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Sports

Huskies Fall In First Round Of Mamaroneck Tournament

Jared Hodes five 3-point field goals are not enough to withstand Hackley's superior second half.

Friday night at Mamaroneck High School, The Huskies of Harrison High took on The Hackley School to kick off the 13th annual boys Mamaroneck tournament. The game was filled with several subplots mostly centering around Hackley's 6'7'' Jon Salandra.

Salandra grew up both on and off the court with several of the Harrison players including co-captains Dennis Rinaldi and Jared Hodes as well as starting point guard Matt Pipitone. Coming into the game both Rinaldi and Salandra were among the section leaders in points and rebounds so it appeared that both were destined to battle it out in scoring and on the boards.

"They're old friends, they know each others moves," said Hackley Coach Steven Frolo said, "We scouted Harrison, we know what Rinaldi likes to do and what the best parts of his game are. We figured putting a bigger guy on him, like Jon, and maybe we could neutralize him."

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The game started out slow and sloppy as both teams tried to eliminate the others big man by playing in transition and from beyond the arc. In the entire first half the Huskies only made one three point field goal from Hodes and Hackley's Salandra was held to just two points.

"We tried to attack them a few times, but they packed it in on Dennis pretty good," Harrison  Coach Gary Chiarella said, "We didn't really want to  shoot that many threes it just worked out that way. Our misses just lead to bad defense; we gave up three of four breakaways for lay-ups."

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At halftime the Huskies had a narrow lead in the low scoring affair as they were up 23-20.

The second half was a different story for both teams as the shots starting falling and the scores started rising. Lead by Jared Hodes and his game high 19 points, 14 of which came in the second half, the Huskies started several scoring runs. However, each time Harrison got on a role they quickly gave up easy baskets in transitions or committed unnecessary and ill advised fouls.

When asked about his teams transition defense Chiarella restrained himself and simply said, "It's not very good." He continued, "We tried to push the ball more in the second half but we gave up more points. We only gave up 20 in the first half and then 40 in the second"

Hackley's senior guard Sam Budlong only scored 1 point the first half but he owned the forth quarter.

"The one guy that couldn't hit a shot in the first half (Budlong) is actually our best three point shooter," Frolo said, "It was just a matter of time before he would get on target. He's a senior, he's a captain, we knew he would get it going."

Budlong continuously found seems in the defense leading to open looks from everywhere on the court. But his biggest contribution to the game came in the final minutes as he nailed four straight foul shots to put the game out of reach for the Huskies.

"He's like a 90 percent free throw shooter," Frolo said of Sam Budlong, "I don't want anyone else on the line."

If it had not been for the clutch free throw shooting of Budlong the game could of tipped into the Huskies favor or gone into overtime as Harrison's Rinaldi nailed a 3-point buzzer beating shot from 30 feet away to give the game the final score of 60-59.

Rinaldi won the big man battle scoring 17 points and grabbing 14 rebounds, but Salandra and his 6 points won the war getting the hard fought victory for his school.

"I knew it was going to be hard going against Dennis," Salandra stated, "But if we can get the outside shooting we got tonight, were going to win a lot of games."

"Jon's a great player, and a good friend," Rinaldi said of Salandra, "We played him tough but he made some smart moves and good plays to help his team win."

Brandon O'Shea finished the game with 10 points for the Huskies and Sam Budlong closed the game with 16 points for Hackley.

The Huskies will face either Saunders or Mamaroneck in the consolation game of the tournament at 2 pm on Saturday and Hackley will play for the tournament championship at 4.

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