If the McKinley Macks had any thoughts of rallying in the second half of Saturday's Section VI, Class AA boys basketball championship game to shock the Niagara Falls Wolverines, those visions lasted about two minutes.
Following a first half for which sloppy would be a kind description, Niagara Falls leveled their challengers from Buffalo with eight straight points after intermission to build its lead from an imposing 13 points at the break to an insurmountable 21 by the time McKinley coach James Daye called a timeout with 5:59 left in the third quarter.
"At halftime, we decided, 'We aren't going to have any more of this,'" said Wolverines guard Robert Garrison, who hit back-to-back layups in the middle of Niagara Falls' onslaught and helped key the pressure that fueled it. "We said, 'Enough is enough.'"
Whatever diagrams Daye drew up or words of inspiration he offered, they didn't help. By the time the third quarter came to a merciful close, the Wolverines had extended their 31-18 halftime margin to a 69-25 avalanche.
But don't be misled by the score -- 87-48 by the end. It wasn't really that close.
How good is this Niagara Falls team, which won its third Section VI title in four years and opens its bid for the city's first state hoops title since the merger with LaSalle High School at 3 p.m. Sunday, when it hosts the top large school from Rochester at HSBC Arena?
While the Wolverines buried the Macks in the second half, they broke their spirit during the first.
During the first two quarters, Niagara Falls threw away passes, forced bad shots, fired up airballs from both outside and within the 3-point arc and failed to box out on the defensive boards.
The Wolverines still had the game all but won by intermission.
That was due mainly, like every Niagara Falls win, to suffocating defense. McKinley never looked like it had any kind of game plan for getting the ball inside, instead settling for off-balance, closely guarded three point shots. As Jones swatted away shots and the Harrises, Garrison and Greg Gamble -- who coach Dan Bazzani credited with keying the defensive effort -- took turns producing blocks and steals, the Macks' desperation shots got longer and longer. In the first half, the forced turnovers led mainly to free throws as the Wolverines steadily pulled away. But in the third quarter, they maximized their opportunities.
"The defense keyed our offense and after halftime, we were able to get our break going," Bazzani said.
Unlike past seasons, when the Wolverines faced another Section VI game for the overall Class A title before facing the best from Rochester, a restructuring this season gives them a week off before the first high-school basketball game in HSBC Arena history.
Their opponent won't be McQuaid, who canceled Niagara Falls' plans for a trip to the state Final Four in Glens Falls with a 48-44 win before 10,000 fans at Blue Cross Arena last spring. With McQuaid ousted during its sectional tournament, unbeaten Rush-Henrietta faces once-beaten Greece Arcadia on Wednesday for the Section V large-school title and a shot at Niagara Falls in Sunday's Far West Regional, a quarterfinal in the state tournament.
While Niagara Falls (22-2) has become quite familiar with McQuaid, having avenged last year's regional loss during the regular season, Rush-Henrietta is no stranger, either. The Wolverines met the Royal Comets in a scrimmage last fall.
Rush-Henrietta's game revolves around 6-foot-4 sophomore Calvin Betts and 6-foot-8 senior center Joe Sargent, with a trio of quick guards in Tim Jackson, Ryan Henry and Aaron Poles feeding the big men the ball inside and leading the Royal Comets' pressure defense. Henry scored 17 points in Rush-Henrietta's 62-52 win over Fairport to win the Class AAA title and was named tournament MVP, while Betts had 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Greece Arcadia won the AA title (each section devises its own classifications based on the number of schools that fall into state classifications based on enrollment) with a bit of trickery against Webster. Tied at 60 with less than three minutes left, Arcadia point guard Chris Greene effectively inbounded the ball to himself by bouncing a pass off a defender's turned back under the basket and snagging the loose ball before sinking a go-ahead layup. Webster never recovered and Arcadia rolled to a 77-64 win.
It's safe to say neither Rush-Henrietta nor Greece Arcadia, steeled by competition in Rochester's ultra-competitive City-Catholic League, will be visibly intimidated by Niagara Falls, as were the Macks. And neither team will spend the afternoon at HSBC Arena launching hopeless NBA-length 3-pointers, either.
"We know how good Rush-Henrietta is, and how good any team that might beat them would be," Bazzani said. "That won't be a 10- or 20-point game, and our guys realize that."
The Wolverines also realize that beating the best of Rochester means making that trip to Glens Falls for a shot at the state title, a journey most of them have never made.
"We're finally clicking at the right time," Garrison said. "You don't usually get a chance to do things like this at this level. This is amazing."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 9 2004 |