HIGH SCHOOL BOYS BASKETBALL — SECTION THREE CLASS D CHAMPIONSHIP

By Jeff Vella

Staff Writer

BING

Star photo by Julie Lewis Davenport 5-foot-10 sophomore guard Dan Toombs is blocked by Newfield center Josh Delfino, a 6-8 senior, during the first quarter of the Section Four Class D championship Saturday at the Broome County Arena.

HAMTON — If Saturday’s Section Four Class D boys basketball championship was a boxing match, the referees would have stopped it in the first round.

They didn’t, and the score turned ugly fast.

Top-seeded Newfield pounded No. 2 Davenport from the start en route to a 70-29 victory at the Broome County Arena.

"That was quite a whipping," Davenport coach Lee Fisher said. "Our crowd never had a chance to get their po[an error occurred while processing this directive]pcorn out. It was a nightmare. I never thought it would be like that."

The Trojans, the defending Class C sectional champs and top-ranked Class D team in the state, opened with a 13-0 run. They led, 20-4, after the first quarter and 37-11 at halftime.

"I was asking if we could get seven guys out there," Fisher said with a chuckle. "I wanted the officials to work with us a bit. You try everything you can to make a change, and there was no change. That was a nice team. They were strong at every position."

Newfield’s Josh Delfino, a 6-foot-8 senior center, scored 12 of his game-high 27 points in the second quarter. But Delfino didn’t need to do much in the first quarter, when Matt Ruger hit three three-pointers and Dusty Marshall and Dustin James each scored twice inside.

"Ruger came out shooting," said Davenport senior Justin Mole, who had six points. "He was on fire. His shots weren’t even touching the rim."

After Newfield squeaked into the final with a 52-50 victory over fifth-seeded Worcester in Wednesday’s semifinals, it looked like the Trojans might be vulnerable — especially considering the Wildcats routed Worcester twice during the regular season.

"I thought Worcester forced us to settle down and up our focus and intensity from the beginning," Newfield coach Duane Barrett said. "I also thought it was a set-up for Davenport. Maybe they thought it wouldn’t be difficult to hang with us."

The biggest difference was that the Wolverines had the size to match up with Newfield. Davenport did not, with 6-1 sophomore Brandon Cuddy as its lone post presence.

"We’re all undersized," said Mole. "We have a bunch of guards on our team and not too many big men. We just couldn’t match up with Delfino."

On top of that, Davenport (20-3) had nowhere to turn for offense. Newfield (21-2) made Mole and Dan Toombs — the Wildcats’ top scorers and two of the best players in the Delaware League — look average.

"We knew they were the focal points and we saw film on them," Barrett said. "Mole is a good shooter and he doesn’t need a lot of space, so we wanted to be tight with him. Toombs is more of a scrappy player who got most of his points off putbacks, so we wanted to contain him from getting to the front of the rim."

With Ruger and Clemons guarding Mole and Marshall defending Toombs, good looks were scarce for Davenport’s duo. Nobody else was hitting either, as the Wildcats went 13-for-60 (22 percent) from the field. Senior Charlie Whitmore led the team with 11 points.

"At every position, they were stronger and faster," said Fisher, whose team came in ranked 10th in the state. "And we were considered pretty fast for our area. That was a serious squad."

After Ruger’s fourth three-pointer made it 25-6 two minutes into the second quarter, Davenport abandoned its 2-3 zone in favor of man-to-man. That encouraged the Trojans to go inside to Delfino, who had a 7-inch height advantage on Cuddy.

"It’s just smart basketball," Barrett said. "When you have a 6-8 kid who can put the ball in the hole, it’d be pretty silly not to capitalize on it. Once they went out of the zone, it was going to be a long night."

Delfino responded to the defensive change with a personal 8-0 run late in the first half. Cuddy tried fronting Delfino in the post, but Newfield patiently waited to set up lob passes for layups. All 12 of Delfino’s baskets came in the paint.

"About all we could have done was Hack-a-Shaq," said Mole, referring to the defensive strategy of purposely fouling Miami Heat center Shaquille O’Neal to make him shoot free throws. "We haven’t played a kid bigger than 6-4 all year. That’s what separates them."

Newfield shot 15-for-22 (68 percent) in the first half and didn’t slow down much in the second half. Delfino scored nine straight Newfield points during a 13-4 run midway through the third quarter, making it 52-20.

The last highlight for Wildcats fans was when Mole hit a fall-away three-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer, getting his team within 55-27.

Newfield held Davenport to two points in the fourth quarter, and the Wildcats began sending in subs with about three minutes left.

Newfield finished 27-for-49 (55 percent) from the field. The 70 points were the most allowed by the Wildcats this season, two more than in a 68-65 loss to Hunter-Tannersville late in the regular season.

"Today was just their day and we came out slow," said Whitmore, who helped Davenport reach its first sectional final since 1989. "Whatever we threw at them, they beat us."

Notes: Four-year starters Mole and Whitmore will be Davenport’s main losses to graduation. The other three starters — Toombs, Cuddy and Joe Ballard — are sophomores. ... Newfield advanced to face Section Three’s New York Mills in a state quarterfinal Saturday.

NEWFIELD 70, DAVENPORT 29

2-DAVENPORT: Justin Mole 2 1-2 6, Charlie Whitmore 5 1-2 11, Dan Toombs 3 0-2 6, Joe Ballard 0 0-0 0, Brandon Cuddy 3 0-2 6, Travis Mole 0 0-0 0, Chris McCracken 0 0-0 0, Dustin Hillis 0 0-0 0, Jim Beers 0 0-0 0, Simon Flueckiger 0 0-0 0, Ricky Amo 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 13 2-8 29.

1-NEWFIELD: Dusty Marshall 4 1-1 9, Matt Ruger 6 0-0 17, Dustin James 4 0-0 8, Jordan Clemons 1 0-0 2, Josh Delfino 12 3-9 27, Ryan Miller 0 3-4 3, Pat Edwards 1 0-0 2, James Powers 1 0-0 2. 29 7-14 70.

Davenport 4 7 16 2 — 29

Newfield 20 17 18 15 — 70

Three-point field goals: Davenport 1 (Mole); Newfield 5 (Ruger 5).