BINGHAMTON — Cooperstown’s defense turned a team that scored 100 points in the Class C semifinal into a team that needed two three pointers after the championship game had been decided to get over 40 points, and as a result, the Hawkeye boys won their second state title in seven years with a 52-43 win over defending champion Berne-Knox-Westerlo on Sunday, March 22, at Visions Veterans Arena.
“Our goal was to come in here and punch them in the mouth, and that’s what we did,” said senior guard Miles Nelen, who led all scorers with 20 points and also had five assists.
“It’s so great,” said Coach John Lambert, who took over as Hawkeye head coach in 2018-2019, and led his son Jack and his friends to a state title that season. “I am just so happy for these kids. They worked so hard. Not that other teams don’t. All teams work hard. But this team has such a bond.
“We had the same thing happen with the 2019 team,” Lambert continued. “Every few years, a group comes along and that special bond happens. And you could just see the nervousness and anxiousness, and them fighting through it. ‘I want it for you. And I want it for me. And I want this for all of us.’ It was wonderful.”
“We’ve been playing basketball together, this group, for our whole lives, so it is really special to win this with these boys. My best friends,” said senior center/forward Jackson Crisman, who had 13 points and eight rebounds, a day after his off-balance, buzzer beater sent Cooperstown to the championship game.
Sunday’s game was close through three quarters, with the Hawkeyes leading after one quarter, 13-11, at halftime, 26-20, and after three quarters, 33-31. However, throughout the game, there were signs the Hawkeyes had rattled the Bulldogs, who missed many layups, got out rebounded and at times out hustled, and struggled at the foul line.
“Cooper Coleman did a good job,” Nelen said. “Shane Kirker is probably the best player in the state. Cooper guarded him well.”
“Defense makes all the intensity of the game, and that’s what you need,” senior guard and team sixth man Christian Lawson said.
In the fourth quarter, the Hawkeyes pulled away, holding the Bulldogs without a field goal for the first five minutes, and turning a close game into a double-digit lead in the process.
Lawson made a steal and pass to Nelen to make it 45-34 with 3:48 to play, and then a half minute later, Nelen made it 47-34 on a fast break for the biggest lead of the game for the Hawkeyes.
The Bulldogs switched to a full court press for the final three minutes and then began to foul. The Hawkeyes went 5-for-8 from the line in the final 2:10.
Kirker and Dayne Coates made three pointers in the last 1:20, but all that could do was cut the final score to nine.
“We started off man to man,” Lambert said, “and we were going to focus on Kirker and (George) Wright, because they’re very, very, very good players. That left 0 (Jayden Buie) open a little bit and that was a problem. I think he had three three pointers in the first (half). So, we switched to a defense we put in before the Final Four, where Miles and Christian, one pressed him and one took the second pass.
“We put in a kind of morphing 2-3 zone, so we could get back against good teams,” Lambert continued. “It kind of worked. Then they started trying to get Kirker inside, and he kind of made it difficult for us with his spin move, and then he was kicking it out to (Buie). We had to do something to stop him from getting inside with his spin move.”
Kirker led the Bulldogs with 15 points but was 3-for-8 from the foul line, and his team went 5-for-12 overall, while Cooperstown was 9-for-14. Buie scored 12 points on four three pointers. Coates scored 11 points. Wright scored five, on just one field goal.
Coleman scored 10 points and had seven rebounds for Cooperstown (27-0). Brody Murdock scored seven points.
Berne-Knox-Westerlo, the Section II and Northern Region champion, finished its season 21-7.