Windus, Schneider create game-winning play with seconds left to help finish off epic 4th quarter Jaguars rally to advance to D1 Finals in 59-54 win over No. 3 Notre Dame-Batavia

The Genesee Valley Jaguars come together to celebrate after they completed a 4th quarter comeback to defeat No. 3 Notre Dame-Batavia, 59-54 in their Class D1 Semifinal contest on Monday in Mount Morris. [Photo courtesy of Steve Harrison]

Genesee Valley senior Cody Schneider (35) pulls up a jumper against the Notre Dame-Batavia defense during Monday night’s Class D1 Semifinal contest in Mount Morris. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Genesee Valley senior Evan Windus (21) lets his three-point shot fly against the Notre Dame-Batavia defense during Monday night’s Class D1 Semifinal contest in Mount Morris. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Genesee Valley senior Trevor Clark (15) drives his way to the basket in between a pair of Notre Dame-Batavia defenders during Monday night’s Class D1 Semifinal contest in Mount Morris. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Genesee Valley junior Riley Gordon (31) connects with a pass into the open wing as the Notre Dame-Batavia defense looks on during Monday night’s Class D1 Semifinal contest in Mount Morris. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

Genesee Valley head coach Lintz Bliven celebrates on the sidelines with his team in the waning seconds of Monday night’s Class D1 Semifinal contest against Notre Dame-Batavia, in Mount Morris. [Chris Brooks/WellsvilleSports.com]

MOUNT MORRIS — It was one last step toward the Finals a team could make. The next stop on the roadmap is Blue Cross Arena for either Notre Dame-Batavia or Genesee Valley, this weekend. In a game that the second-seeded Jaguars have never held onto an official lead, they found themselves on the opposite side of the spectrum by being dug into a hole since the very beginning of the night by the third-seeded Irish.

But the fourth quarter saw development of some newly sought-after momentum, after trailing by 11 entering the frame, and even more so, by 15 at a later stage. It would eventually create a situation where the Jaguars had to address the biggest elephant in the room with under three minutes left to play.

Having dug out of the abyss to pull themselves within a stone’s throw of the Irish, the burning question that Jaguars head coach Lintz Bliven had for his team during a timeout — make or break?

“We called the timeout with 2:50 left on the clock, and I screamed at the boys. I told them to play with their hearts, with everything they have,” he said. “I told them flat out that they were playing lazy. I said they needed to get it together quickly, because we were going to go home and we weren’t going to get to practice tomorrow if it stayed the way it was. There wasn’t much time left on the clock to work with. We had to start playing defense, instead of watching.”

With his team now receiving the message, it was all gambled on their ability to define the last 2:50 of the game in Genesee Valley terminology on the floor.

In that timeframe left remaining in regulation, it morphed into one of the more dramatic finishes you will feast your eyes upon so far this season. Inside a packed gymnasium, the pressure levels skyrocketed through the roof. Almost the entire Mount Morris crowd on hand hung onto the very edge of their seat, going with a good amount of metaphoric nail-biting as the game came down to the final 30 seconds in what was a 54-54 deadlock.

The answer the Jaguars had for their coach was provided by a pair of their senior leaders — Evan Windus and Cody Schneider.

Quite simply, Windus and Schneider have been the team’s two biggest playmakers all season long. It was no different in the endgame on Monday. With Notre Dame-Batavia controlling possession in their offensive zone, Windus eyed the opportunity to make a swipe at the ball. He did just that, seeing a wide-open Schneider making the breakaway run to the opposing basket. With no defender in sight, Schneider put the go-ahead fingerroll away with ease with 21.4 seconds left on the clock, essentially putting the game away for Genesee Valley with some extra help down the stretch, as they completed the epic comeback to move onto the Class D1 Finals for the first time in five years with a heroic 59-54 win over the Irish.

“Cody is Cody, and I’ve said that for the past three years,” Bliven said. “I love Cody and Evan with all my heart, and after every game, I let them know. Cody’s an amazing kid, Evan’s an amazing kid, they’re all great kids. We’ve turned into a big, close-knit family. They make every coach at Genesee Valley so much better than they are. Even more so, the school itself so much better. In a situation such as this, both of those guys come through when we absolutely need them.”

If you rewind the tape before the last minute fireworks were ignited, the Jaguars had to fight, joust, claw their way back after falling behind rather quickly to begin the Class D1 Semifinal contest. After a 4-2 lead saw Schneider net Genesee Valley’s (18-4) first basket of the game, Notre Dame-Batavia, behind the hot stroke of Mark Sanders and his three-pointer, got off to an electric start behind his early pair of first quarter threes to start off an 11-4 run through the first five minutes.

The Jaguars wrapped up with the last three points of the quarter from Schneider both at the line, and on a basket underneath to close the gap. But the ongoing issues in the first half continued to mount up, ranging from missed rebounds to second chance baskets after an initial shot, they were all scenarios that aided the Irish in wrapping up with seven of the last nine points that included a pair of three-pointers to break a 16-16 tie, and turned it into a 23-18 halftime lead.

