Barkley Showcase: Jusianiec eclipses 1,000 career points to help glue together memorable performance for Lions in wild win over Hornell

Written By Chris Brooks

ALFRED — On the day of the 6th Annual Dan Barkley Showcase, a little while after the bell rung out in Wellsville and a time before the gym filled to near maximum capacity with Wellsville and Hornell fans abroad, Max Jusianiec took to the floor at Alfred State to begin his warm-up routine.

In the many thoughts that had swirled around the mind of the Wellsville senior, he had gathered a piece of information earlier in the day — his head coach Raymie Auman was not going to make the trip to guide the Lions in their clash against the Red Raiders, as he remained home with his wife Ashley after the birth of their son, Maverick on Thursday.

Instead, if the situation had ever arisen, Auman would look to a familiar and well-known face to help take his place for one game. That being Alfred State men’s basketball coach Jerry Jusianiec, Max’s father.

For the longtime Pioneers head coach, it was a chance that at first, he was skeptical about, but it was one that he simply couldn’t deny.

“Raymie asked me a little more than a month ago if I’d be willing to help out the team, because he was planning a business trip this week with him and his wife expecting their child at any point,” Jusianiec said. “There was a lot of up-in-the-air things about what was going to happen. Even up until yesterday, we were still unsure if he was going to be here to coach. I was a bit hesitant at first about coaching this one game, but to have an opportunity to coach your own son one last time in a real game in your own gym, and not just in AAU, you couldn’t draw a better picture.”

When game time came around, Jusianiec would assume the role as interim head coach of the Lions. And when the smoke cleared, it turned out to be a game that will last a lifetime for the father-son duo.

Wellsville and Hornell gave it their all on the hardwood, and it would only be appropriate that with the bleachers inside the gymnasium at the Orvis Activities Center packed on each side, and all of the matchups that both teams have had in the past, the Lions and Red Raiders would duke it out straight down to the wire.

Having already marked one career-defining achievement earlier in the night, the Wellsville senior added another. The latter of them came with under 10 seconds to play with a 45-43 Hornell lead sitting idle on the scoreboard for an extended period of time. Jusianiec took matters into his own hands, keeping the ball to himself on the way down the court, shuffling from one wing to the other to make room for another of his biggest three-pointers of his career.

The clock stopped at 6.8 seconds left to play when Jusianiec drilled a deafening and daggering three-ball from downtown Alfred to give the Lions the lead for good. After the brief timeout concluded, Hornell was given the ball for one last possession, one that the Wellsville senior would not allow to result in a score, denying Chase Freeland of a potential game-winning lay-in with a block of authority at the buzzer to provide his teammates, and his father a fairytale ending — a 46-45 victory over the Red Raiders in an absolute thriller to even the Showcase battle at one game each, entering the main slate Saturday afternoon.

“It was a shot that I felt like I could get open for, and I didn’t want to force anything,” Max said. “I got some space, took the shot, and it went down. Like my Dad was telling me before the game, I’ve taken hundreds, if not thousands of shots from that side of the court. Something was bound to fall from there, even if it was a poor shooting night. Luckily, it went in.”

That was just one major accolade that Jusianiec collected for the Lions. His second came a little earlier in the beginning minutes of the fourth quarter. The countdown from the Wellsville student section started at 21 at the beginning of the night, and when he was fouled at the hoop with 6:41 on the clock, it was down to a pair of points.

Jusianiec would go on to hit both of said shots, lowering the countdown to zero — he had eclipsed 1,000 points in his career for the Lions, finishing the night with 30 game-high points to earn the Player of the Night honor at the game’s conclusion.

The special achievement came just feet away from the Lions bench, and from his father, who unfurled a congratulatory banner for his son after he had reached the monumental mark for the school. As to where it ranks across all spans of his coaching career, the Pioneers head coach said it was easily toward the top of his list of memorable moments.

