pembroke

When Chelsea Turcer noticed that nobody was bothering to guard her and her, she figured that it was time to put the nail in the coffin.

Alexander had already overcome a nearly double-figure deficit in the third quarter to take the lead and she wanted to put the game away.

She did just that as she chucked up and made a 3-pointer to wrap up the Trojans 53-48 win over Pembroke in a great Genesee Region League game Friday.

 A lot of things happened before Turcer drained the trey that most will remember from this game.

Alexander was up 10-5 early on before Danielle Smith scored and hit a pair of foul shots to cut the lead to 10-9 at the end of the first quarter.

Alexander's Anni Lehtola opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer and had another bucket early on as the Trojans kept the lead around two points.

But the tide changed in the final minute of the half.

Jackie DuBois scored two consecutive baskets to give Pembroke a 26-25 lead - their first of the night - with 37 seconds left in the half.

That burst of momentum took a little bit in the third quarter as the Trojans regained the lead on a free throw by Lehtola, but by the midpoint the lead had grown to nine points.

Kelsey Lewis hit a long jumper, Nicole Sharick dropped in a basket and then a 3-pointer to give Pembroke a 36-29 advantage.

Katie Hackett extended the lead with a basket and then added another score with about a second left in the third quarter to give Pembroke a 42-35 lead going into the final frame.

Alexander has had issues in the third quarter this season, but always seems to right things in the fourth.

Again, the Trojans stepped up to the challenge.

Nicki Laird and Rachael Pettys had baskets before Lehtola hit a 3-pointer to get within two points.

Sarah Herman tied the game with a basket and Alexander wound up taking a 48-46 lead when Pettys scored. Katie Kochmanski added another basket to make it a four point game.

The Dragons did score with 40 seconds left, but Turcer's 3-pointer with seconds left ended the game.

Lehtola had 15 points to lead the Trojans, with Pettys adding eight points, 15 rebounds, four steals and two blocked shots. Anna Dominick had 13 points with three boards and four steals as Alexander improves to 11-4.

Sharick led the Dragons (9-7) with 11 points, but Lewis chipped in nine points and Pettys had eight.

Early in the season, there were issues with the Pembroke boys basketball team.

The roster only had seven players, there was some infighting with the players, they had no true point guard and the wins weren't coming. But the Dragons have now blown out four straight teams because of a 75-37 win over visiting Alexander Thursday.

Part of that problem was solved when Steve Moser showed up very early in the season as a transfer from St. Joe's in Buffalo, and the rest of the problem was solved with time.

Now, Pembroke is ready to wrap up the season with some wins, take on the first Genesee Region/Niagara-Orleans Tournament and then sectionals.

The Dragons improve to 10-6 and did it by thumping a team that isn't bad and did it in big-time fashion.

The game was never a question as Pembroke jumped out to a 19-7 lead in the first quarter with Ken Babcock dominating inside the paint. He owned the boards and scored two baskets, and got help from Andrew Gabbey, who dropped in two 3-pointers in the opening frame.

The Trojans went blow-for-blow in the second quarter, with both teams scoring 14 points., but it was still 33-21 Pembroke at the half.

Babcock had six points in the third quarter and Andrew Wright started taking over the game. Wright had just four points in the frame, but was big on the boards and was getting steals. The Dragons had a 20-7 advantage in the third.

Wright scored seven points in the fourth quarter and Pembroke had a 22-9 advantage in the fourth quarter for the huge victory.

This is a team that got off to a really ugly start and is now playing some solid basketball. Oakfield-Alabama wrapped up the Genesee Region League Division II title with a win tonight, so Pembroke is now focusing on the sectional playoffs.

The addition of  Moser was huge. Wright was out of position and had to bring the ball up the floor. That took his inside presence out of the mix.

Moser is a solid point guard, scoring nine points with six assists in the game.

Wright scored a game-high 19 points with 11 rebounds and seven steals and Babcock pitched in 13 points and 10 boards.

