BARKLEY SHOWCASE: Brown’s 28 points, clutch free throws from Breckenridge allows Rebels to capture 10th win of season in thrilling fashion over C-G in Showcase’s Saturday opener

WELLSVILLE — The close quarters nature of both Hornell and Wellsville battles from the previous night in the Sheriff’s Classic set the tone, with many in attendance calling it one of the best nights in the Dan Barkley Showcase’s notable history.

Now for the remaining three games left on the docket for the main event come Saturday afternoon, it was a bar they now had to match. For the first game of the day between Canisteo-Greenwood and Cuba-Rushford, that was no problem at all.

For almost the entire game, the Chargers and Rebels were neck-and-neck, no matter how big the advantage held by one team was. The most substantial difference between the two teams in the contest was 13 points. But when the final buzzer sounded off, the margin of victory froze in place at just a single possession.

After both teams traded scoreless runs across the third quarter, it set up for a miraculous finish in the last eight minutes of play with one basket after another finding its way through the twine. In the end, it was all decided at the free throw line.

For the Rebels, they had two gigantic shots go down off the hand of Donovan Breckenridge to score the lead, adding one more from Finn Ricketts for desperate measure down the stretch before surviving one last attempt by the Chargers to tie the game from three-point range, hitting the face of the rim as time expired to aid Cuba-Rushford in capturing a thrilling 62-59 victory and a 2-1 lead for Allegany County in this year’s head-to-head battle.

“I was very happy with our energy and effort out of the gate. This was a great rebound win after a tough one Thursday at B-R,” said Rebels coach Pat Wight. “Every guy stepped up when their number was called tonight and that, I couldn’t be more proud. That’s a really good team Brandon (Beers) has over there at C-G and we were fortunate enough to make a couple of more shots than they did. I’m looking forward to seeing how the guys respond after a few days off to heal and rest up.”

An incredibly fast pace to the action on the hardwood was set in stone right away, with the back-and-forth trade settling in behind the guidance of Carter Brown for the Rebels (10-4), who delivered a magnificent performance to claim MVP honors, knocking down a pair threes in the first five minutes to set up a 10-8 lead in the early-going.

Brown would go on to post 14 of the team’s 20 points within the frame to claim a 20-15 advantage on the Chargers after the quarter.

Across the second quarter, it virtually stood as a five-point advantage for the Rebels with the Chargers (6-3) streaking right behind them every step of the way, with Jaxon O’Brien’s long inside make closing the deficit down to a pair of points before Eli Sleggs immediately provisioned a response behind a hard-earned three-point play to keep what was a 28-23 lead intact entering the final stretch of the half.

With a 34-29 lead at the start of the third quarter, the race was back on again between both teams, with Cuba-Rushford continuing to hold onto their advantage, with an extension to it from Finn Ricketts from downtown before the Canisteo-Greenwood deficit climbed back down to four behind inside help from Carson Chaffee in return.

Just past midway in the stanza, Cuba-Rushford found their groove behind a pair of quality drives to the rim from Adam Roe, along with a stellar three-point play from Carter Brown to send the Rebels off and running with a 9-0 run with 2:13 left on the clock, garnering a 13-point advantage — the largest lead held by either side in the contest.

Following a timeout taken by the Chargers, they regrouped and dished out a scoreless run of their own in the third quarter’s final moments, leading it into the beginning stages of the fourth, holding the Rebels at a standstill in the midst of an 11-0 run off big baskets from Kevin Sirianni downtown and a breakaway basket from Thomas Sirianni. After it was all said and done, a 13-point deficit was erased in favor of a two-point contest, which would be the highest difference between the teams across all facets in the fourth quarter.

Both teams would draw even one more time in the final minute of regulation before some slight separation was created by Donovan Breckenridge at the charity stripe, as he essentially granted the Rebels the victory behind two mammoth shots with 42.8 seconds left. With the Chargers amassing more fouls to send the Rebels to the line two more times, the team in white and maroon knocked down one more out of the four attempts to create a three-point lead.

Canisteo-Greenwood would ultimately hold the final possession of the afternoon, as they forced one last attempt from downtown off the hand of Kevin Sirianni to try and tie the game. But right as time expired, the shot hit directly off the face of the rim and away from further danger to finish off a Cuba-Rushford victory, as they became the first Allegany County boys basketball team to cross the 10-win plateau in the season.

Finishing behind Brown’s 28 points for the Rebels was Adam Roe, who finished with eight points. Finn Ricketts had seven points, while Breckenridge and Zach Deck each had six. Wight commended his team’s efforts in what was a bounce back victory following their defeat at Bolivar-Richburg this past Thursday.

“I was very proud of Finn and Carter (Brown) playing through injuries and getting the job done. Both guys could have easily said they were unable to play, but they performed great,” Wight said. “Finn really limited Carson Chaffee to tough makes and then some even bigger rebounds. Carter led the scoring with a broken finger and messed-up thumb. I seriously couldn’t ask more of them. Adam Roe did a great job keeping (Dan) Stilson off the boards, Zach (Deck) did a heck of a job handling the ball and stuck a giant three, Donovan with his clutch free throws and Dean (Frank) was great defensively in his minutes spent on the floor as well.”

Wight added, “We fell behind in the fourth quarter and we could have very easily said that we tried, but the guys stepped up and made winning plays. That’s something we really talked about in the huddle. Who was going to make a winning play. And we had about four of them between rebounds and made free throws. Big thanks to everyone at the Showcase for having us again this year. It was a great environment to be a part of.”

For the Chargers, Carson Chaffee led the way behind his team-high 19-point performance. Dan Stilson provided a strong performance from down low, bucketing 15 points, while Thomas Sirianni concluded with 12 points of his own. Canisteo-Greenwood is back on the floor Tuesday night just down the road from the Canisteo Valley, as they visit the Hornell Red Raiders in a 7 p.m. showdown.

As for the Rebels, they will look to keep their engine firing on all cylinders come Friday night back home in the Wighthouse, hosting Houghton Academy in a 7:30 p.m. tip-off.

Canisteo-Greenwood 15 14 15 15 – 59

Cuba-Rushford 20 14 14 14 – 62

CANISTEO-GREENWOOD: Kevin Sirianni 1 0-0 2, Thomas Sirianni 5 0-1 12, Carson Chaffee 9 1-1 19, Jaxon O'Brien 1 0-2 2, Quinton Houghtaling 1 0-0 2, James Smith 3 0-1 7, Dan Stilson 6 3-4 15. Totals: 26 4-9 59.
CUBA-RUSHFORD: Dean Frank 1 0-0 2, Adam Roe 4 0-0 8, Donovan Breckenridge 2 2-2 6, Eli Sleggs 1 3-3 5, Zach Deck 2 1-4 6, Carter Brown 8 8-11 28, Finn Ricketts 3 0-0 7. Totals: 21 14-20 62.

3-point goals: C-G 3 (T. Sirianni 2, Smith), C-R 6 (Brown 4, Deck, Ricketts).
Total Fouls: C-G 17, C-R 13. Fouled out: None.