BROADALBIN — Mariano DiCaterino had the hot hand for Broadalbin-Perth in Friday’s Foothills Council boys’ basketball game against Johnstown.
While Johnstown came out ready to play Friday following a disappointing effort Tuesday against Johnstown, it was DiCaterino’s 30-point performance with seven 3-pointers that helped the Patriots pull away in the fourth quarter for a 60-46 win at Broadalbin-Perth High School.
“It was night and day compared to Tuesday,” Johnstown coach Phil Satterlee said. “We sat down and had a little chat and watched the game film of what happened Tuesday and showed them where our effort was. We talked about moving forward and had our two best practices we have had all year. I was really happy with how the guys responded after what I would consider a terrible performance.”
Powered by a pair of 3-pointers from Bryce Mureness, the Sir Bills grabbed an 8-7 first quarter advantage.
DiCaterino found his range from behind the arc in the second quarter, hitting four 3-pointers to help the Patriots take a 29-24 lead into the locker romm at the break.
DiCaterino remained hot in the third quarter, adding 11 points to his total to give B-P a 45-36 lead heading into the final eight minutes.
The Patriots were able to slow down the Johnstown offense in the final quarter to pull out the victory.
“We are not playing very well offensively and it is a good thing [DiCaterino] stepped up and hit some big shots to get us going,” Broadalbin-Perth coach Tucker Gifford said. “I am not pleased with our offense right now and they know it. We just need to keep working and figure it out. We had a poor night on offense Wednesday night and again tonight. The part that I struggle with is that the poor offense turned into a poor defensive effort. We have to work our way through the mud here a little bit.”
DiCaterino grabbed six rebounds in addition to his game-high 30 points, while Sam Hotaling had nine points and Ryan Savoie finished with five points and six rebounds for Broadalbin-Perth.
“Johnstown played hard, took a bunch of charges and showed their toughness,” Gifford said. “I was impressed with that.”
Steven VanNostrand led the Sir Bills with 13 points, while Kyle Everest finished with 12 points and four rebounds and Braden Jones added eight rebounds and eight points to go with nine point from Mureness.
“The effort was where we need it to be and I hope that it proved that if you play with that effort you give yourself a chance to be competitive,” Satterlee said. “Now we have work on closing the games out. This is three games now where we have had a two-possession game in the fourth quarter and then we miss a box out or have an errant pass. That is the kind of stuff we have to work on cleaning up now and that is going to happen with practice.”
Johnstown 8 16 15 7—46
Broadalbin-Perth 7 22 16 15—60
Johnstown scoring: Mureness 3-0-9, B. Jones 2-4-8, VanNostrand 5-3-13, E. Jones 1-2-4, Everest 5-0-12. Broadalbin-Perth scoring: M. DiCaterino 10-3-30, Savoie 1-3-5, Magliocca 1-2-4, Hotaling 3-3-9, DeJong 2-0-4, A. DiCaterino 1-1-3, Tambasco 1-0-2, Rogers 1-1-3. Johnstown totals 16-9-46. Broadalbin-Perth totals: 20-13-60.