“We rely on Cody and Evan a lot for those putbacks. We struggled with that a lot,” Bliven said. “Foul shots as well, lay-ups. We would have won this game by 10 or 15 points at least if we hadn’t made any of those mistakes. But we have never been out of any game, and this is a team that went down by 15 at one point. There was no quite, and we had the leadership from our seniors to back it up.”

Although Notre Dame-Batavia came out of the locker room swinging in the third quarter with their largest frame of offense of the entire night, Genesee Valley did not back down, as they continued to joust their way toward unbuckling the Irish from the driver’s seat. In the early stages, a teeter-totter pace had set in with no Irish lead eclipsing five points, and no deficit for the Jaguars growing smaller than three points.

As the quarter slowly reached its end, it garnered a chance for the three-seeds to build a monster run, doing just that by ending the third with 10 of the final 12 points to see the lead grow to double digits, up 46-35 entering the last eight minute period.

But as the Jaguars advertised through the previous quarter, they continued to show no quit in the fourth. In the first two minutes, the Jaguars put away the first eight points to trim the Irish lead down to a single possession, led by a clutch, pulled-up trey from Trevor Clark. Since the basket and timeout that was called by Notre Dame-Batavia, the game would enter a back-and-forth mode all the way down to the very end.

With added pressure on his shoulders with four fouls, Windus ate it all up, hitting another close shot to maintain their reach to a single point off a very long two from just a half-step into the left wing to force the game into a 48-47 Irish favor with nearly four minutes left to play. Another exchange of baskets was provided between the two clubs, coming right before the Jaguars saw their first lead briefly on a Clark jumper from inside the left wing, going up 51-50.

Eventually, the monumental moment of the night would arrive with the discovery a 54-54 tie after a pair of shots at the line by Notre Dame-Batavia, followed by a long Riley Gordon three-pointer that forced it immediately after. With 30 seconds left, Windus came up with the steal of the season, grabbing possession and then launching the ball downcourt to a wide-open Schneider, who had all the time of the world to sink the biggest go-ahead basket with 21.4 left to play to force an Irish timeout on the floor.

On the very next drive, Notre Dame-Batavia received possession after the advancement downcourt, only to lose it to another steal, this time from Brock Ellsessor, who was intentionally fouled on his way to the basket, receiving two free shots. As an added bonus, a technical foul was issued to the Notre Dame-Batavia bench, which resulted in two more additional shots on top of Ellsessor’s, with Windus electing to take the next two.

In all, with under five seconds left to play, the Jaguars hit 3-of-4 at the stripe to grow their lead from two to five with three seconds left, an insurmountable amount to keep the Irish away permanently. After the shots were sank, Genesee Valley received possession only to inbound to Schneider, who proceeded to toss the ball into the air to begin the celebration, as the team completed a humongous 24-8 come-from-behind, fourth quarter rally to put the last punch on their ticket to Rochester.

A ticket that has been waiting in the envelope since the 2015 season.

“This is amazing. They played with their hearts out,” Bliven said. “They must like to hear me yell at them or something. These kids don’t quit, and sometimes you have to remind them that they cannot quit. These kids were all brought up with basketballs in their hands. Cody and Evan stepped up big time, Brock had a big steal to pretty much end the game, Trevor had a great game, Riley Gordon played well, Keegan McKnight played great defense. This is such an awesome team, and when that time comes, it’s going to stink when it’s over. I hope we can keep playing for a while.”

At the end of the night, Schneider led all scorers on the hardwood with a game-high 27 points for Genesee Valley. Windus totaled 17 points himself, while Clark finished with eight. Rounding off the offense was Ellsessor and Gordon, as they combined to make up the seven remaining points.

Now, the long wait will come to an end when the team travels to Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial on Saturday, as they now vie for their first Section V, Class D1 championship in five seasons against a top-seeded Avoca Tigers team they’ve been looking forward to meeting since the start of this season.

Bliven says the team will finally get their chance.

“We finally get our chance. The beginning of the year, even during soccer season, I texted all of the kids and I told them to make this the year that Genesee Valley never forgets,” he said. “I’ve kept saying that time and time again, and now we hope we’re on our way to it. Avoca’s going to be tough, and they’ve won every single game except for their first one. I’m hoping they lose their first game and their last one, and to do that, we have to slow them down by all means. I have three amazing coaches that will help me figure out a game plan. Whatever happens at Blue Cross, happens. We’re going to give it our best shot. We got there, that’s our one big thing.”

Notre Dame-Batavia     11 12 23   8 – 54

Genesee Valley               7  11 17 24 – 59

NOTRE DAME-BATAVIA: Mark Sanders 7 0-0 19, Cody Henry 3 0-0 6, Ryan Fitzpatrick 1 0-0 3, Gabe MacDonald 5 4-6 14, Keith Szczepanski 0 1-2 1, Colin McCulley 4 2-3 11. Totals: 20 7-11 54.
GENESEE VALLEY: Trevor Clark 3 0-0 8, Evan Windus 8 0-2 17, Brock Ellsessor 1 2-4 4, Riley Gordon 1 0-2 3, Cody Schneider 12 3-7 27. Totals: 25 5-15 59.

3-point goals: ND-B 7 (Sanders 5, Fitzpatrick, McCulley), GV 4 (Clark 2, Windus, Gordon).
Total Fouls: ND-B 11, GV 12. Fouled out: None.