BARKLEY SHOWCASE: Hornell sweeps Sheriff’s Classic twinbill over Wellsville, as Lady Raiders sink 14 3’s, boys outlast Lions in night-ending chess match to earn 2-0 series lead for Steuben County

BATH — Ladies and gentlemen, the wait is over. The battle for local bragging rights across the Allegany and Steuben County areas is back on. After three long, COVID-19 plagued years, the Dan Barkley Showcase has officially made its grand return to the hardwood.

And what better way to welcome a long-awaited return, than with perhaps one of the most storied rivalries the neighboring counties share with one another: Wellsville and Hornell.

It just doesn’t get any better than that.

The spotlight was on at Haverling High for the prologue to the seventh installment of the memorial tournament: The annual Sheriff’s Classic. With each county holding three overall victories across the previous six years of action, you could consider this as the metaphorical rubber match to break the series deadlock.

To start the night, a girls game where both squads were looking to bounce back off tough defeats back on Tuesday. The Lady Lions against one of Class C’s best in Canisteo-Greenwood, and for the Lady Raiders: a 61-43 defeat to the hands of one of Class B’s perennials in Livonia.

A game that head coach Brian Dyring wondered how his team would answer the call against the Lady Lions.

“We had a tough one in Livonia the other night. We really did not play well across the board in a game where I felt like we were prepared to steal it,” he said. “The big concern was not only the opponent tonight, but with a young group, how were we going to respond after that loss. Our energy wasn’t the best, our body language wasn’t the greatest. Pregame, we just talked about getting a good start on the defensive end, pressuring them. Wellsville plays more methodically, so we really wanted to push the pace. If this got down to a close game, we were going to be in trouble.”

The Lady Raiders and their response would live up to the name in every regard. From forcing turnovers on defense, to taking away passing lanes, to transitioning all the momentum to the offense. They did it all.

As for the offense, how about 14 three-pointers?

Although the weather forecast outside called for snow, Hornell provided a torrential downpour inside the gym against the Lady Lions, letting their three-point game run loose with Lillian Hoyt leading the way with a new Barkley Showcase record, netting eight of them to finish with a game-high 24 points to earn Player of the Game honors in the team’s dominant 82-58 triumph in game one of seven in the 2023 edition of the Showcase.

“It was a huge win. I feel really good about this special night, with it being the Showcase for a special cause and with this being a game against Michelle (Alvord). We both go way back, and we talk quite a bit. I love coaching against her, but I hate coaching against her, because they’re always prepared every time we play,” Dyring said. “But tonight, Lily got us off to a great start, Jordyn (Dyring) knocked down a couple and Sel’s (Maldonado) getting lay-ups and hitting a three. It snowballed from there, and it opened up things for Maddie Moore, who has the best post footwork out of everyone in Livingston County. It allows her to run and operate, because you can’t send doubles when you’re shooting like that. Tonight was a really, really good night.”

Almost every single Lady Raider recorded at least 10 points in the team’s bounce back victory, which stemmed after a 9-0 start of Wellsville through the opening sequences of the contest, with Selena Maldonado making a break for the basket with a pair of runners sandwiched in between the first of eight Hoyt three-balls to get the ball rolling for the offense.

While the offense was finding its stroke on one end, the defense was just as superb, as they forced a bounty of turnovers while applying immense pressure against the Lady Lions (6-7) to keep them off-balanced for much of the game. The second quarter saw even bigger things for the team in blue and red, as their three-point game began to blossom to life, hitting six in all, three more off the hand of Hoyt to help complete a dominant first half.

“The number one key was to limit their possessions, and not give up live-ball turnovers to them,” said Lady Lions coach Michelle Alvord. “Their first two baskets were off turnovers, and then a three by Hoyt which was uncontested. That was another big key. But despite tonight, we did some good things. But even though any time you give up 82 in a game, especially to a team like Hornell, that makes it really tough to come back from.”

The Lady Lions did see a bright spot come in the second half — Averee Palmatier. The sophomore found her rhythm against the Hornell (6-4) defense all through the third quarter, compiling 14 of the team’s 19 points from within the frame to create a spark. But like it has happened all game long, the Lady Raiders would quickly blow it back out with their three-point game picking back up where it left off in the first half, as they used it to insurmountably extend their lead to secure the win.

“Once you get over that first line of defense for Hornell, you can score some easy buckets,” Alvord said. “But you have to do that without coughing the ball up. We just weren’t able to get any stops when we needed to before the hole got deeper for us. Averee did do a nice job in the second half, and the kids continue to keep improving. They came out and they fought really hard, and I felt like we handled things much better in that quarter.”

For Dyring, the game helped provide some answers for a question that his team still hasn’t answered 10 games into the season — who are they?

“I think this springboards us into a direction where we are now starting to figure out who we are as a team now,” he said. “Some of the substitution patterns we had, we’re thinking maybe this is right, but we’re not really sold on going 100 percent in. Making sure everyone is in certain spots, going from pressing to not pressing, to pressing again. We’re starting to find our way even though we have a ton of work to do. The core of this team is mostly freshmen, so at some point there will be a downslide, but all we can ask and look for is consistency.”

