All-CNY POTY wills Marcellus boys hoops to 3-peat over rivals: ‘Wasn’t going to go out like that’ (31 photos)

Syracuse, N.Y. — Marcellus boys basketball coach Scott Cotter searched for words to describe what he just saw.

Fearless. Passionate. Incredible.

He landed on irreplaceable.

In the wake of one of the all-time performances in sectional tournament history, Marcellus senior Tucker Burnett left everyone slack-jawed.

Burnett willed Marcellus boys basketball (16-8) to its third straight Class B sectional title on Sunday night, scoring 36 points and distributing nine assists in a 66-62 win over Skaneateles (18-5). As the game got into winning time, Burnett made the deciding plays on both offense and defense on nearly every possession to keep the Mustangs’ state title defense alive.

His 36 points were more than any player scored across the weekend’s 12 girls and boys sectional championship games, earning him Class B Tournament MVP honors.

“Now I’m 10-0 against Skaneateles in my career,” Burnett said. “But 9-1 wouldn’t have meant a thing if they ended my season and I wasn’t going to go out like that.”

The Lakers did all they could. But for the third time this season and the second sectional final in a row, the reigning All-CNY Small School Player of the Year proved unbeatable. In last year’s sectional title game, he finished with 23 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists in a 73-48 rout.

“My assistant coach, JD (Delmonico) and I were like, ‘I think we actually did a good job,’” Skaneateles head coach Jim Ryan said after Sunday’s game. “And he ends up with [36].”

Sunday’s meeting between the two schools was the closest of the 10 over the past four years. Marcellus led by a possession or two for most of the game and entered the final minutes of the fourth quarter clinging to a 53-51 lead.

That’s when Burnett – who had been controlling the pace and getting everywhere he wanted against Skaneateles’ defense all game – truly took over.

With the shot clock winding down, Burnett received a desperation pass from one of his teammates and heaved a deep, contested 3-pointer.

After a couple of bounces, it fell through the net. 30 points for Burnett.

The following possession, Skaneateles sped down the court on a two-on-one, with Burnett the only Mustang defender back. He forced the Lakers into an errant pass out of bounds, then hit a quick two inside to stretch Marcellus’ advantage to 58-51.

Back on defense again, Burnett stuck his hand into a passing lane and got a tip, but Skaneateles recovered the ball. Two seconds later, he got another tip, and this time he grabbed the steal, which Lucas Green finished at the other end for two easy points. 60-51 Mustangs.

Burnett hit four more free throws to close the game out despite three Skaneateles 3-pointers in the final minute.

“It’s really the physicality that he brings to the table that’s just so difficult to match up,” Ryan said. “A lot of times when he was driving to the basket, we were trying to be straight up the whole time, and it’s so difficult. He comes at you so hard, and we definitely had our arms down a bit more than we wanted to.”

Reid Danforth led Skaneateles with 25 points, including 19 in the second half. After Burnett powered Marcellus to its largest lead of the game at 42-31 in the third quarter, Danforth scored nine points on the next three possessions, six of them on three-pointers and the other three on an and-one.

He hit two more 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to finish 4-of-10 from beyond the arc.

“Reid put us on his back in the second half, obviously,” Ryan said. “But you have to match Marcellus’ effort to even have a chance, and I thought we did that.”

With Sunday’s victory, Marcellus has completed a perfect record against Section III Class B opponents for the third consecutive season.

But this one didn’t start as intended. Last year’s leading scorer Dominick Gosh-Sandy went down with a season-ending injury just three minutes into Marcellus’ first game of the year.

The Mustangs started 3-7, punctuated by a 40-point loss to Section II power Shenendehowa, whom they only lost to by 10 last year.

“Guys were kind of looking around,” Cotter said. “Like, ‘What are we going to do?’”

Marcellus switched its approach and turned its season around as its schedule eased up, winning nine of its last 10 regular-season games and cruising into Sunday’s championship.

“Early on, we were probably trying to do a little bit too much; we run a lot of different stuff,” Cotter said. “And it’s like when you have a kid like Tucker, just go get him the ball and let him do what he does best. And truthfully, that’s making other guys better.”

Skaneateles played Burnett one-on-one and let him drive into the paint on Sunday night. He took advantage at every turn, whether it was finishing inside (8-of-13 on 2-pointers), getting to the line (14-of-15 from the stripe) or finding teammates (nine of his team’s 12 assists).

Cotter started running out of superlatives.

“He’s a once-in-a-lifetime kid to coach potentially,” he said. “You don’t get those kids very often.”

Marcellus begins its third consecutive trip to the state tournament at 11 a.m. Sunday back at OCC’s SRC Arena against Section X champion Potsdam. Marcellus beat Potsdam 61-49 in last year’s regional round.

Two years ago, the Mustangs finished as state finalists. Last year, they won the first state crown in program history.

They won’t have Gosh-Sandy this time. He begins his rehab in two weeks. But with Burnett leading the charge, they like their chances.

Maybe indescribable is the word.

“It’s just Tucker,” Gosh-Sandy said. “He’s one of a kind.”

©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit DAMAKORONKOWA. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Location:

Share :