Cassadaga Valley head coach Rich Clifford is heading to Rochester...tonight. After his Cougars continued their improbable march through the postseason on Tuesday night, Clifford will be at Blue Cross Arena this evening to scout his team's next opponent, the winner of the Section V B1/B2 crossover between Charlotte and Mynderse.
Cassadaga Valley jumped out to a 17-6 lead after the first quarter and then hung on for dear life, as they gutted out a low scoring victory over Lackawanna, 40-37, to advance to the state quarterfinals this Saturday, at noon at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester. After moving up from Class C last season, the Cougars were the smallest Class B team in Section VI this year, but stood tall against the Steelers, the second largest team in Class B.
Trailing by two with under 20 seconds remaining, Lackawanna had possesion with a chance to tie the game. After a miss by Dondre Alexander (10 points), the Steelers snagged the rebound. However, Robert Glover tipped the ball away from Lackawanna, dove to the ground to secure the steal, and then flipped the ball to teammate Dalton Walsh. With 7.5 seconds on the clock, Glover hit the front end of a one-and-one from the line to extend the Cougar lead to three. In the final seconds, the Steelers came up short on a 3-pointer and Cassadaga Valley celebrated its win.
Junior Dustin Schauman scored 13 points to lead the Cougars, while Simeon Schauman added nine points.
If the Cougars end up facing Mynderse on Saturday, it would be a game between last year's Section VI Class C finalist and last year's Section V Class C champ. Both teams saw a great season end at the hands of eventual state champion OTC Middle College, who routed Cassadaga Valley by 36, before crushing Mynderse by 46. Mynderse returns all five starters from last season, while the Cougars won the overall Class B title without much experience from last year's team.
-centercourt
Officiating was very suspect in this game!
Posted by: Wny hooper | Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 03:17 PM
that name is very suspect....
Posted by: WNYHOOPS | Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 03:43 PM
What happened to the "East beats Will. South in an instant classic" post?
Posted by: Lucky13 | Wednesday, March 09, 2011 at 05:49 PM