By Phil Keren

Correspondent

Windham converted plenty of turnovers into baskets in an intense, fast-paced 71-68 win over Fairport Harding on Friday.

Bombers head coach Cody Apthorpe said he thought the victory over a talented squad will boost his team’s spirits.

“For the kind of year that we have had, that was a very important game for us to build some self confidence,” said Apthorpe. “Beating a good team like Fairport was a big step forward for us.”

Apthorpe and his staff probably had to remind themselves to breathe during the game’s final seconds.

Fairport Harding sophomore guard Yomar Castellano scored on a baseline drive to cut Windham’s lead to 70-68 with 4 seconds left. Following a timeout, the Bombers were able to inbound the ball to senior Jayquon Smith, who was fouled with 2.7 seconds remaining.

Smith made the second of his two free throws to put his squad up by three. Fairport junior guard Shane Greenwood was dribbling into the front court when he was fouled by Windham senior Nick Hopper, which set up one final inbounds pass. The ball was inbounded to Yomar

Castellano, whose shot from just inside half-court fell short as the final horn sounded.

“Jayquon at the end made a very important shot for us to stretch the lead to three, which was big,” Apthorpe said.

The game featured eight lead changes and standout performances from Windham senior guard Carlos Bruton (30 points) and Castellano (33 points).

Bruton scored many of his buckets on breakaway layups following steals, while Castellano, who is joined in the backcourt by his older brother Jan (a junior), scored 25 of his points in the second half.

“We knew the (Castellano) brothers are extremely electric,” said Apthorpe. “They shoot the ball very well. They get to the rim very well, they handle the ball really well … we knew we wanted to make some adjustments because of that and try to put some (defensive) pressure on them on the front and that’s something that I thought we did a great job of.”

Apthorpe said he also employed a zone defense in an effort to limit the amount of times Castellanos drove to the hoop to score or dish to an open teammate.

“They’re incredible at penetrating a defense,” Apthorpe said. “Even when we tried to put three guys upfront, there were spurts where they still could dribble through the defense (and) make good decisions. That was definitely a cognizant effort to make sure to try to close the middle the best we could.”

Starting the second half with a 33-27 lead, Windham went on a 15-4 run to build a 17-point lead. Those 15 points came on two breakaway layups by Bruton, a jump shot just inside the 3-point line from senior Dylan McCune, a layup from junior Matt Kolaczek, Bruton feeding Smith for a lay-in, a short baseline jumper from Smith and Bruton netting a three-pointer on an assist from Smith.

After Windham built that 48-31 lead midway through the third quarter, Fairport Harding closed out the period on a 22-7 run to reduce the Bombers’ lead to 55-53. During this spurt, the Skippers’ full-court press forced turnovers and Yomar Castellano scored 12 points on four 3-pointers, including a bank shot from about 25 feet as the third-quarter buzzer sounded.

“They started to push up some pressure, which caused us to make some really poor decisions,” Apthorpe said. “Every turnover that we made it seemed like they were scoring and unfortunately we strung together several turnovers there in the third quarter which allowed them to really close the gap and then take the lead.”

That momentum carried over to the start of the fourth quarter when Yomar Castellano swished another trey to give his team a 56-55 advantage. Fairport’s lead was short-lived, however; Smith knocked down a trey on the next possession.

After Yomar Castellano nailed a three-pointer to tied the game at 66, Kolaczek scored on a baseline drive and senior Nick Hopper drove down the lane and passed off to senior Brandon Petrich for a layup to give the Bombers a 70-66 lead.

The fourth quarter was intense and tightly contested as both teams scored on press breaks, steals and three-point shots. The Bombers played tenacious defense down the stretch to force some key missed shots.

“I was really proud of our guys to remain poised,” Apthorpe said. “We’ve had some tough games this year that have not gone our way and they stayed really connected with the things we were asking them to do whether it was changing defenses (or) where to go on a press break.”

Apthorpe said he had Bruton play at the top of the zone defense to take advantage of his athleticism.

“I think that’s a really dangerous place for him to play,” Apthorpe said. “He’s extremely athletic. He does a good job reading a defense, he gets his hand on a lot of passes. When he gets out in space, he’s extremely hard to stop.”

Windham’s leader also praised Bruton for taking on the difficult task of containing the Castellano brothers.

“I think that that was a challenge that he absolutely accepted,” Apthorpe said. “Both of those kids are very shifty, handle the ball extremely well. I couldn’t agree more that I think he fed off of that as the night went on, taking on the challenge to being that head guy on the defense and try to do the best job to contain them.”