tully Knights on Saturday night in a rubber-match environment. With the teams meeting twice prior to the Section III Class C semi-final, winning one game each, a lot was on the line for both teams.

The two teams also met at the same time last year, when No. 5 Tully upset the No. 1 seeded Warriors 70-55 to move onto the sectional final. According to head coach, John Sgarlata, the team went in as they would any other game.

“It didn’t matter if it was Tully or the Cleveland Caviliers,” said Sgarlata. “We just wanted to go play basketball and score more than the other team.”

Weedsport was off to a slow start in the first quarter, and didn’t seem to have any momentum behind them during the game. The Warriors jumped out to a small 2-0 lead, but slowly lost the lead as the game went on – they never help a lead the rest of the game.

“We were trying to push the pace, and sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in,” said Sgarlata. “We just didn’t get off to a great start.

“Every time we play [Tully], we’ve been in a hole.”

With small runs in the second quarter, the Warriors ended the half down by nine points, and Tully having no intentions of slowing down either. Jayson Phelps was a key factor, leading Tully’s scoring.

Momentum looked good for Weedsport in the third quarter, with Riley Spingler and Jeff DeJohn both taking some good shots and closing the deficit a little bit. But it still wasn’t enough to catch the powerful Black Knights.

“It’s what we’ve done, we typically have a big run no matter who we’re playing,” said Sgarlata. “We had a little spurt that we went on, we just couldn’t have the big one.”

The fourth quarter involved a lot of back-and-forth play, and Weedsport even cut Tully’s lead to four points at one point, but nothing could stop Phelps and the Black Knights from scoring. With 44.5 seconds left, the Warriors cleared their bench to put in the back-ups. At that point, the game was over. Tully took the victory by a score of 65-49.

Luckily, for Sgarlata, a majority of his team plays AAU Club Basketball. They’re mostly all on the same team, and have a lot more basketball before their senior season begins.

“Most of these guys are going to play on the same AAU team,” said Sgarlata. “So we’ll play another 70 or 80 games before we get back to our opener next year.”

As No. 3 Tully looks to face No. 1 Cooperstown, who beat No. 4 Waterville 81-54, in the Section III Class C championship, Weedsport now looks to next season. They bring back their entire roster made up of mainly juniors, minus one senior, Nick Sanzi.

“The offseason, we’ll go back into the weight room and try to get bigger and stronger,” said Sgarlata.