There are only two high school basketball rivalries in WNY that annually sell out its games and even give the JV teams a packed gymnasium for a full four quarters. This year, Newfane visited Wilson and Canisius hosted St. Joe's within a 24-hour period. Both games featured a battle between top ten teams in their respective polls. Both games had major implications on league championships. And both games ended as these two rivalry tilts usually do, with fans of the winning team pouring onto the court to swarm their victors. It's the kind of drama that makes winter seem a little warmer around here.
The Lakemen avenged a 3-point loss at Newfane earlier this season and moved into a tie for first place with the Panthers in the Niagara-Orleans league with an exciting 49-44 win on Friday night. With the win, Wilson now has a five-year home win streak against the Panthers that now includes three upset victories, and have won eight of the last ten meetings between the two rivals. If the two clubs are able to win out in league from this point as they are expected to do, they would wind up as co-champions of the N-O.
Wilson, set the tone right from the start with its defense. The Lakemen held Newfane, who scored 102 points in a game last week, without a field goal for most of the first quarter with aggressive help defense. When they weren't producing turnovers, they were attacking the glass for rebounds to take possesion of the ball. The result was an early eight-point lead in the first quarter and an 18-13 lead at the break.
Newfane began the second half with the same energy that the Lakemen had shown to start the game, and opened with a 12-3 run, including six points from senior TJ Manhardt, to take a 25-21 lead. After a bucket from Jordan Thilk, junior Tyler Martin burried the fourth of his five 3-pointers to give Wilson the lead again, and the back-and-fourth battle was officially under way. Martin's '3' was the second of what would be 12 lead changes in the tightly contested second half.
With just 2:01 remaining in the fourth quarter, Tyler Truesdell scored to put his Lakemen in front for good, 42-41. As Newfane tried to respond with a drive to the basket, Brennan Moxham drew his second charge in two minutes. During the final two minutes, Truesdell grabbed a pair of important rebounds, and Martin closed the game out from the charity stripe. Martin made all six of his attempts from the line during the final 66 seconds.
Martin has enjoyed his finest moments of the season in the two games against Newfane. In each game, he hit five 3-pointers and was the game-high scorer in each contest. Following his 23 point performance, Wilson fans hoisted him onto their shoulders as they stormed the court in post game celebration.
Rohn Pierce led Newfane with 19 points in the loss.
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Trailing 9-8 at the start of the second quarter, St. Joe's head coach Mark Simon called a play for senior standout Connor Rehbaum. As Rehbaum came free off a screen, Simon said "there it is, there it is" and as Rehbaum's 3-pointer dropped through the net, Simon exclaimed "BOOM"! The shot put the Marauders up 11-9 and they would never trail again in the game. Fifth ranked Buffalo News large school St. Joe's defeated fourth ranked Canisius, 67-57. Prior to this, Canisius had won five straight between the rivals. It was also the first regular season win for St. Joe's against Canisius since 2007 and the first win at Canisius since 2006.
Leading by a point early in the second quarter, St. Joe's went on a 12-2 run to take a 25-14 advantage. The Marauders were aided by the defensive play of A. Keith Louie and seemed to gain a boost from the return of senior Tom Escott, who saw his first action of the season due to an injury. At halftime, St. Joe's held a 27-20 lead.
Sophomore Adam Weir scored the first four points of the second half for Canisius and when a basket from Gordon Lyons followed a Marauder free throw, it was a two-point game. Midway through the third, the Crusaders again trailed by seven, 37-30, before a 9-2 run had the game knotted at 39 apiece.
The decisive swing began in the final seconds of the third quarter, when Chad Kelly's reverse layup put St. Joe's up after three, 41-39. The basket spurred a 17-2 run that included eight points from Steve Moser, as the Marauders scored the first ten points of the fourth quarter to blow the game open, 56-41. Canisius would never get any closer than eight points the rest of the way.
The game had the all the tension of a rivalry between two heavyweights and at one point in the third quarter, cooler heads had to prevail. During a loose ball scramble, Aaron Nevins was sent crashing into the scorer's table. Tempers flared briefly and players were quickly restrained. In the thick of the action were longtime friends and AAU and Empire State Games teammates, Rehbaum and Nevins. The two stars and team captains were brought back together by a referee to put the situation to rest.
St. Joe's had four players finish with double figures in scoring. Rehbaum had 14, Moser scored 12, and Kelly and Reggie Agbeko each finished with 11.
Lyons led Canisius with a game-high 17 points and Nevins added 16 points.
-centercourt
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