Saturday Roundup: Rebels capture GV Mid-Season Tournament crown over Wellsville; GV triumphs, C-R boys edged over the road

The Rebels of Cuba-Rushford pose with their recently acquired Mid-Season Tournament championship trophy after they defeated Wellsville to win this year’s festivities at Genesee Valley, Saturday afternoon. [PHOTO PROVIDED]

BELMONT — Six Allegany County League teams entered Saturday’s annual Mid-Season Tournament at Genesee Valley. Only one team could return to their respective school as this year’s champion, and a big momentum boost heading into the second half of the season.

For hours on end, 11 of the tournament’s total 12 matches would come to completion, seeing a pair of undefeated teams battle for it all in the title game — 4-0 Cuba-Rushford and 4-0 Wellsville.

When it was all said and done after three sets, the Rebels were victorious as this year’s Mid-Season Tournament champions, as they rolled along toward a 25-22, 25-20, and 15-12 win over the Lions to claim the crown.

“It was a long day but our boys fought hard all day long,” C-R coach Nick Perillo said. “Everyone played, and everyone played well. It was really fun as their coach to watch the team work and succeed together. It wasn’t an easy road to the finals, but they all made it happen.”

Joey Frederick led the Rebels offense with a team-high six kills, and two blocks. Caden Granger was heavily active on the defensive front, scooping up 14 big digs to pair with his four kills of offense. Setter Caden Larabee handed out the assists, racking up a dozen of them to help Cuba-Rushford finish a perfect 5-0 across the board.

The Lions were paced by a six dig, five kill and two ace effort from their senior leader Isaiah Scott. Walker Waldon denied eight plays at the net to go with his three kills, while setter Matthew Bittel recorded eight assists, and two aces from the service line for Wellsville, who finished with a 4-1 record in the all-day tournament.

All six teams will return to regular season action this week, with Wellsville and Genesee Valley kicking off the festivities on Monday in Belmont at 6 p.m.

On Wednesday, Cuba-Rushford will pay a visit to Bolivar-Richburg, while Scio will hit the road to visit the Lions. Both matches are slated for 6 p.m. starts.

BOYS BASKETBALL

Notre Dame-Batavia 66, Cuba-Rushford 64

BATAVIA — The Rebels of Cuba-Rushford found themselves in a big hole early on, but through it all, they managed to dig their way out of the trenches right before halftime at Notre Dame-Batavia, Saturday night.

With both teams battling tooth and nail the rest of the way, the game would find its way to a one-possession conclusion. That was in favor of the hosts, as Notre Dame-Batavia was one step ahead of Cuba-Rushford, literally, in each of the two remaining quarters of play, allowing them to take the 66-64 edge over the Rebels.

“This is a game that will be tough to swallow for sure,” said Rebels coach Bryce Ryan. “They finished some tough shots down the stretch in the fourth quarter that if they didn’t bounce the right way, the game could have looked very different on the scoreboard. They have some really tough kids that know how to battle, so the credit goes to Notre Dame. I tip my hat to them.”

The early-going of the contest saw Cuba-Rushford (3-5) fall behind fairly quickly behind a hot Notre Dame-Batavia offense straight out of the gates in the first quarter, as they formed their strongest run of the night by outscoring the Rebels by a 23-11 count. In the second half, a comeback was written, as the visitors in blue and maroon shut the door of the Irish offense with a run of their own — a 17-5 response in a second quarter that Ryan saw was much more like how his team is used to playing.

“I was proud of the boys for settling down and battling back in the second quarter,” he said. “We took care of the ball much better, and we were much more disciplined defensively. We switched up our defense on Notre Dame, and that really seemed to cause a lot of confusion. If we can play like we did in the last three quarters, we can be a very tough team to go up against coming down the stretch.”

After the Rebels tied up the game at halftime, it set the pace for the remainder of the game as each team delivered haymaker after haymaker until the very end, when the contest saw the Irish come out on top just one step ahead of the Rebels with 19-18 outscorings in the last two quarters of play to earn the win.

Despite the loss, the Rebels saw a season-best performance out of their senior Andrew Clement, who took over the Rebels offense with a season-high 28 points, including a hot night from downtown with five of the team’s six total three-pointers. Grady McCumiskey took the lead on the inside offense, gathering 19 points that included a 10-for-12 outing at the charity stripe. Dan Emerson followed with seven points of his own.

The Rebels will take another week off of action, as they look to use their game with the Irish as fuel, as they cross into the second half of the basketball season with their second game inside a four-game road stretch coming up next Saturday, visiting the Canisteo-Greenwood Redskins for a 7:15 p.m. tip-off.

