Huskies stake their claim as WNY's Alpha Males

The best high school basketball doubleheader that WNY will see this December, took place last night on Day Two of the AdPro ECIC/Monsignor Martin Challenge at St. Mary's High School in Lancaster.  It ended up being a huge night for the Southern Tier, as its top two schools, Olean and Jamestown, registered big wins over the duo of top catholic schools in Buffalo, Canisius and St. Joe's.

 

Below is a sequential recap of the Olean's win versus Canisius, followed by a brief summary of Jamestown's victory over St. Joe's.

 

 

End of 1st Quarter:  Olean 22, Canisius 5

Olean's Sam Eckstrom and Canisius' Adam Weir traded baskets immediately, and it looked like an intense, wild affair was about to unfold.  Instead, the Huskies jumped into a 16-1 run and held the Crusaders without another field goal until freshman reserve, Howard Washington, scored with 1:28 remaining in the quarter.  The immediate impressions after the first eight minutes were that Eckstrom had greatly improved upon his already superior post moves and that the Huskies' ball movement in transition showed a chemistry that only comes with years of playing together.  Also, Wil Bathurst showed off his all-around game by swatting away shots, securing rebounds, and moving seamlessly in transition for the Huskies. Eckstrom scored nine points in the quarter.

 

End of 2nd Quarter:  Olean 47, Canisius 21

Pat Scholla and Nick Scmidt each sank 3-pointers within the the first 30 seconds of the quarter and the momentum stayed on Olean's side.  The Huskies outscored Canisius 14-5 in the first three minutes of the quarter to extend to its largest lead of the game, 36-10.  After Eckstrom answered a trey from Weir with a traditional three-point play, Canisius finally slowed Olean and scored five straight (all free throws), while keeping the Huskies off the scoreboard for nearly three minutes.  With a 39-18 score, Olean closed out the half with an 8-3 run and ran off to the locker room before an astounded crowd.  The Huskies were a perfect 9/9 from the charity stripe in the first half.  Five different players scored for them in the second quarter.  The Crusaders got nine points on three 3's from Weir in the quarter.

 

End of the 3rd:  Olean 60, Canisius 47

Less than three minutes into the half, it was obvious Canisius was going to get itself back into the game.  Playing with a sense of urgency, the Crusaders outscored the Huskies 13-2 during a three-minute run that included three-point plays from Weir and Aaron White.  After having its lead trimmed to 15 points at 49-34, Olean got a '3' from Schmidt and went back-and-forth with Canisius for the remainder of the quarter.  Weir was a monster in the third, scoring 16 of his game-high 34 points.

 

Final Score:  Olean 76, Canisius 73

Beginning at the 5:10 mark and trailing 68-56, White scored six straight to spark an 11-0 Crusader run that saw Canisius pull within a point, 68-67, after a trey from Matt MacDonald.  Baskets from Bathurst and Eckstrom extended the Huskies' lead back to five with one minute left on the clock. A score from Weir with 49 seconds left was answered by a free throw each from Bathurst and Evan Ryan of Olean, making it 74-69.  

Washington hit from downtown with 19 seconds remaining to make it 74-72.  Olean then missed a pair of charity tosses with 12 seconds left, and Canisius had possesion and a chance to tie.  Instead, Weir shot a 3-pointer with six seconds still on the clock.  The attempt missed and was rebounded by Scmidt, who was fouled with 4.9 seconds left.  Scmidt, who shoots the technicals for the Huskies, uncharacteristically missed both. Weir secured the second miss and attempted to race up the court.  In a momentary lapse in judgement, Scmidt reached to poke the ball away from Weir, and was whistled for a foul.  Now, with 2.1 seconds on the clock and a 74-72 score, Weir would shoot two free throws.  Schmidt placed both hands on top of his head and looked like me was going to be ill.  Weir swished the first. The second rimmed out into Scmidt's hands, who was fouled and sank both shots with 0.8 seconds.  Ball game.

 

Bathurst finished with 25 points, Eckstrom scored 21 points, and Scmidt added 16 points.  Point guard Luke Hennessy spent most of the third quarter on the bench in foul trouble and fouled out midway through the fourth quarter.  All four players are juniors.

