It was sweet revenge for the Western men’s open basketball team, as they defeated Hudson Valley — who they lost to the previous night — by a final of 86-81 to win the gold medal on the final day of the Empire State Games.
Western’s three-point loss the previous night was their only loss of the tournament, but was torched by a pair of Division 1 players in Mookie Jones (Syracuse) and Tony Taylor (George Washington) who combined for 54 points.
“We told the guys after the game and all morning that we had to play better team defense if we were going to win,” Western head coach Bill Bowe said. “We told the guys if we can keep them under 80 points, we’d be in good shape.
“Our help, rebounding, and overall team defense was much better, and that’s a big reason why we won, he added.”
It was revenge for Kyle Downey too, who struggled mightily the night before, but was the driving force in the win. Kyle had a game-high 21 points and drilled some big three’s midway through the second half to extend the lead to double-digits. His fourth three of the night at the 11-minute mark gave Western their biggest lead at 66-54, but that’s when Hudson Valley began to chip away.
Prince Jackson hit a three to get the score back under 10, and a few minutes later Stanley Francois stole an errant pass and his ensuing uncontested lay-up had the score down to six, leading Bowe to call timeout.
After UB’s Mike Clifford pushed the lead back to eight, he was called for his fourth personal foul on the ensuing possession, and headed to bench with just less than seven minutes to play. It seemed like it was going to be a crushing blow, but reserve Kevin Roth shined in his absence.
He appeared to tip-in a basket that was credited to Joe Rebisz — who also had a monster game — but then scored a huge bucket, pushing the lead back to eight at 78-70 that was ironically kept alive by a Rebisz offensive rebound.
“Kevin was actually a better fit at the time because they went small,” Bowe said. “He guards the perimeter better, but he played with high energy and gave us a boost.”
Things got interesting around the two-minute mark after Taylor scored on an offensive rebound to cut the lead to 80-76. After a turnover, UB’s Dave Barnett had a sensational block, only to have the ball stolen by Mike McNair, who was then fouled by Barnett, sending McNair to the line for two.
“It was a shame because Dave played a great game,” Bowe said. “It was a tough sequence, but he did a great job on Mookie all game long, who is obviously tough to guard.”
McNair cut it to three again with 37.8 seconds left and after a jump ball was called on Western’s next possession — which was an excruciating run of uncharacteristic play.
Hudson Valley went to Jones, although it was surprising Taylor wasn’t involved at all, as Jones three was way off, and Barnett put the finishing touches on the game with a dunk.
It was a balanced effort on both sides of the ball for the Western squad, but the unsung hero was Rebisz. He did a solid job on both sides of the glass and had 18 points.
Kevin Downey came back from injury and hit a pair of three-pointers for six points, but Bowe said simply having him on the floor was a huge plus.
“He may not have scored a lot,” Bowe said. “But he gives us leadership. He’s the kind of guy you want on the floor late in games because of how smart he is.”
It was the first gold medal for the Western open men’s basketball team since 2007 when they also beat Hudson Valley.
