By JOHN ANDERSON, interviews and photos by MADISYN HERMAN
Watching the Avoca and Prattsburgh basketball teams dominate over the years has been a given. In 2020, the two teams won in a split Class D bracket and Covid stopped them from a state title.
No matter how good you are at sports, more Dollar General’s come to town than students. Without enough students to field modified teams, the schools merged in basketball and eventually all sports.
The winning continued. Pacey Hopkins at Avoca and then at A-P won 61 straight games and a state title before graduating in 2022. That year, Macoy Putnam as a sophomore, was named MVP of the New York State Final Four.
Putnam celebrated with many of those same players in 2023 in Glens Falls when Avoca-Prattsburgh won again. Putnam now has five straight Section V titles, a new record.
However, this season, the stands at a basketball game remind you of baseball games of yesteryear. “Scorebooks! Programs here! Can’t tell the players without a scorebook!”
Putnam was suddenly without four starters, a guard and a forward who came off the bench. But he did have his dad, Brian, back as the head coach.
So what did the Putnam’s do differently this season?
They lost. A lot. Nine games to be exact.
But after each loss, you could see the team getting better. And better. Good coaches rebuild. Great coaches reload.
On the floor of the War Memorial in Rochester last Saturday, Macoy Putnam was receiving his Section V MVP award as A-P downed a very good Elba team, 50-37 in the finals. He looked nothing like the nervous 8th grader who was forced into the finals with Sawyer Devoe to play defense like wild dogs to spark Prattsburgh to a title. He looked like the same floor leader that won two straight state titles.
Those accomplishments, those records, and those moments are all on hold for now.
A-P is back to 0-0 and in the Far West Regionals tonight at 6 p.m. to face Pine Valley, the Section VI champion at Buffalo State for another trip to Glens Falls for the state final four.
A-P is 14-9 and Pine Valley is 11-11.
Those four new starters will be facing a Pine Valley team that thrives on driving coach Robert “Bobby” Slisz crazy, getting way behind and coming all the way back for wins. It’s something A-P has not faced in previous years, as the Titans have been able to take leads and put teams away.
In the Section VI finals just over a week ago on a Friday night, Pine Valley had a 10-1 lead, but Clymer battled back and took a 28-22 lead. Pine Valley didn’t allow another point, taking back the lead with 3:30 left to win, 30-28.
“They are the toughest, mentally strong kids I’ve ever had. They know they can be down and ton and come back to win,” said Slisz. “They battle back … it’s what we are used to doing.”
Clymer made ONE field goal in the first half, scoring one point in the first and making four free throws in the second quarter to trail, 14-5 at the half. Behind Tanner Mihalko’s 12 point night, Clymer scored 20 in the third but did not score a single point in the fourth quarter. The two teams split during the regular season.
“We lost the first game (to Clymer) in overtime and we went on an 18-0 run to force overtime,” said Slisz. “So that was a huge moment for us. And the second game, we came back into their house and won in a similar fashion. We were down 10 and won. So (in the Section VI championship game) we were confident. We knew we could play with them, we knew we could play from behind, we knew we would battle and honestly, I thought our matchup was very good knowing the athletes we have.
“I knew with our athletes we could win a dogfight and in the end, the better shooting team won. We rebounded so well, something we worked on,” Slisz added.
VIDEO: See a reel of A-P players interviewed along with coach Putnam: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1537539433481247
And that is a concern for Coach Putnam, who has had his eye on Pine Valley all season.
“The best thing going is streaming basketball games. We have watched Pine Valley four or five times,” Putnam said. “They have a couple bigs we definitely have to take care of when we match up with them. It should be a brawl, I’m looking forward to it.”
Unlike A-P, Slisz took over a program that was going through a drought of titles. In his fourth season, he returned the hardware to Pine Valley, a proud basketball program in girls and boys basketball for decades. It was the first title since 2011.
“I’ve been doing this for four years, we had a team two years ago that came awfully close but we went against an amazing Westfield team. At that time I thought, ‘Two years from now, we are going to have a very similar team and they are going to be battling every team on that side of the bracket.’ Clymer, Sherman, Westfield, they are all very tough,” Slisz said. “Coming into this season, we knew we were going to see Clymer in this moment. And to battle the way we battled, and to win the way we won, that’s what I’m most proud of.
“We can go up and down the floor, we can shoot the ball. But to win with rebounding and defense? That was the thing that was unbelievable,” Slisz continued. “It’s been 13 years since we won a Section VI title, we have three coaches who won championships in school history and now it’s four. I am so honored to be the fourth. Those other three coaches have incredible coaching resumes. I feel like I am not part of a finished product here as a coach. The kids brought home a title.”
The moment is not lost on Coach Putnam. After winning the Section V title he said, “It’s incredible, it never gets old coming here to play. The excitement the kids have is so much fun to watch.”
Putnam was asked what it is like going into the Far West Regionals without the senior leadership from the past two state championship teams?
“We talked about 32 minutes at a time regardless of who we are playing,” Putnam said. “We have to rebound, we have to defend. We try to run a little bit. I think it will be the same kind of game plan.”
Run they do. A-P averages 63.8 points a game. However, defensively, both teams hold their opponents to between 45 and 49 points a game. Pine Valley gives up 45.8 a game to A-P’s 49.2.
Macoy Putnman averages 18.8 a game, and despite playing a lot of guard has 7.6 rebounds and hands out 7.1 assists. That 8th grader who came off the bench to play defense in the finals? He still does that, too, with 4.9 steals a game.
Then there are two JV starters from a year ago, Jaeden “JJ” Crowder who averages 16 a game and junior Daniel Stilson, who has dominated at times, averaging 14.9 a game and 6.4 rebounds. He worked his way into the Section V record book with the all-time leaders for a single game in sectionals with 37 points in the semi-finals.
Senior Chris Abbott, who has shown big moments of offense and defense this season and senior Collin Hammond, who stepped up in the finals when Stilson left for a spell with an injury. Also giving A-P valuable minutes this year have been juniors Brian Heale and Maddix Cartwright, sophomores Landon White, Colin Zurlick and Connor Parulski along with freshmen Carter Button and Austin Swift.
Pine Valley is led by senior Jon Sheldon with 15.5 points a game and senior forward Miles Volk, who averages close to a double-double with 13.3 points and 9.7 rebounds a game. He also adds a few blocks per game. Nick Seabolt, another senior, is a scoring threat for Pine Valley.
