Prattsburgh boys basketball team one win away from crown
GATEHOUSE MEDIA

Prattsburgh's Wade Fuller, right, calls out a play while defended by Andover's Seth Shay during Wednesday's, Feb. 27, game.

WAYLAND - Although no style points were rewarded, Prattsburgh still did enough Wednesday, Feb. 27, to earn a bus ride to Rochester for the Section V, Class D championship game on Saturday, March 1.

This time, defense was the difference in the topseeded Vikings' 47-35 victory over No. 4 Andover in the Section V, Class D semifinals.

"Thank God we played a little defense," Prattsburgh head coach Jim Burke said. "If we didn't play a little bit of defense, we wouldn't be going up (to Rochester) Saturday."

No. 1 Prattsburgh (21-1), which has won 21 straight since losing its season opener, will move on to play No. 2 Northstar (17-5) at 11:30 a.m. Saturday for th e Section V, Class D title at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester. Results of this game will be published next week. The Vikings, who last played for a sectional title three years ago, will go for their first sectional title since 1994.

Despite some careless play at the offensive end, Prattsburgh put the clamps down on Andover defensively, limiting the Panthers to single digits in every quarter. Pesky defensive play from the Vikings also played a part in Andover turning the ball over 16 times for the game.

The Vikings weren't overwhelming offensively - shooting 35 percent (18- of-51) from the floor, but did outscore the Panthers in every quarter to slowly pull away.

Garrett Parker led the way for Prattsburgh offensively, pouring in a game-high 12 points. Despite some offensive struggles, Parker and the Vikings were particularly clutch at the free-throw line in crunch time. Parker was 4-for-4 from the line, connecting on both ends of two separate 1-and-1 opportunities in the final minute of play. As a team, the Vikings connected on six straight from the line in the last 60 seconds of regulation.

A 6-foot-2 guard, Parker gave Andover some match-up problems.

"We start four guards and we knew were gonna have problems with Parker and we knew he tended to get free," Andover head coach Steve Allen said. "I have a lot of respect for Mr. Burke and his team, they're good ball players."

Wade Fuller connected on Prattsburgh's lone 3- pointer and finished with 10 points, six assists and four steals. Marshell Stanley added seven points and a team-best 11 rebounds, while teammate Doug Lewis chipped in with nine points and nine rebounds.

In addition, Prattsburgh was uncharacteristic in its 16 turn overs for the game, along with just one 3-pointer, after hitting six in a rout of Belfast in the sectional quarterfinals.

"We did not play with a lot of intelligence," Burke said. "We didn't play with a little bit of intelligence tonight. That killed us more than anything."

While Burke wasn't too pleased with his team's effort, the effort was reminiscent of a sectional semifinal win in 1991 - when Prattsburgh won a state title.

"When we left, I told them, the year we won the states, we went 29-0, we played Belfast in the (sectional) semifinals and we were averaging 94 points a game that year and we beat Belfast 56-48," Burke said. "It should have been, probably talent-wise, a 30-point ball game, but we have those games and I'm just glad that we had it tonight and we came out on top, because you don't win too many games when you play like this."