By TIM TAYLORTioga County Sports Report
OWEGO — The last time the Owego boys basketball team won the Charlie Sibley Memorial Tournament the River Hawks also won a Section IV title. Repeating that feat may be a greater challenge this season, but Owego will certainly give it a shot.
The River Hawks went 13-7 in the regular season, finishing second to Seton Catholic in the STAC Central Division, then lost to Oneonta in overtime in the Section IV Class A quarterfinals.
Competition in the conference and the postseason will be fierce again this season.
“Our league, once again, is a gauntlet,” coach Chris Evans said. “While Binghamton, Seton, and Corning will eat up all the headlines, look for an improved Ithaca team, an excellent Oneonta squad with everyone back, and the always tough Maine-Endwell Spartans.
“In our division, playing Seton is like playing against a national prep program, a strong program in a relatively small public school basketball league. That’s our reality right now, and we must compete as best we can.”
Returning this year are guards Duke Snyder, Carter Rieg, Kingston Brainard, Calvin Smith, Noah Christ and small forward Atlas Boland.
All six are seniors and four of them are averaging double figures through two games. Smith, the team’s leading 3-point percentage shooter last season (37 percent) is averaging 14.5 points per game and has five treys to his credit. Snyder is also averaging 14.5 points while Brainard has a half-dozen threes and is averaging 11.5 points. Rieg is also averaging 11.5 points.
The River Hawks suffered several graduation losses and doesn’t have the bench strength it did last season, but you can never count an Evans team out.
“Although this is not a rebuilding year, we did lose a number of contributing seniors from last season,” he said. “Our bench is clearly less experienced than last year’s, but with four senior guards who are all pretty tough and savvy in their own right, we should have another solid campaign.
“If we get enough rebounding out of sophomore Nolan Card and seniors Atlas Boland and Shay Pidcoe, we have a chance to make some noise.”
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