Jaguars take stranglehold on County Division I standings, snap Fillmore’s 10-game win streak behind Schneider’s game-sealing block in 65-64 victory

Fillmore senior Will Valentine (23) powers his way to the basket against the defense of Genesee Valley senior Cody Schneider (35) during Thursday night’s home contest. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Genesee Valley senior Evan Windus (21) lifts a three-point shot from outside the left wing against the Fillmore defense during Thursday night’s road contest in Fillmore. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Fillmore senior Levi Webb, middle, works his way past the defense of Genesee Valley junior Brock Ellsessor, back, on his way to the basket during Thursday night’s home contest. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Genesee Valley senior Trevor Clark (15) puts up a two-point shot just outside the paint, as Fillmore senior Luke Cole (11) looks to contest during Thursday night’s road battle in Fillmore. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Genesee Valley senior Cody Schneider (35) waits for a play to develop inside, as Fillmore senior Tobias Webb (15) defends during Thursday night’s road contest in Fillmore. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Fillmore junior Dylan Valentine (10) works his way around the defense of Genesee Valley senior Riley Vohs, off-center, underneath the basket during Thursday night’s home contest. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

FILLMORE — The many races to the finish line in Allegany County’s League standings across all sports have almost always found ways to extrude some sort of an excitement factor. As of late, we’ve seen a fair share of matchups that come down to the final head-to-head meeting in determining who plants the flag at the top of the Division I mountain.

Genesee Valley and Fillmore already contested in a previous matchup earlier this season, with the Eagles forcing overtime at Genesee Valley, but could not quite pull it off in a game that saw the Jaguars draw the first straw. This past Tuesday, both teams went to work inside League play. Just one of them came out as winners, as Fillmore defeated Scio over the road. On the other hand, Cuba-Rushford was able to hand the Jaguars their first county loss.

It was only appropriate that Thursday’s meeting of the minds in Fillmore would help clear up some of the uncertainty in the air.

With each team holding a single loss atop the standings, one of two things was going to happen at the end of the war — A Fillmore win would split the season series in half with Genesee Valley to remain in contention for at least a share of the Division I crown. Or. A win for the Jaguars would sweep the season series with the Eagles, allowing them to control their own destiny from the peak of the mountain with a stranglehold of the number one spot.

The pressure couldn’t have been more on.

Through much of the first half, Genesee Valley and Fillmore each hand-delivered a full quarter’s worth of a run to one another. Fast forward, a change of pace, as the second half would enter into a back-and-forth affair where no lead grew larger than 12, and no lead was smaller than one. By the time all of the ruckus subsided, the game came down to one final play.

With the Eagles scoring four straight points to trim their deficit from five to one, it would remain as such after a pair of misses by the Jaguars at the free throw line. The hosts were in control of the last shot with under 10 seconds left. After the play formed into a potential go-ahead lay-in from Will Valentine deep inside, it quickly and emphatically saw a denial from Cody Schneider, taking the ball and smacking it away toward the Fillmore bleachers, a noise that can be heard all the way down to the Jaguars bench from the opposite end of the floor to seal up what was a 65-64 victory for Genesee Valley to halt the 10-game winning streak of Fillmore.

“Cody Schneider, Cody Schneider. I can’t say enough about him,” Jaguars coach Lintz Bliven said. “I heard that ball hit his hand, and the next thing I knew it was two-thirds of the way past the Fillmore bleachers. It was awesome, especially for it to happen here. Fillmore’s a very, very good and well-coached team. To beat them by a point here, it just gives the kids more confidence. When you have Cody on your team, you need to look out. To see him get excited as he was after the game, that is the best memory I will ever have of that kid. He’s very mild-mannered, and he plays the game right.”

A fourth quarter that was filled with fireworks, and that was highlighted by one of the biggest blocks of the season, happened after both teams exchanged a pair of early and long runs in the first half of play. The Jaguars (13-4) put together a 23-11 lead after the opening quarter after breaking an early 5-5 tie with nine straight points with Evan Windus sinking five of those points inside and out.

The lead grew to double digits after Fillmore (12-2) got on the board themselves with a Tobias Webb runner inside the paint, as Windus launched the second of his four team-leading three-balls toward the tail end of the stanza to give them a 12-point advantage to build upon.

“We had a pretty good run when we first started out,” Bliven said. “I thought after that, we were really going to hand it to them tonight. We did what we were supposed to do. We ran a two-man game before we ran all of our plays. All of a sudden, we didn’t want to run plays anyway. When we ran a play four times, they got four lay-ins. Then a timeout comes, they forget about it.”

