Behind McKinley’s career evening, No. 3 Wellsville composes humongous 2nd quarter run to steamroll over No. 6 Mynderse with 66-39 victory to advance into Semifinal round

Wellsville junior Liam McKinley, center, looks to make a pass to the inside against the Mynderse defense on his drive during Saturday afternoon’s Class B2 Quarterfinal matchup in Wellsville. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Wellsville senior Max Jusianiec (3) provides an off-balanced runner to the basket, as the Mynderse defense looks to contest the shot during Saturday afternoon’s Class B2 Quarterfinal matchup in Wellsville. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Wellsville sophomore Eli Schmidt (5) drives his way around the Mynderse defense on his way inside during Saturday afternoon’s Class B2 Quarterfinal matchup in Wellsville. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Wellsville’s Alex Perkins (15) pushes his pace around to the outside against the Mynderse defense during Saturday afternoon’s Class B2 Quarterfinal matchup in Wellsville. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

WELLSVILLE — If there was ever a way to start off Sectionals on the biggest of footsteps, the No. 3 Lions of Wellsville did just that and a whole lot more in their first game of the Sectional Tournament, late Saturday afternoon. In the Class B2 Quarterfinal battle, the Lions saw a certain player put together a season-best effort.

That certain player turned out to be junior guard, Liam McKinley.

McKinley did everything imaginable for the Lions on the hardwood all throughout the 32 minutes of action. Knocking down threes, running to the basket, dishing out passes, even grabbing rebounds. The Wellsville junior put his most complete game together, one that his coach Raymie Auman says that has been brewing for little over a month, as he recorded a game-high 23 points to pace a massive 66-39 victory over No. 6 Mynderse, punching their ticket back to the Semifinal round.

“Liam had a great game, and he’s been playing with a lot of confidence,” Auman said. “He’s been ready to have this kind of game for the last month, I feel. He’s strong and steady, and he doesn’t get too high or low either. Hopefully the lights just opened a little bit. This wasn’t a fluke, and a lot of the stuff he was doing was not surprising to me either because that’s the kind of player he is. I’m confident that his confidence will continue to keep growing.”

The impact was felt right away for the Lions (11-10) by McKinley, as he started off the game with back-to-back three-pointers in the team’s first two possessions. But the hot start was extinguished by Mynderse in the late stages of the opening quarter. After the Wellsville defense kept the Blue Devils off the board for an extended period of time, the No. 6 seeds worked their way back into the gist of things just enough to allow themselves a four-point cushion separating the two squads after the opening quarter.

But that cushion soon grew larger after the Blue Devils started the second with an inside two. Just how large exactly? — Try a 15-1 run for size, as McKinley, followed by Logan Dunbar behind him, continued to make it rain from downtown with another pair of three-pointers finding the basket, taking what was once a two-point lead for the Lions, and growing it exponentially into a 10-point lead near the halfway point.

The Lions used a combination of dominating the glass down low, and their defense all day long to keep Mynderse in check from the very beginning of the second, to the end of the first half, as McKinley took the hosts into the break with, what turned into a 18-5 run in all, a buzzer-beating three-pointer to give them a 17-point, 31-14 lead over the Blue Devils at the break.

Auman says that after the first basket Mynderse sank, it ultimately turned out to be a bit of a wake-up call for his defense.

“That first two-pointer they made, it almost reminded us that we have to get back to our defensive focus. We had scored a good amount of points in the firs quarter, but I told the guys that it does not matter,” he said. “What matters is that you only gave up nine points. I knew that we could have a good quarter, and giving up that early basket gave me, as a coach, some yelling material on the bulletin board. We responded to it, enormously. Defense can win championships. I know it sounds very cliché, but it’s absolutely true. If we can play defense like this, we can play with everybody.”

And thus, with a 17-point lead in hand, it continued to skyrocket from the start of the second half onward for the Lions, as they strung together a nearly identical run from the second quarter, in the third quarter, holding Mynderse to just five more points within the frame to go off running with a 19-5 run. In the midst of it, the Wellsville defense held the Blue Devils to just a single basket from the field coming in the last 2:30 of the quarter on a banked three-ball square off the center of the backboard.

Elongated across the 16 minutes within the middle quarters, Wellsville combined to only allow three offensive baskets to hit the twine, and just three shots out of seven possible were connected from the charity stripe.

“The offensive end happens so much easier for us when your defense backs you up. The defensive energy, the focus we had. Through the first three and a half quarters, I don’t remember a time when Mynderse got one or two offensive rebounds, and that’s huge,” Auman said. “It was a complete game team effort, the intensity was high, and as great as it is, it’s just a single step. Winning a home game in the second round of Sectionals is never what one of Wellsville’s goals are. The level is only going to get higher, and we just have to keep getting better and better.”

In the fourth quarter, all five of Wellsville’s starters came off the floor near the halfway point, receiving a standing ovation on their way back to the bench for putting together one of the team’s more complete games of the season to begin Sectionals off on the strongest note possible.

Finishing behind McKinley in the Wellsville scorebook was Max Jusianiec, who nailed a perfect 6-for-6 outing at the stripe to put toward his 19-point performance. Dunbar finished with nine points in all after his early efforts, while Eli Schmidt finished with six points of his own.

Now, the Lions have moved into the Class B2 Semifinal round, where they will take a few days away from action before returning on Wednesday to battle No. 7 Wayland-Cohocton for the first time since their Class B2 Finals meeting last year at Blue Cross Arena. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at Canisteo-Greenwood.

This time around, only the Eagles or Lions will get to the main event with a chance to face either No. 4 Penn Yan or No. 1 Avon in the Finals, in Downtown Rochester, next Saturday morning.

“Hopefully we can carry over this defensive confidence and focus into the next round,” Auman said. “Way-Co’s an up-and-down, helter-skelter kind of game. Anybody can be good at this point of the season if you’re still playing in Sectionals. It will be a really tough match, and we’re going to have to have three great days of getting ready if we want a shot to win. We will have to see how far we can get before that game on Wednesday.”

Mynderse          9   5   5 20 – 39

Wellsville      13 18 19 18 – 66

MYNDERSE: Dylan Larizza 3 1-1 8, Owen Barnett 1 0-0 2, Jared King 2 1-2 6, Troy Kabat 2 2-2 6, Jake Smith 1 0-0 3, Nick Jones 0 1-2 1, Thomas Santana 1 0-2 3, Mike Bogart 2 2-5 6, Nate Sealy 2 0-0 4. Totals: 14 7-14 39.
WELLSVILLE: Max Jusianiec 6 5-5 19, Eli Schmidt 3 0-0 6, Liam McKinley 7 5-6 23, Alex Perkins 0 2-2 2, Logan Dunbar 2 4-5 9, Noah Chaffee 0 1-4 1, Aidan Hart 1 0-0 2, Brayden Delahunt 1 0-0 2, Tim Jones 1 0-0 2. Totals: 21 17-22 66.
3-point goals: Mynderse 4 (Larizza, King, Smith, Santana), Wellsville 7 (McKinley 4, Jusianiec 2, Dunbar).
Total Fouls: Mynderse 16, Wellsville 12. Fouled out: Herron (MYN).