 

Jamestown 64, St. Joe's 54

The Red Raiders trailed 38-35 late in the third quarter, but closed on an 11-0 run that included eight points from Tommy Campion in the last two minutes, to put them in front 46-38.  The Marauders got back within two points in the fourth quarter, but Campion was again masterful, scoring 10 more points in under three minutes to lead an 11-2 run to put the game away.  Campion finished with a game-high 31 points, with 21 coming in the second half.

 

-centercourt

Comments

[Use Ya Left]

Centercourt, who hails from a northern corner of Section 6, can be forgiven for his geographically challenged view of the Southern Tier.

Jamestown is in Chautauqua County, while Olean is in Cattaraugus County. Still, it was definitely a good night for Southern Tier basketball.

[hoopster]

As hoops fans we should all take a moment and express our gratitude to public/private school coaches and ADs for their willingness and desire to schedule these games. What a great double header!!

WNY hoops once again shows why WNY football is inferior and will remain so until the coaches and ADs come around. Kudos to all involved in the ECIC-Public/MMA challenge.

[centercourt]

Use Ya Left -

Thanks for the correction and the forgiveness. A great night for the Southern Tier indeed!

[thats my boy!]

just to makit easier for some CC.....apparently you should have just said a four teams took place in 2 great games...and 2 of the teams are well south of the othere 2.....i could careless where they are from but more about the way you can almosr bring he game into our homesand its all about basketball......maybe i will start a geography blog for those that it is that it is so important to rather than the importance of your spot on recap of the games.....great job.and way to the NORTH....towards Canada...an little ole school named Newfane put on a great show routing Grand Island by 30-35 points...after the half the scoreboard was good only to let us know when we could go home.Grand Island was caught of guard by Newfanes desire to play insoired ball.

[WNYHOOPS]

Don't be bitter the Southern Tier has the best basketball...

[Gus Buster]

I didn't see any bitterness. Plus aren't you forgetting Niagara Falls?

[McShea is God]

Feggans vs Taplin was a great matchup 2nite at W North. I will say 1 thing - Thursday March 1st at Buff State will b a great nite of hoops. Ken West I think will b the 4th team but I REALLY could c W North upsetting Falls or Jamestown if Taplin is on fire. Whatever school has 2 face them in semis watch out.

[StateChamps2003]

Here are my thoughts from last night's game:

- There were AT LEAST 4 all WNYers in Weir, Eckstrom, Bathurst, and White on the floor. Quite possibly Schmidt as well.

- Weir impressed me a lot. I knew he could shoot the lights out and get to the hoop but he showed a ton of hustle on the defensive and offensive glass and played extremely strong around the rim.

- Eckstrom showed a ton of improvement from last year which makes it that much more scary that he is only a junior (along with a majority of his teammates). His right AND left handed hook shots were money. I thought that a big reason why Olean lost that huge lead was that they stopped feeding the ball down low to him in the 2nd half. There were consecutive possessions where he didn't touch the ball. That can't happen.

- Aaron White was pretty much unguardable in the 2nd half as well as almost impossible to get by on defense. He was getting by his man at will and a few times got to the hoop and avoided Eckstrom's blocks. He might be one of, if not the quickest guard in WNY.

- Canisius will have trouble against teams with quality big men. Their bigs were just bodies down low and showed no toughness or consistency on offense. I thought Weir would have done a better job guarding Eckstrom.

- Bathurst's mid range is awesome. He hit at least 2-3 floaters in the lane and a couple dribble and pop 15 foot shots.

- Gotta give credit when credit is due. MIG called that game to almost near perfection.

[Facts]

Public schools 6-2 vs. the MMA in this challenge. Christian Central not a MMA school so can't include that game. Also, why is it called the MMA-ECIC challenge when there are non MMA and non ECIC schools competing?

[hoopster]

The MMA is always top heavy. The organizers of the challenge do a great job of trying match up equally talented teams so the games are competitive.

The challenge started out as MMA/ECIC teams only. However it has morphed into a public/private school challenge as the organizers have tried to match up the best of the public and private schools. Not sure when teams outside of the ECIC began playing, but it has been a regular occurrence recently.

[centercourt]

Sec VI teams were 7-2 vs. MMA, not 6-2. Ironic that "Facts" would misrepresent facts.

Why do they call it a parkway? I'm glad they've looked outside ECIC for teams in recent years. Maybe they should change it to Sec VI/MMA Challenge. Or they could leave that title for when football steps into the 21st century and coordinates its own event.

[hoopster]

CC, I should have waited several minutes. You always say things far better than. Kudos!!