Manhattan Cup Playoffs – 2014 – The View From Centercourt

Quarterfinals – Saturday, February 22nd

AT CANISIUS HS – 12 pm & 1:30 pm

(1) Canisius 87, (8) Niagara Catholic 56

(5) Nichols 66, (4) Park 51

AT TIMON HS – 12 pm & 1:30 pm

(2) Timon 59, (7) St. Francis 57

(6) St. Joe's vs. (3) St. Mary's

Semifinals – Wednesday, February 26th

AT CANISIUS HS – 6 pm & 7:30 pm

(5) Nichols 57, (1) Canisius 50

(2) Timon 65, (3) St. Mary's 61 OT

Manhattan Cup Final – Sunday, March 2nd

AT CANISIUS COLLEGE KOESSLER CENTER

Start time – 6:30 pm

(5) Nichols 49, (2) Timon 43

2014 Manhattan Cup Champions – Nichols Vikings

-centercourt

@centercourt42

26 responses to “Manhattan Cup Playoffs – 2014”

300Level

February 23, 2014

How would the B qualifier game happen? If both Nichols and St. Mary’s lose Wednesday night?

centercourt

February 23, 2014

Correct. If only one team wins, they automatically represent the MMA in Class B.
It’s always the team that advances the farthest in the Manhattan Cup playoffs. So if both remaining Class B schools lost in the same round, they’d have to play each other for the right to move on.

LancerWannabe

February 25, 2014

Don’t forget, if Nichols and St. Mary’s both win, then the final is for the A berth, with the loser getting the B.

Division 1

February 27, 2014

Man what the heck happened to Cansius tonight. Talk about a loud dud. Loss brought back visions of 2012 St. Joes collapse against St. Mary’s. I guess we are all reminded that these are kids and they will not always play up to potential. Congratulations to Cam Lewis and Nichols on a big win.

From the North

February 27, 2014

Just goes to show you the better team doesn’t all ways win! It’s just who’s better that night!

Rusty Schakelford

February 27, 2014

That may hold true for regular season, but once the playoffs hit the best team always wins no matter the sport no matter the level. You advance, by definition, you’re the better team.

Rusty

February 27, 2014

One of the toughest things in sports: winning when you’re supposed to.

Panthers

February 27, 2014

Wow. I am looking forward to see what Centercourt will write up about this loss by CHS and how it ranks in the grand scheme of big fails by a team basically hand picked by Centercourt and Buffalo News to win the Manhattan Cup and State Title! My guess is it will be very quiet on the Western Front once again. Where is MIG when you need him?
Is it possible that Cam Lewis is the best player here? He certainly sent a message last night. I never saw that coming!

centercourt

February 27, 2014

I not only hand-picked Canisius to win the Manhattan Cup, but I also skipped the MMA semifinals last night and stayed at Buff State, because I thought I knew what was going to happen. So you won’t be reading my analysis on it. MIG caught the last five minutes and all of the Timon win.
I did see two great games between Salamanca/Cleveland Hill & Amherst/Lew-Port. Cheektowaga was also a lot of fun to watch. However, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling depression-like symptoms after missing out on what was a memorable night created by both games. I’m much too passionate about this stuff to have not been there. I may just retire.
I would like to give credit to Nichols for believing in themselves when very few outside of the Vikings community did. I can’t wait to watch the Cup final between them & Timon. Both teams earned their spots in the championship game, and yes, I picked against both getting there.
I will say that if my coverage of the Crusaders this year was “handing Canisius the Cup”, then I’ll stand by whatever I wrote. They dominated this season. Won every local game by double digits. It would be far more of a disservice to readers if I was so political that I spent the season saying Nichols, Timon, St. Mary’s, etc are just as good, they just haven’t shown it head-to-head yet…but anything can happen. The season Canisius had this year up until the loss last night, combined with the streak of success over the past three seasons deserves high praise and accolades. Losing to Nichols in the semifinals also deserves the reaction it’s getting.

jackherlan

February 27, 2014

I appreciate the shout out last night, so did my team. That being said, I bring it up only to remind everyone that these are 15-18 year-old kids we’re talking about not adults and not professional athletes. These kids are even more subject to the frailties of life, hence the inconsistencies, the off days and the surprising losses sometimes. There are NO guarantees, only the hopes that we might be watching something or someone special and we get to see it live. There are awesome things that happen every day during the hoop season and more to come. So please sit back and enjoy, another moment will be here tonight. I hope you get to see it. I’m on my way to Jamaica and out of this place. Please don’t tell my wife.

PJB

February 27, 2014

For those who saw the first Canisius – Nichols game this year the result isn’t as shocking as it seems. Nichols was very competitive until the very end and double digits only came about due to end of game chaos. If not for a couple of calls go differently in that game we may have been talking of this a couple weeks ago.
I felt Nichols was the worst case scenario for Canisius (see blog posting 2/18) their size takes away the second chance points and causes Canisius to consistently hit from the outside, which has not been a strength all year. In addition Lewis’ ability to handle the ball diffused the pressure that Canisius usually relies on to create TOs that lead to easy baskets.

hoopster

February 27, 2014

Some well thought out and written comments here especially the last three writers..
Congrats to Coach Reinholtz and the Vikings! What an impressive showing!!
And a shout out to Coach Husband and the Crusaders for one of the best runs in MMA annals. Come back stronger and better next year through hard work, sacrifice and dedication.