As for that consistency, six different Lady Raiders bucketed at least 10 points to propel the offense to exceptional heights, with Hoyt’s 24 points from downtown leading the way. Behind the sharpshooter, Jordyn Dyring would follow with her 12 points. Payton Bentley, Selena Maldonado, Reagan Evingham and Maddie Moore all followed behind with 11 points each.

On the other side, Wellsville was paced by a career night from Emily Robbins, as the senior sank four of the team’s five three-pointers on her way to a season-best 20 points, pairing them with five rebounds and four assists. Palmatier followed with 16 points in total, while Makenna Dunbar pitched in with 13 points and five additional boards off the glass.

In what is sure to be a wide open field of competition come February in the Class B2 bracket, the win over a longtime rival and perennial is something Dyring hopes will give the team a much needed push through an incredibly difficult gauntlet that features teams like Aquinas, Waterloo, two games against Dansville, and one more battle with Bath-Haverling, Livonia and Wellsville each, in the back half of 10 games on the slate.

“Hopefully this will give us that big boost we’ve been looking for, because we have a gauntlet on the other side of this. We have to turn around and host Aquinas on Monday. Way-Co, Dansville at Dansville and we play Wellsville again in a couple of weeks. I told the girls this season that I didn’t expect a 16-4 record. If we’re 10-10, 11-9, 12-8 going into Sectionals, we’re feeling pretty good about our chances to make a run. Class B2 is wide open this year, and on any given night, we can shoot it a bit when we feel it.”

So how would the boys game fare to close out the opening night of festivities?

Right at the midseason point, the Class B2 picture has begun to take some shape with longtime rivals sitting at the top and second spots respectively, with Hornell entering the night as winners of eight of their last nine games, while Wellsville was looking for that wave to surf down the homestretch into February with, just like last year’s improbable Sectional title run.

In a true rivalry game, something had to give way in the Sheriff’s Classic nightcap.

Basketball is a game of runs, and a game of momentum swings. Each team would have their fair share of them all across the four quarters of play. But like this kind of game between two storied rivals, it would come down to the last eight minutes of play in determining who would throw the final haymaker.

With Wellsville attempting to draw up any kind of momentum shift they could through the fourth quarter, Hornell came knocking on the door just as quick. To help them remain one step ahead, the Raiders looked to a certain sharpshooter to deliver the goods.

Enter Gennaro Picco.

The Hornell junior ate up all the late game pressure in one foul swoop. With the Lions attempting a late stage rally stemming off a couple of monster dunks by Ty Vogel and JJ Howard, Picco helped faze out all momentum with some clutch shooting from all angles on the floor, knocking down basket after basket to put the Raiders on his back until the end.

As a result, it garnered the team their ninth win in the last 10 games and a sweep of the Sheriff’s Classic twinbill to give Steuben County a 2-0 series lead heading into the slate of five on Saturday with a 59-46 win.

“Gennaro’s great. He never surprises me, because I see the work he continues to put in every day,” said Raiders coach Kirk Scholes. “His ability, his talent level is unbelievable. He can make shots from anywhere on the floor, and tonight, he did that. He hit some big shots, especially when Wellsville was starting up a mini-run to try and get back into the game. He came through for us tonight with a clutch basket almost each time he held onto the ball to keep them an arm’s length away. We need him. I’m proud of his effort, everyone’s effort from this game tonight.”

Lions head coach Tom Muska added in on Picco’s performance for the Raiders, saying “They had some great shooting. Those Picco boys are an anomaly from what I’ve seen the past couple of years. They played like it today, and they’re some of the best shooters I’ve seen us go up against, ever. If they’re going to play like that, I don’t know if we find a way to win that game. It’s on us to figure out how we have to slow them down, and we unfortunately couldn’t find a way to do that today.”

Wellsville (8-4) was able to grab the start they wanted out of the gate and fast against Hornell, netting seven of the game’s first nine points behind a couple of inside baskets sandwiched in between a Cody Costello three-pointer. But just as fast, the early tide was turned to the Raiders with PJ Picco and his back-to-back three-pointers that pulled them ahead soon after.

The game would work its way towards an 11-11 tie down the stretch in the opening quarter before Hornell (9-2) found another opening in the Lions defense to springboard back out ahead with Gennaro Picco landing a three to go along with a nicely perfected juke from underneath the basket by Aaron McInerney to start up a strand of seven consecutive points. The Raiders would finish the opening quarter with eight of the last 10 points for a 19-13 lead.

Hornell’s signature full-court press would see its presence be felt by the Lions for much of the second quarter, but the team in white and orange would find their way to navigate through it to try and trim their deficit down to as little as three behind a pair of Costello runners to the basket. Holding the Raiders towards the edge, they would fight their way away from it with an 8-0 run through the next two minutes of gameplay with a pair of three-pointers in three possessions — both by Gennaro and PJ Picco, to branch the lead to 11.

