ALBANY — The Albany Patroons played a strong second half Friday night, and that was good enough to blow out the feeble Tri-State Admirals.
Patroons coach Derrick Rowland said his team will need a more complete effort on Saturday night with first place in The Basketball League’s Northeast Division on the line.
Albany dominated Tri-State 136-99 on Friday at Washington Avenue Armory, which set up a significant home game on Saturday against the Syracuse Stallions in the regular-season finale.
“Second half, we played Patroon basketball,” Rowland said. “First half, we just kind of played down to the competition. We were taking chances. We weren’t focused on defense and we didn’t take care of the basketball. We knew we were going to win this game no matter what, pretty much, but we can’t afford to let our guard down because we’ve got Syracuse coming in here and then the playoffs start Tuesday.”
The Patroons (19-4) will get the No. 1 seed in the Northeast Division if they beat Syracuse (15-7) and then first-place Atlantic City (20-3) loses at 4 p.m. Sunday at Reading (16-6).
The Patroons have the tiebreaker on Atlantic City after winning their only regular-season meeting.
“Tomorrow’s definitely a big one,” said Patroons guard Trevis Wyche, who scored 23 points on Friday. “Everyone we play right now is a big one. Tomorrow we could potentially still be in first place or second place, and then we’ve got playoffs. So we’re just taking it day by day and we’re just all coming together at the right time.”
Albany will host either Syracuse or Reading in a one-game first-round playoff on Tuesday at the Armory.
On Friday, Patroons guard Derrick Rowland Jr. and forward Arsenio Arrington added 16 points each.
Tri-State (3-19) stayed within striking distance of the Patroons in the first half. Albany led 28-22 after the first quarter and 53-46 with 3:21 left in the second quarter. But the Patroons opened their lead to 65-51 at halftime and blew it open for a 103-71 advantage after three quarters.
“I think it was our defense,” Rowland Jr. said. “We were kind of lazy on defense in the first half. Second half, we started picking it up and pushing it. That made a difference.”
The Patroons put seven scorers in double figures. James Currington had 15 points, Phillip Flory added 14 points and Mustapha Traore and Ed Dyson III chipped in with 13 points each.