Mohonasen boys' basketball player Keyon Holmes dribbles towards the basket during Saturday's Section 2 Class AA quarterfinal against LaSalle at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, March 1, 2025.
Mohonasen boys' basketball player Keyon Holmes dribbles towards the basket during Saturday's Section 2 Class AA quarterfinal against LaSalle at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, March 1, 2025.
La Salle shook off scrappy Mohonasen with a big run at the end the opening half, and the No. 2 Cadets soared to a 90-43 quarterfinal win at HVCC.
La Salle was holding onto a 22-19 lead in the second quarter when it closed out the half with a 13-2 flurry that included the last six points from Davon Maloney. Just before the buzzer, the Cadets’ big man handled an alley-opp pass from fellow sophomore Treddy Faison and pounded the ball home for a 35-21 advantage.
That was one of four slams for the 6-foot-6 Maloney, who collected 22 of his 30 points after the intermission on his 17th birthday.
“They just need to get me started,” Maloney said of his dunk to end the half. “That got me started.”
La Salle all but sealed its second win over No. 10 Mohonasen this season, and a final four berth opposite Troy, with a 26-17 third quarter that made it 61-38. Maloney had 14 of those 26 points.
“He looked like a Division I player,” Mohonasen coach Mike Paolino said of Maloney.
Faison scored 24 points and Steve Mulinio had 10, all of those coming in the first half.
“I'm sad to see it end for us today, but I’m proud of our guys, and I can’t say enough about our four seniors,” Paulino said. “We came to work every day.”
Jordon Knight scored 17 points for Mohonasen, and Tracy Battle and ZhA’aier Dobbs both scored seven. Dobbs’ layup had pulled Mohonasen within 22-19 before La Salle’s 13-2 run.
“We wanted one more game,” said Paolinio, whose 9-13 team beat No. 7 South Glens Falls 66-55 in the first round of the Section 2 tournament. “We wanted to go to Glens Falls, but we’ll take a bunch of things out of this season that we can look back at.”
