Ithaca boys hoops wins first STAC title since 2017

After six years of no postseason triumph, the Ithaca High School boys basketball team is back on the map.

For the third time in program history, the Little Red won the Southern Tier Athletic Conference (STAC) championship by defeating Union-Endicott 61-58 Feb. 17 at Horseheads Middle School. The other two occasions when Ithaca lifted the STAC title were in 1972 and 2017. Junior guard Luke Little believes this year’s team is just as good, if not better, than the 2017 iteration.

“I feel like we got a lot of depth,” Little said. “We’re big on the inside. We’re one of the biggest teams in the STAC. We got Will [Holmes] who’s 6 feet 8 inches, Trevor [Clark] who’s 6 feet 5 inches, Jonathan [Ostrom] who’s 6 feet 4 inches, me who’s 6 feet 3 inches, and Justin [Yearwood] is 6 feet 2 inches. Then we got some six-feet guys coming off the bench, so we’re really big. It helps us with defense.”

Holmes, who has already committed to play basketball at Hamilton College, scored the game-winning basket in the championship game to put the Little Red up 59-58 with 11 seconds left. Little picked him out low, and the tallest player on the court did the rest.

“Will set the high ball screen, and then they switched,” Little said. “The big guy was on me and the smaller guard was on him, so I just wanted to give it to him so he could catch it and finish. That’s what we did and it was big for us.”

While Holmes finished the game with 16 points, Little led Ithaca with 20 points, including two clutch free throws with 3.5 seconds left after the Tigers missed an opportunity to retake the lead at the other end. It’s safe to say that Little was more than prepared to close out the final from the free throw line.

“I like to practice free throws a lot,” Little said. “I end everything with free throws. Before I leave the gym, I shoot free throws. I knew I had to make those for us to seal the deal. It was pretty big. I liked Trevor getting that defensive stop in the rebounds so I could have the opportunity to knock down those free throws.”

It was a long road for the Little Red to even get to the championship game. Starting back Feb. 7 against Horseheads on senior night, Ithaca had to win in order to keep their hopes of winning the STAC West Division alive. Ithaca got the job done thanks to Little’s team-high 24 points. He talked after that game about what it would take to ultimately win the division.

PULL QUOTE “I feel like when we don’t play with energy, we get down on ourselves and we lose the game,” Little said. “If we play with energy, we’re the best team in the STAC, so we just gotta bring that energy.”

Two days later against Union-Endicott, that intensity was on full display as they came from behind to take down the Tigers 64-60, closing out the regular season with a division title. Both of their contests against the Tigers have gone down to the wire, but there was one key aspect that they improved between their regular season and postseason matchups.

“I feel like we played really good team defense and we played together the whole game,” Little said. “We didn’t really start out at home against U-E playing together, so it was nice to play together…I think we’re getting really good at going inside and out. Our bigs are good with kicking the ball out and we’re knocking down the shots.”

In the STAC semifinals against Oneonta, the Little Red knocked down a barrage of shots, easing by the Yellowjackets 91-45. Justin Yearwood caught fire, putting up a game-high 26 points, while Little and Holmes each chipped in with 18 points.

The focus then shifted to the Section IV Class AA tournament, where Ithaca was in search of its first sectional title since 2018. However, those hopes came to an abrupt end on Feb. 24, as the second-seed Little Red were upset by third-seed Elmira 79-73 at home. While Little led the way once again with a game-high 27 points, four players fouled out for Ithaca in the fourth quarter, hurting their chances of holding off the Express.

Despite a heartbreaking ending to the Little Red’s season, they still achieved postseason success and can hold their heads up high as STAC champions. As for Little, he still has next season to look forward to and fulfill even more of his goals.

“[This season] I wanted to get my teammates involved a lot early in the game, get them going and get their energy up,” Little said. “Another goal was definitely to win the STAC, so that’s good that we accomplished that.”