Varsity Boys Basketball: Homer Trojans win rivalry game vs. Cortland Purple Tigers (photos included)

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Varsity Boys Basketball: Homer vs. Cortland. (Photo provided by Kevin L. Smith of The Cortland Voice).

The Homer Trojans defeated the Cortland Purple Tigers at their first rivalry game of the regular season Monday night. Homer won the game with a score of 34-31. The game was played at Homer high school.

It was a tight game all around between rivals, with Homer gaining an 18-17 lead at halftime.

Both teams created turnovers and forced missed shots in the final quarter. (All of Homer’s fourth quarter points were scored at the free throw line, while Cortland only scored on two of their field goal attempts).

“It's a Cortland-Homer game, so there’s some intensity,” said Homer head coach Ken Updike. “We knew that it was going to be close. So for us, we decided what our identity is. We’re going to defend and rebound. We had some incentives with holding teams down with certain numbers of deflections, rebounds, and so on.”

“It was an ugly win, but a win is a win,” added coach Updike. “The kids played hard and rallied. Cortland had a good second quarter to even it up and battle it out. I’m glad our kids composed themselves. I think it's a step in the right direction to kind of tether on a win. We’ve said that winning is something you learn. We will watch some film, because there are some things we can do a little better to help us win, but closing it out at the end and getting some stops and so on is something that we will be proud of.”

Here is a score breakdown of the game:

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final
Homer	11	7	11	5	34
Cortland	3	14	10	4	31

Homer was led by Kaden Durham (14 points, 12 rebounds, 5 steals & 1 block), Mitchell Earle (5 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists & 3 steals), Alex Voltra (5 points & 2 rebounds), and Wyatt Wilbur (4 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists & 3 steals).

Cortland was led by Antonio Terrazas (9 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists & 1 steal), Zachary Muir (7 points, 3 rebounds & 1 steal), and Caden Albright (5 points).

With this result, Homer improved to a 2-2 record, while Cortland fell to 0-5.

The next time these two rivals meet each other in the regular season will be at Cortland junior-senior high school on Friday (January 26) at 6:45pm. They might also see each other earlier in the season, as they will both participate at the “Tom Neugebauer Holiday Tournament” on December 28th & 29th at Cortland junior-senior high school.

Homer’s next game will be played at Homer high school against Westhill this upcoming Thursday (December 21st) at 6:45pm; while Cortland hosts Vernon-Verona-Sherrill at Cortland junior-senior high school on Friday (December 22nd) at 6:45pm.