(South Park's Ray Mushat secures a rebound against Cheektowaga /Photo: Harry Scull,Buff News)
South Park 74, Cheektowaga 64
The Buffalo State Sports Arena was at a fever pitch during the finale of three games between the Sparks & Warriors, as herds of fans arrived to watch Cheektowaga's Dom Welch's attempt at breaking the historic WNY scoring record held by Ritchie Campbell for 27 years. In the end, fans were treated to an exciting game, a broken record, and a South Park team that broke through after being close last season, to reach the Class A2 Final.
"We didn't really talk about Dom breaking the point record," South Park coach Peter Hudecki said. "We just talked about winning the game."
With fans reacting to every basket on both ends all evening, Welch and South Park's Shakur Harris went back-and-forth in the first half seemingly scoring at will for their teams. Leading 26-24 midway through the second frame, the Sparks rattled off a 17-2 run to finish the first half and ran to the locker rooms with a 44-26 lead.
Welch needed just seven points in the second half to achieve history, which he accomplished less than two minutes into the third quarter. Welch took an outlet pass and went end-to-end for the finish in breaking the record. After a brief stoppage to honor Welch, play resumed. The emotional moment of the game seemed to super-charge Welch and his Warriors. Cheektowaga opened the half with a 16-3 rush to cut the Sparks' lead to 47-42 at the midway point of the frame.
"Last's years game here against McKinley was so emotional and a lot of our guys played last year, so they've been through this," Hudecki said.
Despite their experience with those conditions, Welch absolutely erupted during a 23-point stanza that included three 3-pointers and two three-point plays. A 10-1 close to the quarter had Cheektowaga knocking on the door, trailing 54-52.
"We started doing stupid stuff like trying to drive the ball through three guys and not kicking the ball out," Hudecki said. "After a timeout, the kids started to understand what we were trying to do."
Vaughn Burdette tied the game at 56-56 for the Warriors three minutes into the final stanza, but Khalil White came right back with a score to put the Sparks back in front and the Warriors could never pull even again the rest of the way. An 18-8 finish to the game launched South Park into the sectional championship game.
Harris led the Sparks with a team-high 28 points, while Ray Mushat scored 18 points in the win.
Welch finished his career with a game-high 45 points and is now the all-time scoring leader in WNY with 2,376 career points.
South Park 18 - 26 - 10 - 20 = 74
Cheektowaga 16 - 10 - 26 - 12 = 64
Point Totals
South Park: Shakur Harris 28, Ray Mushat 18, Elijah Lewis 9, Anthony Mack 6, Jakari Woods 5, Jeremy Jackson 4, Khalil White 4
Cheektowaga: Dom Welch 45, Rudy Bragg 8, Vuahgn Burdette 5, Davon Brown 4, Alex Bryant 2
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Amherst 57, Olean 53
Midway through the opening quarter, Tigers' senior Richard Kay (9 points) sank a 3-pointer to put his team in front of the defending Class B state champions from Olean and they never lost their advantage the rest of the evening. As a result Amherst is headed back to the Class A2 Final, where they were crowned as sectional champs a year ago at this time, for a sixth consecutive season.
"Our kids had the best week of practice going into a game," Amherst coach Chris Kensy said. "They bought in."
Marcellus Cooper scored a team-high 18 points thanks to some smooth jump shooting, several trips to the free throw line, and a thunderous baseline dunk. Da'Shawn Hines added 13 points in the win, with six of those coming in the fourth quarter, to highlight eight Tigers in the scoring column.
The Tigers earned 31 attempts from the charity stripe, which accounted for 19 of their points in the game, while Olean shot just six free throws all evening. With carefully executed offensive possessions, Amherst slowly built as much a sizable lead on the Huskies, which reached 17 points on a bucket from Will Alfieri in the third quarter, at 35-18. The Tigers did a solid job of contesting 3-pointers throughout, which Olean shot plenty of with limited success through the first 25 minutes.
Amidst a cold evening from the perimeter, Olean eventually began to find its stroke and heat up. Over the game's final nine minutes, the Huskies canned eight treys. Four of those came from Monty Shoemaker, who netted a game-high 19 points. By the last minute of the game Olean was threatening and got to within three points with 11 seconds left on the clock before finally bowing out.
"I knew they wouldn't go away," said Kensy. "Well coached teams never quit."
The win sets up a completely different challenge for Amherst on Saturday afternoon when the Tigers take on the Yale Cup champs from South Park. The Sparks are a fast and fearless crew that plays more of an attacking style. It should make for a highly entertaining battle at Buff State on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 pm.
"We'll have two good days of practice," Kensy said. "We'll be ready."
Olean 10 - 7 - 8 - 28 = 53
Amherst 14 - 9 - 14 - 20 = 57
Point Totals
Amherst: Marcellus Cooper 18, Da'Shawn Hines 13, Richard Kay 9, Desean Ashley 6, Will Alfieri 5, Brian Fulford 2, Jordan Barr 2, Jake Funderburk 2
Olean: Monty Shoemaker 19, Mike Schmidt 11, Luke Rogers 8, Matt Droney 6, Jack Dwaileebe 5, Tristen Snyder 4
- centercourt
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