SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Central Catholic is fresh off of one of the program’s best seasons ever.
After an undefeated Western Athletic Conference Northern Division season and taking down Section II leading scorer Joel Wincowski and Lake George in the Section II Class C semifinals, the Saints marched on to the finals, where they lost to future state champion Hoosic Valley, 51-49.
“The great thing about last year for this group is several of our key returning players competed on a daily basis in very high paced scrimmages against that undefeated team,” said Saints head coach Ken Mantia. “We graduated some outstanding guards in Luke Spicer and Brian Hall, along with two very versatile front line players in Keegan Murphy and Michael Naughton. Naughton is the best defensive rebounder I have coached in 26 years and boxing him out was a chore in practice for all of our guys. It made them tougher. We have some solid players returning including Evan Pescetti (All-WAC), Ryan Czarnecki (three year varsity starter), Pat Clare, Will Mann, Jake Van Patten, Dylan Seeber and Jake Schneider. Add to this the addition of some solid JV players and we have a chance to become a good team as the year goes along.”
Two of those upcoming players are junior swingman Colin Bradley and sophomore point guard Max Layden.
Both Pescetti and Czarnecki are expected to take on leadership roles, as the two returning players with the most varsity experience.
“Evan is a complete player,” Mantia said. “He defends at a high level, rebounds and is an outstanding passer. Evan has improved his outside touch and has taken on more of a load as far as ball handling goes. It will be natural for anyone in his position at times to try to do too much to help his team, and when that happens it is up to the coaching staff to reel him in a little. Even when Evan makes mistakes it usually is when he is trying to create for his teammates and not worrying about his own statistics. You consistently hear the same names with Carruthers, Wincowski and Rooney being considered the top class C players, and all three are tremendous for sure; however, in my view, Pescetti is an all-around basketball player and is as good as all three.”
In addition to Seeber and Clare, Czarnecki is one of this year’s captains who has been an intricate piece of the Saints varsity puzzle for four years now.
“We love the leadership of Ryan Czarnecki, Mantia said. “This is Ryan’s third year as a starter and last year he unselfishly accepted the role of sixth man. He has been working hard and this rubs off on his teammates.”
Starting with the second annual Mike Beson Memorial Tournament, the Saints opened with a non-league game against the Foothills Council’s South Glens Falls. The 53-38 opening loss showed to Mantia a lack of offensive execution.
“We can defend and rebound with anyone due to the commitment and leadership we have with Clare, Seeber and Czarnecki,” Mantia said. “However, our offense on a scale of 1-10 is a 1.5 at this point. We are much too stagnant and have to remember good offense comes down to two things, spacing and trust. In our first tourney we had neither and struggled. We will get significantly better.”
The offense improved slightly in the following consolation game against another Class A team, Bishop Gibbons, as Pescetti led the team with 16 points, followed by Layden’s 14.
“The JV additions have been a big lift,” Mantia said. “Max Layden has already given us a nice boost in the backcourt as a sophomore and Colin Bradley plays with the same intensity Van Patten and Mann do, and he has a much improved overall game. Drew Welcome is a legit guard. He shoots with range and can handle the ball fine for a wing player. Lane Gannon and Jerrid Lynette are juniors who work extremely hard in practice, which makes everyone else a better player.”
A year after going undefeated in the regular season, Mantia said his goals, regardless of record, remain the same every year.
“We want to be much better in January than we are in November. By doing that, we hope to always contend for a WAC title and have a legitimate chance to get to the Civic Center. We have a lot of work to do, but our guys understand that no one hands you anything in life, you have to go get it.”
To have a shot to get back to get back to where the team left off last year, Mantia stressed the importance of defending at a high level with strong communication and shot challenges. Offensively, it’s a matter of ball movement and “trusting” one another.
The Saints open up their regular season conference schedule at Oppenheim-Ephratah/St. Johnsville next Tuesday.
