A special thank you goes to Visions Federal Credit Union for partnering with us to provide the greater Cortland County community with additional sports coverage
Varsity Boys Basketball: McGraw vs. Cincinnatus. (Photo provided by Timothy A. Bennett, Owner & Publisher of The Cortland Voice).
The McGraw Eagles defeated county rival Cincinnatus after a second half comeback at McGraw High School Monday night.
The Eagles had a rough start to the game, as Cincinnatus was able to take a nine point lead by the end of the first half (17-26).
McGraw would then start to press Cincinnatus in the second half, allowing them to get some easy shots to come back into the game.
McGraw outscored Cincinnatus 49-20 in the second half to ultimately win the game with a final score of 66-46.
“The second half was the team that I have seen in the past three games,” said McGraw Head Coach Jamey Crumb. “We haven’t played in the last four days because of all the snow and the cancellation of school, so I think that rust showed a little bit. Our defense wasn't great, and that turned into bad offense because our hands weren’t ready for passes. We did a little tweaking at halftime; just with our press, because we weren’t moving in the right spots. That then turned into some of the steals and easy buckets we had to get us going.”
McGraw Head Coach Jamey Crumb.
“We haven’t really faced any adversity yet, especially being down and not having a great offensive output; because we are pretty athletic,” added coach Crumb. “So I just told them that this is good for us and to stick through it. It was good to see that they then had the confidence to be able to do it.”
According to McGraw senior Gaven Truman, the Eagles went back to their roots in the second half, and applied their “Ubuntu” team motto from the 2008 Boston Celtics team.
McGraw senior Gaven Truman.
“The first half we definitely struggled,” said Truman. “We weren’t holding ourselves to our ‘Ubuntu’ team motto. It means to never be negative towards our family, coaches, refs, and fans. We have to stay together and be positive at all times. We weren’t doing that in the first half, but in the second half we played together as a family. They couldn’t handle our full court press and we put it right to them.”
“CCL watch out,” added Truman. “We are coming.”
Here is a score breakdown of last night’s game:
| Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final |
| McGraw | 7 | 10 | 22 | 27 | 66 |
| Cincinnatus | 8 | 18 | 7 | 13 | 46 |
With the final result of the game, McGraw improved their unbeaten record to 4-0; while Cincinnatus fell to 0-3.
Throughout the game, Cincinnatus was led by Canden Stafford (16 points) and John Schuyler (15 points).
McGraw was led by Gaven Truman (25 points), Jaydon Bassett (13 points), and Nick Sutton (13 points).
Up next, McGraw will take on DeRuyter on the road this Thursday (December 22nd) at 7pm; while Cincinnatus looks to turn things around on the road against Stockbridge Valley on Thursday (December 22nd) at 7pm.
Here are some photos from last night’s game (photos provided by Timothy A. Bennett, Owner & Publisher of The Cortland Voice):
A special thank you goes to Visions Federal Credit Union for partnering with us to provide the greater Cortland County community with additional sports coverage