Eric Leffel also had nine points for Pembroke.

Alexander (6-9) was led by Zach Burke, who scored 10 points.

In the spotlight match in all of Section 5 today, Greece Olympia's John Veltre upped his season record to 49-0 with a pin over Batavia's Ryan Darch in 3:12 at 160 pounds.

Olympia went on to win the dual meet at Batavia 35-21.

Anthony D'Aurizio pinned Zack Beauregard in just 1:02 for the Blue Devils with Josh Mase getting a tech fall victory over D.J. Bentley in 5:30 at 103.

Troy Ireland also had a win for Batavia (18-6).

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Jordan Kiessling picked up his 100th career win as Byron-Bergen beat Alexander 58-24.

The 171-pounder topped Dustin Say 11-1 in leading the Bees.

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Kendall's Devin Iqbal had a quick pin to lead Kendall to a 48-39 win over Pembroke.

Iqbal pinned Dean Culinan in just 37 seconds at 96 pounds.

It appears that Oakfield-Alabama and Notre Dame have the regular season titles wrapped up when you look at the standings and schedule of remaining games. 

I am going by what is on the Section 5 Web site and there may be make-up games I don't know about, but as of this point I think Oakfield-Alabama has won Division I and Notre Dame is the Division II champion.

The Fighting Irish are 12-3 and have a five games left to play. The only team in striking distance is Elba at 8-7. Elba has just four games left, including one against Notre Dame. So if my math is correct, Notre Dame has clinched the Division II title.

Oakfield-Alabama (13-2) has a four game lead over Pembroke (9-6) with four regular season games left on the schedule, with one of them being against the Dragons on February 11.

Pembroke has four games left, so that the Dragons still have a little bit of chance to sneak in there.

It will be interesting to watch and see if Notre Dame or Oakfield-Alabama finished with the overall GR title, with just a game between the two.

The Genesee Region League will also be hosting the Niagara-Orleans League in a tournament between the two leagues at Genesee Community College on Feb. 13 and 14.

Andrew Wright is heating up at the right time for the Pembroke basketball team, and that could be huge as the season wraps up and sectionals begins.

Wright won Player of the Week for last week and is already making a statement for this week, with 28 points and 10 rebounds in a 68-38 blowout over Attica on the road.

Big man Ken Babcock pitched in 16 points and nine rebounds while Steve Moser added 11 points with five steals.

The Dragons also played some solid defense, holding the Blue Devils (7-8) to just one player in double figures as Tate Westermeier scored 10 points.

Bryan Thompson had nine points and Greg Zybczynski had eight for Attica.

Pembroke is now 9-6. 

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Noah Seward was big in the paint in leading Oakfield-Alabama to a 65-43 win over Byron-Bergen.

Seward scored 14 points with 11 boards and four blocked shots.

Brad Riner scored eight points with 10 dimes and four steals with Tyler Tamblin scoring 10 points and Sam McCracken adding eight for the Hornets (13-2).

Tyler Sass led the Bees (3-11) with nine points and four boards.

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Elba held Kendall's Josh Laureano to just 12 points, but two of those came in the final minute to wrap up a 44-37 win over the Lancers.

Phil Kludt and Colt Tooley had 13 points apiece to lead the Eagles, who improve to 9-5.

Sonny Giuliano had 13 points with Dan Ramsey adding 12 to lead the Lancers.

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Kevin Francis scored 20 points and Greg Barr added 16 as Notre Dame thrashed Lyndonville 80-58.

Pretty much all of the scoring came from three players as Erick VanWycke had 17 points, Ken Urbanik had 16 and Muhammad Akram finished with 12.

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Mike Humphrey dropped in 23 points to lead Le Roy to a 60-42 win over Geneseo.

Eric Stella had 12 points and 10 rebounds and Brock Pasquale added eight for the Oatkan Knights.

Dylan Colville scored 22 points for Geneseo.

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Kyle Woodruff went off for the Alexander basketball team, scoring 30 points with 10 rebounds in a 65-62 win over Holley.

