Ichabod Crane Nips Catholic Central-lance wheeler video

Columbia-Greene Media VALATIE -- Behind a combined 44 points from the guard duo of Edward Ogden and Christian Pesano the Ichabod Crane Riders were able to overcome early first half struggles to capture their fourth straight victory Tuesday night with a 64-54 victory over the Catholic Central Crusaders in Colonial Council boys basketball action. The Riders came out of the gate slow with Catholic Central starting hot, especially from beyond the arc. The Crusaders knocked down three triples in the quarter and were far better from the field than the Riders who picked up most of their points from the line. Crane was down as much as nine midway thru the first before Pesano and Ogden picked up the pace and cut the deficit to five, 15-10 heading into the second quarter. Ogden and Pesano owned the second quarter and put the Riders on his back to bring them back into the contest. Crane also benefited from Catholic Central getting into the penalty with seven minutes left in the half, allowing Ichabod to pile up points at the charity stripe. Down eight nearing the end of the half, Ichabod Crane went on a 13-4 run to finish the half capped off by a half-court, buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Ogden to give the Riders their first lead of the game 28-27. Ogden led all scorers at the half with 15 points and his running mate, Pesano, despite struggling from the field--1-for-4 from beyond the arc--scored 10 points. The big difference in the half came at the charity stripe. Ichabod Crane had 16 free throw attempts to Catholic Central's four, which allowed the Riders more opportunities at free points to slowly climb back into the game. The Riders came out of the gate and remained hot from the floor, going on a 6-0 run to start the quarter and take a 34-27 lead. Ogden contributed four of the six points to open the quarter, however, the other bucket came from Donovan Brown who had a dominant third quarter for the Riders on the defensive end, recording three blocks and completely stymied the Crusaders low-post game. On the offensive end. The Crusaders made it a three-point game late in the quarter after Al-lon Walters buried a 3-pointer, however, Pesano, went on a one-man 5-0 run to give Crane a 44-37 lead heading into the fourth. The final quarter was a battle until the final second. The Riders opened up the fourth going on an 8-0 run with Pesano continuing his second half dominance having scored 10 of the team's 13 points going back to the final 1:30 of the third quarter. Despite holding a 52-39 lead, the Crusaders charged back going on an 11-4 to make it a 56-50 game with 3:28 remaining in the action, however, the fouls caught up to Catholic Central once again, getting into the penalty and allowing the Riders to close the game at line, which they did to capture a 64-54 victory and their fourth straight victory. Ogden finished with a season-high and game-high 23 points for the Riders and Pesano fell just one-point shy of his season average of 22 points per game scoring 21 on the night and was clutch from the stripe going 7-for-8 in the fourth quarter. "They do pretty well, they compliment each other very well," Ferguson said. "They've learned that in the game of basketball if you've got someone you can always trust and rely on and I think they've built up that trust these first five or six games, so now they are very comfortable with one another and they look for one another." Leading the Crusaders offensive attack was Liam McDonald and Walters with 10 points apiece. With the win, Ichabod Crane improves to 6-1 on the season. ICHABOD CRANE (64): D. Brown 2-0-4; Z. Kennedy 2-1-4-5; E. Ogden 8-6-9-23 (1); C. Pesano 5-10-14-21 (1); C. Salazar 2-2-2-7 (1); M. Vecellio 0-4-4-4; Total: 19-23-33-64 (2). CCHS (54): J. Brown 2-4-4-9 (1); L. Clement 2-1-2-6 (1); J. Fratianni 0-0-2-0; J. Lynch 2-0-5 (1); J. Mattfield 2-0-1-5; L. McDonald 4-1-4-10 (1); M. Otis 0-2-2-2; N. Pacini 2-2-3-7 (1); A. Walters 4-0-10 (2); Total: 18-10-18-54 (8).