But then, a second quarter changing of the guard had occurred.

In the first three minutes of the frame, the 10-plus point deficit that had continued to stack up on the Eagles was erased in favor of a quick 9-5 outscoring which saw eight straight points coming straight in a row, with Valentine continuing to charge the battery with six of those points inside to narrow the deficit to a single basket. Eventually, Fillmore would find themselves entering the driver’s seat as the first half approached its end, taking the lead from Genesee Valley on two separate instances. The latter of them ultimately gave the Eagles a 35-32 lead at the break, behind a Levi Webb three.

Altogether, it was a first half-ending 15-4 run in the last three minutes that went in favor of the hosts in white and green.

“It’s satisfying in a way that shows the product of which we play,” Eagles coach Randy Crouch said. “I thought Genesee Valley came out with more energy than us, and a little more emotion. We didn’t match that right away, but what I’m proud of is, that we kept with our defensive plan. We kept working hard, and you could see that they were beginning to fatigue a little bit. Our energy at the same time, was rising, and that’s why we play the way we play.”

As opposed to their initial meeting earlier this season, Crouch said his guys never wavered through a thick and thin first half this time around.

“The matchup earlier in the year, we were up double digits with six or seven minutes left, and up 11 with three minutes left,” he said. “Tonight, we led in the middle two quarters, but we were down 12 in the first quarter. We never wavered, the guys played with the upmost confidence, and we stuck with our plan. We led for much of the game after that, but it was a tight game. Nobody ran away from it.”

Neither team found a point to run away in the second half, as Fillmore continued to remain in control when the third quarter began, with their lead stretching out to five behind Valentine’s relentless efforts again. Later, it became a seven-point advantage as Luke Cole garnered a three-point conversion at the charity stripe, a moment where the Eagles had collected their largest lead of the night on the Jaguars, but was quickly trimmed down by Evan Windus, who landed his fourth and final trey.

“Give them credit, we did a great job on Windus the first time,” Crouch said. “He hit four threes tonight, and I’m really happy with the job we did on Cody. I know he still scored 20 points, but Tobias Webb really did a great job hanging around a kid that’s twice his size. Both Cody and Evan kept their team in it until the end.”

All of that came with Windus staring down four fouls late in the third quarter, in the face. But there was no hesitation on the other side of the court, he was not coming off, according to Bliven.

“We told Cody and Evan at the beginning of the year, you get four fouls in the regular season, you’re playing,” he said. “Because it hurt us in the semifinals last year against Avoca, and we don’t want that to happen again. You have to learn to play like that, and play an active part down the stretch. They’re a very awesome duo, they’re un-coachable. They do their own thing.”

After Brock Ellsessor connected with a lay-in prior to the third quarter buzzer off a Fillmore turnover, the lead for the Eagles soon shrank to one. It would set up a back-and-forth, see-saw battle until the very end of the game.

The fourth quarter would go nearly two minutes with out a score between the two Allegany County titans. But that all changed with a pair of lead changes with Schneider giving Genesee Valley their first since the second quarter on a basket down low, while the Eagles took it away almost immediately with a Valentine basket.

The Fillmore lead would climb its way to three, but a massive three-pointer straight between the eyes from Christian Tuttle kept the back-and-forth affair going for the Jaguars with under four minutes left to play, tying the game at 55. Upon calling a timeout, the visitors in green and white found their way ahead again, adding to it with assistance from Schneider at the stripe to gain traction on a four-point advantage. But it was soon wiped out in favor of a 59-59 deadlock with a basket, and two shots from Dylan Valentine at the line with under two minutes remaining.

But then the rebounding became a monumental factor in the two-minute drill on each side, especially for the Jaguars. With Keegan McKnight missing one of two at the line, Schneider eyed the loose offensive board and cashed in on it from the doorstep to push the lead out to five with under a minute remaining.

But the Eagles discovered, and scored a big pickpocket at midcourt to put away themselves, transforming into a runner that occurred before a long three by Luke Cole on the next offensive drive saw Genesee Valley’s lead decrease to a single point. The shootout would remain the same difference all the way down to the night’s final play inside The Rock, after Ellsessor missed a pair of crucial free throws at the stripe to potentially extend the lead to a full possession.

