The final score wasn’t as indicative of how close the game actually was.

Even though the Chapel Field boys’ basketball team was beaten by 14 points on Saturday morning, they led the game on numerous occasions, the game was tied after three quarters and they trailed by as few as four points with about four minutes to go in the game.

But it was a late flurry of S.S. Seward Spartans 3-pointers that sent the Lions spiraling to a 66-52 non-league loss at S.S. Seward Institute in Florida.

“They hit some big shots that gave them the buffer,” Chapel Field coach Brad McDuffie said. “They won that game and someone hits a big shot at the end, you tip your hat to them. They had to work to beat a D school. It’s a step forward for us.”

The Lions have been taking steps forward since last February when they won the Section 9 Class D championship and were a win away from the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Final Four.

This year, the Lions – to prepare themselves for the postseason – have scheduled some tougher opponents. They’ve only lost two games so far, Saturday’s contest against the Spartans and an early season game against the Class A Wallkill Panthers.

The Lions have also taken care of business in their Class D conference with a 4-0 record, clinching their berth in the Section 9 Class D tournament with wins over Tuxedo, Roscoe, Eldred and Livingston Manor. They will have one more run through the division before the sectional tournament.

They’ve won those games by an average of about 29 points.
They’ll continue to play a tough non-league schedule against Class A New Paltz, and have another game scheduled against Class B Sullivan West and will face the Class B Highland Huskies later in the season.

For the early part of Saturday’s game, the Lions were stronger and faster than the Spartans and went into the locker room at halftime trailing by two points. When the teams came out at halftime, S.S. Seward coach Bill Steele came up to McDuffie on the bench and paid the Lions one of the highest of compliments.

“He said, ‘you guys have men on your team. My guys were complaining at halftime,’” McDuffie said. “He was telling them to suck it up and play basketball and that’s a nice compliment to us because there was a time when we couldn’t play physical basketball. Nobody was saying we had men on our team. So it’s nice that we can play a little more aggressive.”

However, playing physical can have its drawbacks sometimes as the Lions’ Jonah McDuffie and Noah Swart both fouled out. They were also the Lions’ leading scorers. McDuffie scored 25 points and Swart added 18.

“We just have to learn from it,” McDuffie said. “Everything that happened out here today is just great. It’s almost, for us, like a great scrimmage against a very competitive team because we can’t simulate this (at Chapel Field). We can’t go into practice on a Saturday and we can’t bring in players for our guys to scrimmage like this, so for us, it’s just invaluable.”