Stephen George had 13 points and Jared Quinn added 10.

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The Batavia hockey team gave up two goals to Chris Roeder and one to Anthony Mandrino, Vince Pettrone in a 5-2 loss.

Corey Kocent scored both Batavia goals. Adam Kurek had 17 saves for the Blue Dvils (12-7-1).

Victor is 12-7-2.

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Jeff Wadhams scored his third goal to complete a hat-trick late in the third period in leading Geneva/Waterloo to a 5-3 win over the Notre Dame hockey team.

Dylan Versage, Brett Perfitt and Jason Harasimowicz had a goal each for Notre Dame (6-8-1).

Andrew Hoy had a huge week and earned Player of the Week for Monroe County Division III.

He was the leading scorer in both Batavia games last week. Hoy dropped in 24 points in a 75-69 win over Pittsford Mendon, then had 26 in a 67-62 victory over Penfield on Saturday.

Andrew Wright of Pembroke won the award for Genesee Region League Division I. He scored 18 points and had seven rebounds in a win Wheatland-Chili and had 18 points, with eight rebounds and two assists in a victory over Eden. 

Elba's Sonny Giuliano is the Player of the Week for GR Division II because of his performance in a win over Holley. Giuliano had a triple-double with 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in the game.

Oakfield-Alabama's Lindsay Chatt had a career-high 18 points and four steals in a victory over Lyndonville this week to earn the girls honor for Genesee Region League Division I.

Kendall's Samanthat D'Agostino hit three points and scored 15 points against Attica and then scored six points in overtime, for a total of 16, to beat Byron-Bergen. She earned the honor for GR Division II.

Whealtand-Chili's Nick Westrich was the boys swimmer of the meet and Notre Dame's Lucy Norton was the girls swimmer of the meet at Saturday's Genesee Region League Championships at Gates-Chili.

Norton (100 freestyle, 100 backstroke) was a double winner and Westrich (200 IM, 100 breaststroke, 400 freestyle relay, 200 medley relay)  was a quadruple winner. 

Westrich set meet records in the IM and with the 400 free relay.

Byron-Bergen's Baxter Ritsema (200 freestyle, 500 freestyle) was a double-winner for the boys and ND's Haley Alexander (200 IM, 100 breaststroke) was a double-winner for the girls.

Tyler Scoines won the 200 freestyle for Pembroke while in the last event of the meet Dylan Pratt, Ethan Burns, Chris Fleming and Adam Sewerniak won the 400 free relay, setting a school record time of 3:35. 

Wheatland-Chili finished first in the boys competition with a two point win over Pembroke.

Harley-Allendale-Columbia was the winner in the girls competition, beating out Byron-Bergen by two points.

(Thanks to Sue Fleming for the photo of the Pembroke relay team and result information.)

I posted the Genesee Region League Players of the Week a few days ago, and said there were no girls from the GR nominated, but had winners from other leagues.

At the time there wasn't anybody from the GR.  

But the day after my post on the boys, a pair of GR girls were announced.

Pembroke's Kelsey Lewis scored 22 points with nine rebounds and four steals in a pair of games with Byron-Bergen and Elba to earn the honor for Division I.

Lauren Drago of Wheatland-Chili won the D2 honor for her effort in one game. She scored a career-high 35 points with 12 rebounds, eight steals and five blocks on a win over Holley.

I will be posting Players of the Week for last week as soon as they are posted. Let's hope they get the boys and girls all up on the same day this week.

 Pembroke's Ken Babcock earned Genesee Region League Division I Player of the Week for this past week.

The senior center had 22 points with six blocks against Byron-Bergen and 13 points, four blocks and 10 rebounds against Elba.

Josh Laureano earned the honor for Division II after scoring 24 points with five dimes and nine rebounds against Lyndonville and 27 points, 10 assists and nine boards in a win over Alexander.

Laureano had 15 points, five assists and eight rebounds in a loss against Wheatland-Chili.