With exactly 8.2 seconds left on the clock, and the inbound directly in front of the Fillmore bench, Levi Webb began the play by dishing it off to Luke Cole. As time continued to tick down, his lane to the basket was syphoned off, but it allowed him to make one more pass to an open Will Valentine just outside the paint on his left. But standing guard in front was Cody Schneider, as he was able to leap up with his big right mitt to deflect the ball away, and outside the offensive zone, where he was able to deny any further chance of the Eagles retaking the lead behind perhaps his biggest block of the year sealing the win for Genesee Valley.

“As a coach, all you can ask for is a chance to draw up the game-winning play,” said Crouch. “The play worked, there were two options on it. Genesee Valley did a great job taking one of those away from Luke, but we knew Will was going to be open backside. Cody did a great job making that big play when he had to. He came out of nowhere to put the shot nearly into the bleachers. That’s why he scores as many points as he does, and wins as many games he has in his career,”

Crouch added, “I would take all these close games all day, every day. I asked my guys standing out there before the game, what else do you play high school sports for than to have an opportunity like tonight come around. It’s disappointing that we’ve played Genesee Valley twice, and have two fourth quarter leads. They have players that can make plays, and the rebounding really hurt down the stretch. It hurts, but I’d sign up for another game like this.”

When it was all said and done, Windus led all scorers between both teams with a game-high 23 points for the Jaguars. Following behind was Schneider, who finished with 20 points. Ellsessor concluded with eight points, while Keegan McKnight and Trevor Clark finished with five points.

“Cody and Evan both stepped up tonight, and so did a few roleplayers,” said Bliven. “Keegan McKnight is a monster, Christian Tuttle had a big three, and Riley Vohs played well. Kids that don’t normally play a lot, played tonight. Nine times out of ten that we get beat, I blame me. I told them from now on, it’s on their shoulders. We’re three months into the season, and if they don’t know what they’ve learned by now, it’s on them. Whoever has the biggest heart is going to come out and win the game. I’ll tell you what, these guys played with heart.”

The victory the Jaguars wanted, is now in their back pocket. They now have a complete stranglehold on the top spot inside Division I having swept Fillmore in the season series — both results coming by a single point. Now, each team has three County League games remaining on the schedule. Genesee Valley, with complete control of their own destiny, will either clinch their second straight title outright, their third overall in a row, or, at the very least, have a share of it.

“Anything is possible. It would be nice to take care of this county title for a third straight year,” Bliven said. “It’s kind of like when we were in Belfast last year, and we won the county over there. I’m liking this county stuff. If worse comes to worse, we’ll end up sharing it. But we want the whole thing. I’m so proud of the kids, especially coming back to win in this type of atmosphere that Fillmore presents.”

The action will resume between both squads on Saturday, when Fillmore heads over the road to visit the Canisteo-Greenwood Redskins for a 1 p.m. clash that will officially put a cap on the Dan Barkley Showcase in a matchup that was cancelled due to a roof leak inside the Alfred State gymnasium, two weeks ago. This year’s series remains tied at three games each between Allegany and Steuben County.

“We’ll have plenty more games like tonight in the next couple of weeks. We got a lot of tough games left on the schedule,” Crouch said. “ I know the guys were upset tonight, they really wanted a shot at the county title. But I think there’s a lot of basketball left to be played. We have Bolivar-Richburg, Scio, Cuba-Rushford all again next week after Canisteo-Greenwood and Whitesville. We have to be focused every night to face the opponent in front of us before we focus on Sectionals.”

As for the Jaguars, they will take the next several days off to prepare for their final three County League game stretch, which begins back home Wednesday night, when they look to avenge their loss earlier this week to the Cuba-Rushford Rebels. Tip-off is slated for a 7:30 p.m. start.

Genesee Valley     23  9 18 15 – 65

Fillmore                11 24 16 13 – 64

GENESEE VALLEY: Christian Tuttle 1 1-2 4, Trevor Clark 2 0-0 5, Evan Windus 9 1-2 23, Brock Ellsessor 4 0-2 8, Riley Vohs 0 0-2 0, Keegan McKnight 2 1-9 5, Cody Schneider 8 4-4 20. Totals: 26 7-21 65.
FILLMORE: Dylan Valentine 1 2-2 4, Luke Cole 5 3-3 14, Levi Webb 5 0-0 12, Tobias Webb 4 2-2 10, Mason Cool 3 0-0 6, Will Valentine 6 6-8 18. Totals: 24 13-15 64.

3-point goals: GV 6 (Windus 4, Tuttle, Clark), Fillmore 3 (L. Webb 2, Cole).
Total Fouls: GV 13, Fillmore 15. Fouled out: T. Webb (FIL).