Logan Dunbar however, would make sure that Wellsville would end the half with a little spark heading into the locker room, as he scored a high-rising jumper and a long three — the team’s last five points in the quarter to close the gap to six, at the break.

“I’m beyond proud of our guards, especially Cody tonight with the way he controlled the offense. I think teams use that press because they’re afraid of the damage that Logan could do,” said Muska. “Teams want to see what they can do to try and keep him from getting the ball. I’ve been telling the guards that Dansville, Attica, they never had to press. Tonight, Hornell used it and let off of it, and our big goal was to handle it. We did that. It’s something that we can walk away and be proud of.”

The cushion would remain right in between eight to 11 points between the two teams for much of the second half, but along the way it would offer plenty of momentum swings, beginning with Hornell’s ending to the third quarter where they closed out shop with seven of the last nine points to extend their lead back out to 11.

In the fourth quarter, the action ramped up.

One of the more notable runs from within the frame witnessed another Gennaro Picco three-pointer for the Raiders, along with two dunks in the next three possessions for the Lions, garnered by both Ty Vogel and JJ Howard to try and sway the momentum in their direction to force a timeout on the floor just past midway in the fourth quarter.

But with 3:33 to go, Picco would go on to put the Raiders on his back, using his expertise to deliver some more critical strikes from inside and out, along with a 3-for-5 outing at the charity stripe in the waning minutes to help close out the series sweep, and a 2-0 lead for Steuben County to carry into Saturday’s slate of five.

“They’re a great program,” Muska said of Hornell. “Everything that we’ve ever thrown at Kirk before, he always has an answer for. We threw a couple of different defenses at them, they had answers for each one of them. You don’t want to show too much this early, especially when you see them again another time in a couple of weeks, and maybe perhaps later than that down the road.”

As for Scholes, he says the win will help them figure out what the vision is like for the near future ahead.

“These games, the rivalry games, they’re always going to be tough, and they’re always going to be hard-fought.” he said. “Both teams are going to defend it really well. It was your typical Hornell-Wellsville game, and I was glad to come out on the winning end of it. There’s still work yet to be done. We need to keep grinding, keep on getting better. If we can do that, I like where we sit right now and hopefully see what’s there in the end for us, in the future.”

Picco would earn Player of the Game honors for the Raiders behind his game-high 26 point performance. Behind him was a 11-point effort from PJ Picco, while Wyatt Argentieri chipped in with six.

Costello would lead all Lions scorers with 12 team-high points. Logan Dunbar finished with 11 before fouling out of the contest, while Vogel and Howard each finished with eight points.

Listed below are the next contests all four Wellsville and Hornell teams will have coming up on their slate, after the weekend:

Hornell Boys: vs Newark at Keuka College, Monday 7:30 p.m.

Hornell Girls: vs Aquinas, Monday 7 p.m.

Wellsville Boys: vs Waverly at Keuka College, Monday 5 p.m.

Wellsville Girls: vs Andover/Whitesville, Thursday 7:30 p.m.

Sheriff’s Classic - Girls

Hornell 19 23 21 19 – 82

Wellsville 12 12 19 15 – 58

HORNELL: Parker Graham 1 0-2 2, Jordyn Dyring 5 0-0 12, Lillian Hoyt 8 0-0 24, Payton Bentley 5 0-0 11, Selena Maldonado 5 0-0 11, Reagan Evingham 4 1-2 11, Maddie Moore 5 1-1 11. Totals: 33 2-5 82.
WELLSVILLE: Natalie Adams 2 0-0 5, Maddy Parks 1 0-0 2, Emily Robbins 5 6-6 20, Sara Reitz 1 0-0 2, Averee Palmatier 8 0-0 16, Makenna Dunbar 5 3-4 13. Totals: 22 9-10 58.

3-point goals: Hornell 14 (Hoyt 8, Dyring 2, Evingham 2, Bentley, Maldonado), Wellsville 5 (Robbins 4, Adams).
Total Fouls: Hornell 14, Wellsville 11. Fouled out: None.

Sheriff’s Classic - Boys

Hornell 19 9 16 15 – 59

Wellsville 13 9 11 13 – 46

HORNELL: Gennaro Picco 7 8-13 26, PJ Picco 4 0-1 11, Shawn Rose 1 2-4 4, Wyatt Argentieri 3 1-2 7, Gates Miller 3 0-0 6, Aaron McInerney 2 0-0 5. Totals: 20 11-20 59.
WELLSVILLE: Cody Costello 4 3-4 12, Aidan Riley 1 0-2 2, Cooper Brockway 1 0-0 3, Asher Billings 1 0-1 2, Ty Vogel 4 0-0 8, Logan Dunbar 5 0-4 11, JJ Howard 4 0-1 8. Totals: 20 3-12 46.

3-point goals: Hornell 8 (G. Picco 4, PJ Picco 3, McInerney), Wellsville 3 (Costello, Brockway, Dunbar).
Total Fouls: Hornell 17, Wellsville 18. Fouled out: Dunbar (WLSV), Howard (WLSV).