GLENS FALLS — Down three with 15 seconds to go in the fourth, Durand Scott didn’t hesitate.
He got the ball after Kadeem Jack collected an offensive rebound from Jermaine Sanders’ missed three-pointer and let it go.
“I knew at some point, the game was going to be on me,” the Rice senior said. “And I had faith that I would make it.”
His three rattled home and you could almost hear Bill Raftery yell “Onions,” as it helped the Raiders get into overtime, where they held off Newburgh Free Academy, 70-68, in the state Federation championship game at the Civic Center.
“If we want someone to take the big shot, it’s him,” coach Moe Hicks said. “He had no one to hide behind this year and he didn’t.”
Still, Rice wasn’t completely safe until Marcus Henderson’s desperation three at the buzzer was off. It was a far cry from Rice’s domination of Lincoln on Saturday in the semis.
“That was my biggest fear when we beat Lincoln like that,” Hicks said. “That game was so climactic and then reality set in and we had to claw it out.”
Rice actually jumped to a 21-5 lead yesterday against the upstate squad that looked like it was about to be run off the court and Sanders, who had five of his 12 points in the extra session, admitted, “I thought it was going to be worse than the Lincoln game.”
Newburgh — which stunned Mt. Vernon in the process of getting to this game — had other ideas. It stormed back to force the frenetic ending before Rice’s James Stukes (18 points) erupted for eight straight points in the fourth to keep the Raiders in the game before Scott’s heroics.
“There was definitely some doubt there,” Scott (23 points) said of his attitude as Newburgh refused to back down. “They deserved to be here.”
The closeness did not surprise Hicks.
“I’ve seen a lot of things happen in my day,” Hicks said with the laugh of a coach whose team had just escaped with a victory. “I didn’t pick up my clipboard once in the Lincoln game. It was just one of those days when everything went right. This one was tough.”
Rice 70 Newburgh 68
