East wins tournament at Aquinas

 

One of the early season themes this year in WNY has been that Olean's once young squad is finally a senior laden group, expecting to make a push for a state championship in Class B, after preparing for 18 games with an ambitious independent schedule.  The only thing that has prevented local hoop followers from anointing them is the possibility that there might be a better team in Class B within the same section - the East High Panthers.  I've certainly discussed that East should be heeded, but have continued to give Olean the nod in the rankings, taking a wait-and-see approach.  Well the wait is over, and I saw all I needed to last night.  Forget about whether or not Rasheed Paul is available to East this season, forget about what happened last season or the one before, and forget about the cohesion & chemistry of other teams.  After the display I witnessed last night, I'm convinced that East won't lose a game this season - something they've felt since before the ball even began bouncing this year.

 

East battled through injury and foul trouble, and after making road trips to Rochester on consecutive days, captured the Mike Dianetti Aquinas Tournament championship by defeating the previously unbeaten hosts, Aquinas of Class AA, 75-62.  East's Johnathan Lewis scored a game-high 32 points, to go with seven rebounds and seven steals in the title game, and was awarded tournament MVP.  

 

In the early going, Aquinas jumped out to a 9-2 lead, held the Panthers without a field goal for the first three minutes and with just two minutes remaining in the opening quarter, the Lil Irish held a 17-9 advantage.  East got a spark from Lewis when he drilled his first of four 3-pointers in the game and they finished the last two minutes of the quarter on an 11-4 run that ended with a Percy Bryant trey at the buzzer.  Aquinas led 21-20 after eight minutes.

 

Just 30 seconds into the second quarter, East's big man Tyree Tyson who already had five points and three boards, went down to the hardwood after suffering a hyper-extended knee and was unable to return.  At the time, it seemed like Aquinas would be too much for the Panthers to overcome without his presence in the paint.  Instead, the Panthers continued to keep pace with the Lil Irish and even took their first lead of the game, before heading into the intermission trailing by three, 39-36.

 

Less than two minutes into the second half, East starter AJ Ayala was whistled with his fourth personal foul and forced to the bench.  Aquinas netted a pair of free throws to take a 43-38 lead and with two of East's starters off the court, it seemed like things would start to get away from the Panthers.  However, the backcourt tandem of Lewis and Bryant had other ideas.  On the ensuing possession, Lewis sank a trey from the side and the energy from East started to turn up.  A minute later, Bryant got a circus layup to fall and after East forced a turnover, he buried one from downtown.  Just like that, East had a 46-43 lead, and they would never trail again.  The '3' from Lewis had begun a sequence where the Panthers held Aquinas without a field goal for four minutes, as East used a 17-2 run to take a 55-45 lead late in the third quarter.

 

"They're the top pair of guards around, they're so quick and keep the pressure up the whole game" East head coach Starling Bryant said of Lewis & Bryant following the contest.  "They really took it upon themselves when Tyree went down to make sure we won this game".

 

Lewis and Bryant combined for 33 of the 39 second half points scored by the Panthers and were relentless on both ends of the court, controlling the game and dictating the tempo.  Their effort was contagious, as Ayala, Damone Brown, Shaun Young, and Ricardo Humphrey all combined to keep Aquinas off the glass and constantly pressured in its own end.  East held a 46-33 advantage on the glass and forced 21 Lil Irish turnovers.  

 

East never allowed the Lil Irish to get any closer than six points during the fourth quarter.  Every effort Aquinas made to close the gap was answered by the Panthers.  Over the final eight minutes, as the game became more hotly contested and things began to get chippy, East seemed more in its element than ever, and it became obvious they weren't going to let its lead slip away.

 

"This team is playing with a big chip on its shoulder and it got even bigger when Tyson went down.  They're tired of hearing about Olean and Canisius. I knew there was no way these boys were losing this game" Bryant said.  

 

As the season progresses and we move closer to the postseason, don't expect East to start looking over its shoulder...the chip that's sitting there is far too big to see over anyway.

 

-centercourt

@centercourt42

Comments

[fullcourt1]

Well done Centercourt; hopefully EAST and OLEAN will keep their eyes on the prize and meet in March with the winner moving on to REP WNY and bring home the Gold!

[Artemus Gordon]

Hopefully, they will save some of that "big chip" on their shoulders for their schoolwork, as some of those kids have potential to go play somewhere big.

[Neil Lewis]

When does the rankings come out do they come out weekly ?

[centercourt]

There's no poll this week due to the holidays. The Buff News resumes its poll next Tuesday, meaning I'll show how I voted in it one week from today.

[Me]

CC, are there any must see games this week?

[centercourt]

Thursday:

Park at St. Mary's

Friday:

Greece Athena at Olean
St. Joe's at Timon

[hoopster]

Good to see CC go statewide, see 12/29 blog post of NYSSWA President John Moriello regarding East/Aquinas game.

Query, how much longer before CC goes national?

[Tom]

I got to give AQ credit scheduling East , Canisius and Olean and some Section V bloggers accuse them of ducking teams.

[centercourt]

I always thought it was the other way around. Hard to say a team that annually schedules Canisius, Falls, St. Joe's, Timon, Nichols, etc. is ducking competition.

[me]

East over AQ, Olean over Athena. I sense some tough votes come next week in the polls. Either way Section 6 is looking good

[sal]

just wondering why do these crazy things pop up on this blog

[centercourt]

It's called spam. It seems the typepad spam filter could use a serious upgrade. I have to individually remove anything the filter doesn't catch, which lately, has been a lot.

[sal]

lol that's why you make the big bucks

[boarman]

the east olean game is in tyson's hands if he has a breakout game east win he dosent...... the guards will do thier job olean's big man has got the brst of he 2 years in a row its pretty had 2 beat a team 3 times i honestly cant wait for that game i hoping east can pull it off i cant reserve a room in gleens falls till after the game last year i lost 38 cancellation fee!!!!!!!!