Germantown senior Aiden O’Brien (center) celebrates a Section 2 Class D semifinal win over Hawthorne Valley with his team at Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls on Tuesday.
Germantown point guard Brian Gardner dribbles the ball during the second half of a Section 2 Class D semifinal game against Hawthorne Valley at Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls on Tuesday.
Germantown senior Aiden O’Brien (center) celebrates a Section 2 Class D semifinal win over Hawthorne Valley with his team at Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls on Tuesday.
Germantown point guard Brian Gardner dribbles the ball during the second half of a Section 2 Class D semifinal game against Hawthorne Valley at Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls on Tuesday.
GLENS FALLS — The Germantown boys’ basketball team is hitting its stride at the perfect time.
On Tuesday night, the Germantown boys’ basketball team completed one of the bigger upsets of the Section 2 postseason when the Clippers, the Class D tournament’s six seed in a seven team bracket, knocked off second-seeded Hawthorne Valley 49-44.
The Clippers had played Hawthorne Valley on Jan. 10 and 21, respectively falling 70-41 and 59-33 to the Wildcats. Germantown point guard Brian Gardner was glad to get a little revenge.
“Last time we played them we didn’t play our best, but we knew coming into this we can do whatever we put our minds to,” he said. “We all worked together, we chipped in and we knew we could do it if we tried.”
Germantown picked up its third victory of the season from the win versus Hawthorne Valley, who finished 14-7 this season with its first sectional semifinal appearance ever. For the Clippers, this followed up a 58-47 win against 11-9 three-seed Fort-Ann in round one, all part of a run which has meant the world to head coach Ryan Broast, a Germantown graduate in his fourth year leading the team.
“I’ve dreamt of it since I first started coaching,” he said. “All I’ve ever wanted to do is get back to here and then get back to that finals and bring a championship home to Germantown.”
Germantown, who went 1-19 this regular season with a 49-41 result at Chatham on Jan. 14., last went to a sectional championship in 2019-20, a decade after the Clippers won both a Section 2 and regional title.
Senior post Aiden O’Brien, who scored 19 points in the effort against Hawthorne Valley, thinks the Clippers’ chance this season at adding a new banner are an earned result of perseverance.
“We were getting our butts kicked every night, but we never gave up,” he said. “We just kept fighting, kept practicing, kept getting ready for this right here.”
Germantown is the only Class D school that competes in the Patroon Conference, where the Clippers played 14 games this season against teams Class B or higher. Hawthorne Valley and Loudonville Christian, the D tournament’s one-seed, are the class’s only other members who’ve played more than two games B or above.
Broast was confident the Clippers’ would find a playoff advantage from their membership in the Patroon, where the team has played since the Central Hudson Valley League’s disbandment in 2022.
“After a 1-19 regular season coming into this, some people were hesitant about even going to sectionals, and now we’re in the finals. It’s amazing,” he said. “I didn’t doubt our guys for a second. I knew with our tough regular season schedule that we could compete with anybody in Class D basketball.”
He thinks the team benefitted from upgraded levels of chemistry and intensity late in the season.
“Some of the older guys stepped up, and their leadership came through,” he said. “Practices started getting tougher and better, and guys were competing with each other, and that’s kind of where we made the little change moving into sectionals.”
In the seasons ahead, Broast feels the team’s Cinderella magic this season could go a long way in building a winning culture at Germantown.
“Winning now is great, but the momentum for the program moving forward, it’s just only gonna go up from here,” he said. “The people and kids that were here [Tuesday] that saw this and saw our guys get to play in this gym, now they want to come here, now they want to play, and they’ll believe in the program.”
On Sunday, the Clippers will head to Hudson Valley Community College in Troy for a shot at their first Section 2 banner in 15 years. They’ll need a third-straight win against a higher seed, this time against Loudonville Christian, a 14-6 team who beat four-seed Hartford 67-37 on Wednesday. The Eagles beat Germantown 54-41 on Jan. 16.
Gardner didn’t think the Clippers’ opponent in the title game would’ve affected their level of focus, regardless of his team’s experience versus the Eagles.
“We play anyone the same so it doesn’t really matter who we’re playing,” he said. “We’re just gonna go in, clear our heads and have fun with the team.”
O’Brien is also excited to keep the run going.
“These are me and my best friends’ last games,” he said. “This is the biggest run we’ve ever done, and we’re not done yet.”
