The Batavia basketball team is favored on the court more often than not. Saturday morning will be different.
The Blue Devils will be taking on a team that has been the top ranked team in the state all season long, has a player getting a full ride to Syracuse and is the defending state champion.
Senior Brandon Triche scored 28 points in Jamesville-DeWitt's 90-61 win over Scotia-Glenville in the regional game and is the biggest name on the roster because he will be playing for 'Cuse next season. But he isn't the only big-time player on the roster.
The biggest challenge Batavia faces is a youngster. Dajuan Coleman is a 6-foot-8 freshman that is going to cause serious matchup problems. The Blue Devils have been undersized all year and have done well against big players for the most part. But there have been times that players with this kind of height have dominated.
Batavia forward Joe Schlossel has had a tremendous season and has played much bigger than his listed size of 6-2. But he's going to need a lot of help with Coleman.
Jamesville-DeWitt is extremely athletic and will attempt to run the floor. If Batavia can get rebounds, they should be able to slow things down. The Blue Devils need to get into a half court game to have a shot in this matchup.
Batavia has won games this season because of a strong perimeter game, led by sophomore Andrew Hoy. The Blue Devils will have to put up some impressive shooting numbers from beyond the arc to win this game.
The game is at 10:45 Saturday morning and the winner will battle either Peekskill or East Hampton at 1 p.m. Sunday.