NFL

February 27, 2014

From the North,
If your implying Barker was the better team and Silver Creek just won that night, then you are crazy. Come out of your little hole and see what basketball is like in the rest of WNY. It’s really a shame that all your posts probably embarass your son on here regularly. I think he is a fine player and I hope he still gets his well deserved post season accolades in spite of your ignorance.

From the North

February 27, 2014

NFL,
If you can read I made the comment after the Canisius / Nichols game not the Silver Creek / Barker
Game. Silver Creek played a great game and won, this Friday there season will come to an End. MEC is too fast for Silver Creek and it will show this Friday. Canisius and Barker had great season witch will far out weight the lost of one game.

Are You Serious

February 27, 2014

Dude, that last sentence is barely English. Witch??? Hopefully you’re doing this on purpose, if not, your school system did you a disservice.

hoopster

February 27, 2014

Hey dudes, lighten up. Like me he prolly(probably) pounded out a quick response; easy to get a couple quick typos. After all we aren’t talking the Pickwick Papers here and we all know what he meant.

WHY ?

February 27, 2014

Poor Northy

From the North

February 27, 2014

I did for you Are You Serious other wise what would you have to offer!

Are You Serious

February 27, 2014

Ha, read his previous posts. This isn’t an isolated incident. Hopefully the academic apple fell far, far away from the tree. Wouldn’t hurt if rolled down a hill, dropped into a creek and was carried into the Atlantic.

Rusty Schakelford

February 28, 2014

Pickwick Papers? Who wrote those, Plato? Were you his assistant? Or did you provide his ink and parchment?

hoopster

March 2, 2014

One of my favorite authors, Charles Dickens.
Congrats to Nichols on a Manhattan Cup championship. How many people thought that possible this season? Thought so. No one. Moral, always believe. Work hard every day. Don’t ever give up. And always have faith.

Panthers

March 3, 2014

I haven’t really followed HS ball much this season but I was not going to miss the finals of the Manhattan Cup. I expected a lower turnout due to not having Canisius in the finals but to my surprise this crowd was just as large if not larger than previous years. The fact that two different school were in this final than what we have been accustomed to made it more intriguing.
Congrats to Nichols on a well played game. I would say it was one of the more exciting finals game I have seen in years. Both teams seemed evenly matched and there never seemed to be much separation in leads throughout the game. Lead changes were common.
As the game went on you felt the game was mostly Nichols to lose because they were able to establish a very good post game with Chris. The dynamic that really gave Nichols the upper hand was Cam Lewis being the primary ball handler and getting the team into their sets. That was amazing to watch. His ball handling skills are excellent and he is difficult for any smaller players to guard him. He is truly for real.
For Timon, Dante Williams has become the premier player for them. Although his skillset is such that he can hurt you inside and outside I felt he could have been more aggressive. Truth be told this kid can flat out play. Will make a good college player. My observation was that Timon’s dependency on the 3 ball ultimately did them in and never really establish post play. The big kid for Timon was very effective vs. Nichols and had some crucial buckets to keep it close. If he was used more the results could have been different.
Good day for Buffalo basketball in general. Excellent sportsmanship between the kids but a very competitive contest. Keep up this hardwork Boys. Maybe CC saw this game, looking to see the write up.

Rusty Schakelford

March 3, 2014

In many ways a more impressive title for Nichols than their previous 2 as it it was done with a core of players who have been with the program since they were freshman. To knock off Canisius in the semis and Timon for the cup without high impact transfers is huge and a great accomplishment for coach Reinholtz.

Rusty Schakelford

March 3, 2014

WNY’ers(Buffalo & Rochester) to tip it off this weekend in the NCAA DIII Basketball Tournament.
@Wooster, Genesseo(21-6) Connor Keenan(FY) Williamsville East, Gordon Lyons (JR) Canisius, Jordan James (SR) McQuaid vs Dickinson(21-6)
@Brockport, Morrisville State(19 – 8) vs Brockport (24-3) Aaron White (FY) Canisius, Cordell Torres (FY) MEC, Mitch Cote (FY) Penfield, Bobby Bell (SR) East(Rochester), Brandon Carruthers (SR) East(Rochester), Patrick Coyle (SR) Bishop Kearney, Jake DiLallo (SR) Greece Olympia, Mitch Cote (FY) Penfield
@Brockport, Scranton (24-3) vs Hobart (21-6) Thomas Campion (FY) Jamestown, Andrew Hoy (JR) Batavia, Connor Rehbaum (JR) St. Joe’s).
Good luck to all these young men and hoping that one of these teams may be able to call themselves National Champions.