Amherst holds on to beat Riverside, will face McKinley on Wednesday
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

If Amherst Central is to make some serious noise in the Section VI Class A-1 tournament, they will have to play better with the lead and make more of their foul shots.

The Tigers had a 19-point second half advantage shrink to as low as five, plus they made only 29 of 51 free-throw attempts but held off eighth-seed Riverside, 80-76, on Friday, at Amherst.

Amherst (16-5) will face fourth-seed McKinley (17-4) at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday at Buffalo State Sports Arena.

The Tigers charged out to a 20-11 first-quarter lead, 11 points coming from hot-shooting guard Chris France, and were up 30-13 with 6:04 remaining in the second quarter before Riverside outscored the Tigers, 10-7, to trail, 33-23, at halftime.

Riverside was its own worst enemy in the first half, throwing the ball away countless times with ill-advised passes and turning it over thanks to an aggressive Amherst defense.

"That's how we get most of our points, coming after the other teams," said France, who finished with 20 points.

"We got off to a slow start," said Riverside coach Ron Killinger. "We came back and battled hard… Mental mistakes killed us. It just didn't come together the way we expected it."

The Tigers built their second half lead to as many as 19, 60-41, in the second half, including two threes and 12 points from Freeman and a nice left-handed layup from France, but kept Riverside in the game because of poor free-throw shooting (20 of 36 in the second half).

"If we make six more foul shots, the game is not as close," said Amherst coach Mike Chatelle.

Riverside, led by Nick Hesson (16 points), clawed back to make it a five-point game, 78-73, with less than a minute remaining. Freshman Justin Stokes, cousin of Loren Stokes, a senior at Hofstra University and ranked 24th all-time in scoring in the Monsignor Martin Association (1,368), added 15 points for the Frontiersmen.

Amherst's Cordell Freeman led all scorers with 29 points and eight rebounds but shot only 14 of 25 free throws. Will Gowen (nine points, nine rebounds), Andre Hakeem (nine points), Troy Martin (eight points) and Viron Hale (five points, nine rebounds and four blocks) also contributed for the Tigers.

Chatelle called the game a good learning experience.

"We were fortunate to get a run, and they really didn't have as big of a run as we did and that was the difference, but we have to play better with the lead," he said.

Riverside finished 10-12.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com