High School Basketball Recap #2 - Week of 12/8
Dec 15, 2025 02:00PM ● By Connor La Lone
Our second week of basketball season is in the books, and we saw two tremendous come from behind victories and the first snow-out of the year.
On Monday 12/8, South Jefferson hosted perennial rival Lowville in front of a packed house. The Spartans started slow, and Lowville was in an early groove, particularly in transition. The high tempo Raider offense forced Bob Piddock into several early timeouts, and Lowville took a 8 point lead into the half. Toran Zehr, Ethan Myers, Ethan Zehr and Carter Fowler had extended the lead to 12 after 3 quarters of play. South Jeff had other plans, and Nate Matteson’s terrific two-way play combined with Russell Hazard’s shooting got South Jeff right back into the game. Junior forward Noah Perry had two big buckets late and the Tommy Piddock lead offense completed an improbable 4th quarter comeback - outscoring Lowville 20-2 in the fourth quarter!
Final Score: South Jeff 60 - 54 Lowville
Link: https://www.youtube.com/live/COB064Bat9w?si=DMChkcprChZa0opd
The next night, we saw perhaps our game of the season, as the Carthage Comets hosted the Indian River Wolves. Indian River jumped out to a huge lead early, scoring 27(!) points in the first quarter. Regan Ross and Ariel Raymond both contributed three times from downtown, and the Wolves were leading 40-36 at the break. In the second half, Carthage sophomore guard Aiden Prunty took over, scoring at will and taking the ball away 4 times, plus 2 blocks. Philipp Norgaisse shut down the gym with the last two of his 14 points, slamming a fast break dunk at the buzzer. This one was definitely an instant classic and we’re excited to see both of these teams again.
Final Score: Carthage 70 - 61 Indian River
Link: https://www.youtube.com/live/G6p_WnsqdvE?si=L0Iz47mpymkRTaYq
We had planned on seeing the Sandy Creek boys travel to Beaver River on Wednesday, but the North Country weather did not cooperate, and the game was unfortunately postponed. We will try to see if it's possible to see these teams at another date but with such a packed schedule, I sadly can't make any promises.
This week we’ve got four more games scheduled:
12/15: Lowville Boys vs Watertown - Postponed to 1/3 (NBC may still stream - stay tuned)12/16 Carthage Boys vs General Brown
12/17 South Jeff Girls vs Indian River
12/18 Carthage Girls vs Lowville
These should all be really intriguing games!
We’ve already seen Lowville once, and Watertown defeated Carthage (who looked like a real force in the Frontier League).
Our second look at Carthage and General Brown should be a really physical and athletic game, fun basketball to watch.
The South Jefferson girls’ program is looking to retake their place amongst the most dominant Frontier League teams, while Indian River is starting a bit of a rebuild following their recent success
Both Carthage and Lowville’s girls’ teams are 2-1 at time of writing, and seem to be set up for success both this year and next, with lots of talented juniors and sophomores.
Players to watch: Ethan Zehr (Sr., Lowville) Ethan Myers (Jr., Lowville) Mason Hurst (Sr., Watertown) Errick Wash (Jr., Watertown) Luke Dupee (Sr., General Brown) Dawson Foley (Sr., General Brown) Aiden Prunty (So., Carthage) Caleb Wilkerson (Sr., Carthage) Sophie Walsh (Jr., Indian River) Sasha Montressor (Jr., Indian River) Liberty Kucik (Jr., South Jefferson) Jenna Lawlee (Fr., South Jefferson) Alyssa Millard (Sr., Lowville) Kate Heins (So., Lowville) Stella Roes (Jr., Carthage) Emma Dicob (Fr., Carthage)