The two squads played each other last night, with Kendall winning 59-56.

No girls players were nominated from the Genesee Region League.

Peanut butter and jelly - words you hear together a lot. Add Andrew Hoy and box-and-one to that mix.

Teams are figuring out his ability to score and are trying to take him out of games. Other players stepped up and Batavia beat host Eastridge 55-43 Friday.

"Other guys need to step up," said coach Buddy Brasky. "More teams are going to focus on Andrew. It took some time, but kids stepped up."

Andrew still scored a game-high 15 points, but brother Marcus was the star as he helped the Blue Devils turn a 34-31 halftime lead into a big win.

Marcus scored all 14 of his points in the second half and also had seven assists and five rebounds.

"They were taking away Andrew and Robert (Hoy) so Marcus started going to the basket and scoring. He got some and-1s and some threes. He came up big," Brasky said.

 Batavia improves to 8-1.

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Kevin Francis went off for Notre Dame as the Fighting Irish whooped Byron-Bergen 75-46.

The senior had 24 points with 10 dimes and eight steals as ND improves to 7-1.

Greg Barr added 17 points with Vinny Zambito chipping in 10.

Bryan White reached double figures with 12 points for the Bees.

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A tight game turned into a blowout as Andrew Wright scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half to lead Pembroke to a 57-41 victory over Elba.

Ken Babcock had 13 points, Steve Moser had 12 and Kyle Stocking had nine for the Dragons (5-4).

Phil Ostroski and Sonny Giuliano had 10 each for the Lancers.

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Tate Westermeier led the way with 14 points as Attica beat Lyndonville 43-31. Bryan Thompson had 13 and Shawn Dupuis added eight. Matt Sheffield had 11 rebounds.

Nobody reached double figures for the Tigers.

Attica is now 5-3.

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Notre Dame thumped Byron-Bergen 59-39 in girls action as Jill Marshall scored 20 points with 14 rebounds and five dimes. Brittany Morelli added 10 points for the Fighting Irish.

Krista Lougheed had 11 points for the Bees.

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Elba rebounded from a tough loss to Geneseo with a 53-42 win over Pembroke.

Rachael Cook had a double-double with 12 points and 11 boards and Sarah Schwartzmeyer added 11 points. Julie Marshall had eight points for the Lancers (8-2).

Kelsey Lewis had 12 points for the Dragons (5-4).

 Pembroke grad Chris Lauzze and the University at Buffalo football team had a dream season, winning the MAC title.

But that's where it ends.

The Bulls played in a Bowl Game for the first time in school history, but lost to Connecticut 38-21 in the International Bowl this afternoon.

Connecticut's Donald Brown was an animal, rushing for a career-high 261 yards and said after the game that he was entering the National Football League draft.

That performance put the junior over 2,000 yards for the year.

Buffalo won the Mid-American championship and had an 8-6 record under coach Turner Gill, who had been rumored to get a job at a larger school but signed an extension with UB.

It is the first winning season for UB since 1996 and the Bulls were 10-69 in seven seasons before Gill showed up.

I also found an interesting link on Lauzze, where he is the 72nd ranked center in Division I football.  I have a brilliant idea for the Buffalo Bills, pick him with your last round pick and have a local boy at least on the practice squad.

Pembroke's Nicole Sharick was named Player of the Week for the Genesee Region League this week.

The senior guard scored five of her nine points against Oakfield-Alabama in an overtime win. She also had a 20-point, six rebound game against Holley this week. 

There were no nominations for the boys.

 I'm had the chance to interview Ken Babcock many times over the past couple of years, and I can tell you that he is one of the most intelligent high school kids I've ever met.

That's why I'm not surprised to see that he is the most recent News 10 NBC Student Athlete of the Week.

“Our season ended in football and I said there is no way that was my last day of football," Babcock tells reporter Robin De Wind.

He's a standout football and basketball player, but football is his true love. He was a dominant tight end and has a shot to play at a big-time school, with Harvard being high on his list.