“I was thinking about this earlier today, and to beat a team like Hornell coming into the game, we really had to have everything fall into place,” Jusianiec said. “Having the chance to coach Max while doing it inside my gym, is really special. How the game ended made it even more special. This is in the top five moments of my career, easily. My father and Max share the same birthday, and I got my 100th coaching victory on the same day. Now, that day came around for Max when he scored 1,000 points,

“It was surreal,” he added. “And to have the entire Jusianiec family here to watch happened tonight, it was a coach’s and father’s dream come true to see him get to 1,000 points. I’m really proud of him, and he’s worked so hard over these past few years to get to where he’s at right now.”

Before an electric second half came into fruition the way it did, the Lions (8-6) had to battle their way through a tough second quarter after ending the first with a 16-13 lead of the Red Raiders. Hornell kicked the offense into gear behind the guidance of Collin Buisch, who helped start a 13-5 run through the half-ending period with a and-one basket to pair with a go-ahead Chase Freeland three-pointer to give them a five-point lead at the break.

But then, the Wellsville rally was on. Before both teams deadlocked in the fourth quarter in the scoring department, the Lions did just enough at the start of the second half to keep themselves a step ahead of the Red Raiders, with Liam McKinley knocking down two of his three treys within the quarter to cut the Hornell lead down from eight at point, to a single point with the latter of his three-pointers coming with under a minute to play.

“We didn’t really make any major changes, just the fact that we worked against Hornell in a 2-3 zone, and it was successful.” Jusianiec said. “They had trouble with it early on, and the guys did a phenomenal job picking it up, and communicating it. I’ve seen these guys play a lot this year, and they stepped up to make this happen. Liam had some big shots, Brayden (Delahunt) and Aidan (Hart) both dug down deep to open things up for us. Unlike the first time in Hornell, they weren’t ready. Tonight here, they were, and this will be very promising for the rest of the season.”

The fourth quarter would set up a teeter-totter battle, with no advantage growing bigger than four, and no deficit smaller than a single point. Hornell had the upper-hand with two minutes left to play with assistance from Freeland on the outside, who sank the final of his five three-pointers to branch the Red Raiders lead out to 45-41.

But in the last 90 seconds, Jusianiec took matters into his own hands by scoring the final five points of the game, including a big-time dagger from outside with under 10 ticks left in regulation to put Wellsville ahead for good, thwarting a go-ahead basket near the buzzer along the way in the defensive zone to keep their victory in tact.

Now with the win over the Red Raiders in their back pocket, the Wellsville senior feels that everything is now starting to come together.

“We’ve been saying since the beginning, the real season starts when Sectionals comes,” Max said. “We’ve been building the whole season, and wins and losses do matter, but come the second season, we can beat anybody. We have a great chance to make this run through the tournament, and the pieces are starting to fall into place. I can say that, we’re back.”

After the Lady Red Raiders picked up the victory over the Lady Lions earlier in the evening, the Lions victory in the nightcap evens the score at one for each county entering the five-game docket Saturday afternoon. Coverage will begin back on the Barkley Showcase Official Facebook page at 12 p.m.

As for the Lions, they will return home to resume the final stretch of regular season action on Wednesday, welcoming in the Wolverines of Bolivar-Richburg for a 7:30 p.m. contest in the Lion’s Den.

Wellsville        16   5 14 11 – 46

Hornell 13 13 8 11 – 45

WELLSVILLE: Tyler Sands 1 0-0 3, Max Jusianiec 9 10-11 30, Eli Schmidt 0 0-2 0, Liam McKinley 3 0-0 9, Logan Dunbar 0 1-2 1, Aidan Hart 1 0-3 2, Brayden Delahunt 0 1-2 1. Totals: 14 12-20 46.
HORNELL: Chase Freeland 5 1-2 16, Conor Smith 2 0-0 4, Jackson White 3 1-2 8, Collin Buisch 6 0-2 13, Malik Arnink 2 0-1 4. Totals: 18 2-7 45.
3-point goals: Wellsville 6 (McKinley 3, Jusianiec 2, Sands), Hornell 7 (Freeland 5, White, Buisch).
Total Fouls: Wellsville 13, Hornell 18. Fouled out: None.

Chris Brooks
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