Shenendehowa’s Robby Hicks, right, shown against Niskayuna earlier this season, helped make up for an off night by Mason Courtney in the Plainsmen’s win over Guilderland.
GUILDERLAND CENTER — Shenendehowa basketball coach Paul Yattaw admitted that his Friday night Suburban Council matchup against Guilderland had him concerned, a plight that grew when Plainsmen scoring leader Mason Courtney was having an off night.
Enter the 1-2 backcourt combination of seniors Carter Seeberger and Robby Hicks. Seeberger, who wears No. 1, and Hicks, donning jersey No. 2, spurred a 13-point third-quarter run with three 3-pointers, and Shen (8-4) broke away from the Dutchmen, 50-40.
Courtney, a 6-foot-4 senior guard, still had 14 points despite missing four of five free throws, but it was Seeberger who stepped up into a scoring role to enable the Plainsmen to extend their 20-19 halftime lead.
“This game scared me,” Yattaw said. “Their record hasn’t shown how good they are. They lost to Nisky by one and played CBA tough.
“It’s funny because one of the coaches said, ‘Do you think they’re going to finally go to some box-and-one on Mason?’ I said I hope they do because it’ll free up some of the other guys. Mason’s a willing passer. His shot wasn’t really going for him, so he was looking to make plays.”
Seeberger, who had a career-high 28 Saturday in Shen’s one-point loss to sixth-ranked Kingston, led all scorers with 16 points, all but one in the second half.
“I felt like we stepped up on the defensive end in the second half, which led us to a lot of points on the offense,” Seeberger said. “We got open shots for our teammates. As a point guard, you’re not really trying to score, but today kids were stepping up. Everyone’s doing their fair share of points and rebounding and defending and passing.”
Guilderland (5-7), looking for its first Suburban victory, led by as many as four in a back-and-forth first half despite scoring leader Mitch MacKissock being held scoreless for the opening 12 minutes.
“They got hot,” Guilderland coach Mike Parks said. “They’re obviously capable of making threes. They had eight for the game, and they had four of those eight in the third quarter. That broke it open. Defensively we held them to 50 points. That’s a pretty good team to hold to 50, but unfortunately, we only scored 40.”
MacKissock finished with 12 points for the Dutchmen, and teammate Liam Teague added 10.
Shenendehowa, which dressed only nine players because of injuries and protocols, got half of its points from Seeberger and Hicks, who scored nine. Sophomore Grady Ceccucci added six.
“If we have three starters out, we’re playing games,” Yattaw said. “We just focus on who we have at practice. We’ve been short all week in practice, so we’ve been doing four-on-four. We’ve got coaches playing. We’re just focusing on the fundamentals. We figure if we attend to what we want to do, defensively and offensively, then we can be a pretty good team.”
Pete Dougherty retired from full-time writing in August 2021 after 36 years with the Times Union. He still contributes as a freelance writer on golf and other sports. You can reach him at [email protected].