“We can take a ton away from this game. I’m looking forward to how we can respond from this,” said Ryan. “I really believe our best basketball has yet to be played, and I think our guys are as hungry as they ever have been. We just have to keep attacking all of our practices, keeping building some good habits, and it will find its way to us.”

Cuba-Rushford              11  17 18 18 – 64

Notre Dame-Batavia   23  5 19 19 – 66

CUBA-RUSHFORD: Ethan Brooks 1 2-2 4, Joey Jablonski 1 0-0 2, Trent Chamberlain 1 0-0 2, Andrew Clement 11 1-3 28, Nate Burdick 1 0-0 2, Grady McCumiskey 4 10-12 19, Dan Emerson 3 1-4 7. Totals: 23 14-21 64.
NOTRE DAME-BATAVIA: Mark Sanders 6 2-2 16, Owen Mileham 3 2-4 8, Ryan Fitzpatrick 1 0-0 3, Gabe MacDonald 6 3-7 15, Keith Szczepanski 3 1-2 7, Ethan Chadbourne 0 0-1 0, Colin McCulley 6 4-6 17. Totals: 25 12-22 66.

3-point goals: C-R 6 (Clement 5, McCumiskey), ND-B 4 (Sanders 2, Fitzpatrick, McCulley).
Total Fouls: C-R 20, ND-B 14. Fouled out: Chamberlain (C-R), Emerson (C-R).

Genesee Valley 68, North Rose-Wolcott 44

WOLCOTT — The Genesee Valley Jaguars managed to keep their fire ablaze Saturday afternoon, as they approach the halfway mark of their season on the schedule by taking a long bus ride to North Rose-Wolcott. When it was over, they left town with a much easier two and a half hour trip back home behind a 68-44 road win over the host Cougars for their seventh win in the last eight games.

The Jaguars (7-2) were in a heap of foul trouble all throughout the afternoon, with their leading seniors Evan Windus and Cody Schneider accumulating three fouls each early on in the first half. Schneider would ultimately foul out of the contest just minutes into the fourth quarter, but it allowed Windus to take control of the offense with 10 of the team’s 13 points in the last eight minute period to branch their lead insurmountably.

“Evan really stepped up for us. Cody fouled out at the beginning of the fourth quarter, and Evan himself also had four fouls. He stepped up when we needed him to,” said Jaguars coach Lintz Bliven. “He made the pass when he needed to, took a big shot, grabbed a big rebound, everything. He played like a true senior leader that he is. It was very pleasant to see that out of him, because I know that he’s more than capable of it.”

Before the fourth quarter festivities, Genesee Valley started the game out red hot from outside with Trevor Clark leading the team’s three-point game with three of his four coming in an opening quarter that saw the Jaguars explode to a 24-10 lead of the Cougars before the hosts put together their only outscoring of the visitors in green, cutting their lead down to nine at the half with a 12-7 second quarter.

“We pushed ourselves a little too much in the second quarter, and that saw the offense become a little stagnant. Everyone’s making that extra effort to try and keep us in these games,” said Bliven. “Trevor had some big threes in the first quarter, and that’s what we needed to get ourselves going. If he can keep shooting like that, we can be pretty difficult to stop with all five of our guys on the floor at the same time.”

Out of the locker room in the third, the Jaguars put a wrap on the game with their second 24-point offensive effort, holding the North Rose-Wolcott offense in check with a massive 24-13 run to pull away for good toward an official 3-1 record against Class B schools this season.

Brock Ellsessor led all Genesee Valley scorers with a team-high 19 points to go with nine boards off the glass. Before fouling out, Schneider finished with 18 points of his own, while Windus followed with 17 points and 12 rebounds to finish with a double-double. Clark rounded off the Jaguars offense with 14 points.

Genesee Valley will go for their eighth win in nine games on Tuesday, as they hop on the bus to take on the Arkport/Canaseraga Wolves in Canaseraga. Tip-off is slated for 7:15 p.m.

Genesee Valley                24  7 24 13 – 68

North Rose-Wolcott        10 12 13  9 – 44  

GENESEE VALLEY: Trevor Clark 5 0-0 14, Evan Windus 5 6-7 17, Brock Ellsessor 8 3-5 19, Cody Schneider 7 3-4 18. Totals: 25 12-16 68.
NORTH ROSE-WOLCOTT: Cameron McCann 3 1-3 8, Christian Scarborough 0 0-1 0, Noah Dauphin 1 0-0 2, Quintin Norris 9 4-5 23, Evan Scarborough 1 0-0 3, Nikos Soklaropoulos 2 1-2 5, Gordon Howie 1 1-1 3. Totals: 17 7-13 44.   

3-point goals: GV 6 (Clark 4, Windus, Schneider) NRW 3 (Norris 2, E. Scarbrough).
Total Fouls: GV 22, NRW 15. Fouled out: Schneider (GV).