Sports

The Batavia girls basketball team made some great strides this season under coach Bill Wade, who came out of retirement to take over the squad.

But an off shooting night against a tough No. 13 Aquinas team means that season came to an end Thursday night, with a sloppy 49-41 loss on No. 8 Batavia's home court in the second round of the Section 5 Class A playoffs.

"(Aquinas) is a very good team," Batavia coach Bill Wade said. "I saw that when I scouted them a week and a half ago. This is a tough team in the second round. I thought we could have won but we didn't make our baskets when we needed to."

The Blue Devils have been able to have players pick up their games when other's were off, but there were a bunch of stretches Thursday that it didn't happen - where nobody could hit a shot. 

It was probably Batavia's most poor shooting effort as a team all season long.

"We had our looks, we had our chances and we had our opportunities," Wade said. 

Neither squad came to play in the first quarter.

Marieli Ramirez scored five straight points to put the Lil' Irish up 7-3, but Brittany Wormley scored with three minutes left to make the score 7-5 Aquinas. Nobody else scored in the period.

Michelle Jordan scored a basket and had a 3-pointer early in the second quarter for Batavia, but Aquinas went on a 9-0 run to take a 19-11 lead. Kelly Legg scored three consecutive baskets in the run.

Wormley killed the Irish scoring with five straight points, but Aquinas had a 26-17 lead at halftime. 

Shun-Della Williams had a big third quarter for the Blue Devils. Her rebounding was huge in the frame and she had both she and Wormley had four points apiece to cut the deficit to 32-29 after three periods of play.

"I thought she really stepped up and got us going in the third quarter," Wade said. "We could have folded and didn't."

Carly Cellura drained a pair of 3-pointers to put Aquinas up 42-34 midway through the fourth quarter, but the Blue Devils didn't quit. Wormley had a basket with 1 1/2 minute left and trailed by just four points.

But on Aquinas' next trip down the floor was the nail in the coffin. Legg - a 6-foot-1 forward - pulled up and hit a 3-pointer.

That gives the Irish (8-12) a shot to play top-seeded Pittsford Mendon in the semifinals.

Wormley scored 15 points to lead Batavia, which ends up 15-7. Only two players -Brittany Mazurkiewicz and Jaycee Shirk - are graduating, so the Blue Devils could be strong again next season. 

Shirk had five points and Mazurkiewicz had seven in their final high school game.

"We will get together on Monday and have a meeting, talk about how we are going to work for next year," Wade said. "But Brittany and Jaycee were great leaders and whoever our captains are next year I can only hope will fill their shoes half way. They were great."

The Alexander girls basketball team earned the top seed in Class C because the team has so many solid players. Rachel Pettys is without a doubt one of them.

The senior forward led a big second half rebounding effort to lead the Trojans to a 65-44 win over No. 9 Lyndonville Wednesday.

Pettys had 11 points, 14 rebounds and six assists in the contest.

"Rachel is everywhere," Alexander coach Marcia Hirsch said. "She had an amazing game tonight and really is the heartbeat of our team, along with Anna Dominick. They work and do what it takes. They are on the floor and fighting for every rebound."

Alexander was on the losing side of the rebounding numbers at the half by 10, but had an eight board advantage after the third quarter.

"They haven't been outrebounded yet this year," Hirsch said. "We have a sticker board in the locker room and they get a sticker every time they outrebound somebody. They take a lot of pride in their rebounding."

The Trojans had a very slim 12-11 lead after the first quarter and a 27-20 lead at halftime, but outscored the Tigers 20-9 in the third to pull away.

Dominick led all scorers with 15 points as all five Alexander starters finished in double figures.

Anni Lehtola had 13 points, nine rebounds and five assists with Katie Kochmanski and Chelsea Turcer getting 10 points apiece.

Samantha Skryp and Molly Burgess had 10 points each for Lyndonville, which ends up 10-12.

Alexander (16-4) will face No. 4 Lyons (11-9) in the semifinals at Pittsford Sutherland.

Hirsch hasn't seen the Lions play this season, but will be doing her homework over the next couple of days. But she also says that once you get to this level, it is all about how your team performs.

"Sometimes you just have to play and not worry about the other team," Hirsch said.

Sonny Giuliano's name gets tossed around as one of the top players in the Genesee Region League for good reason.

The junior point guard - that looks and plays like a forward - had a huge game in leading Elba to a 53-50 win over visiting Wheatland-Chili in the first round of the Section 5 Class D1 tournament Wednesday.

Giuliano dropped in a game-high 23 points with 10 rebounds and three assists to lead the Lancers on to the second round.

"He had a nice basketball game," Elba coach Rick Pcionek said. "He was solid all the way through and hit some clutch free throws when we needed him to come through. He's been clutch all year."

Elba didn't have a pass in the opening round as a 16-12 first quarter lead turned into a 30-29 deficit at halftime. But Elba had a 14-11 advantage in the third quarter and 10-9 in the fourth.

The win came right down to the wire and Elba's big stars turned in clutch performances. Phil Ostroski hit one of two foul shots and Giuliano hit both in the final minute of play to turn a 50-50 game into a win.

The Lancers were definitely tested in the opening round.

"They have some guys that can play," Pcionek said. "I think they have some guys that are young and that plays a lot into their record."

Ostroski had another solid game with 11 points and six rebounds while Dan Ramsey added 12 points.

Garhett Varin had 16 points with Alex Stryker adding 13 for the Wildcats (4-15).

Elba (12-9) will face either Keshequa or Genesee Valley on Saturday. No results from that game are available Wednesday night.

"Each round definitely gets harder," Pcionek said. "Teams don't want to lose and everybody is trying that much harder. Nobody wants their season to end. I take my hat off to Wheatland-Chili because they didn't want their season to end tonight."

Notre Dame guard Kevin Francis was awarded the Genesee Region League Player of the Year award this week. Kendall's Josh Laureano and his coach, and brother, Justin both thought he deserved to share that honor.

You can call that a little added motivation as the fifth-seeded Eagles kicked off the Section 5 Class C2 playoffs with a 77-74 win over No. 12 Cuba-Rushford Tuesday.

Laureano scored 51 points with 10 assists and seven rebounds to lead the way.

"We were disappointed that Josh didn't get Co-Player of the Year in the GR," said Justin, the older brother and coach. "Josh and Francis are so much alike, very similar. I won't take anything away from Francis because he's a big-time player, but Josh is just as good."

 "I talked about it with Francis when we played them," Josh said. "There was a big fight on Section 5 Talksback saying I said all these things about him, and I didn't. He is a great player. But I just think people should give me as much credit as he gets."

Cuba-Rushford sat in a 3-2 zone, which basically played like man-to-man for Laureano because the guards were too wide. Justin knows that not many players can go one-on-one with his brother.

"I had to beg him to please go by (the defender) until they stop you," Justin said. "Everything he scored tonight was going to the basket. He went 17-of-19 from the floor."

 Laureano's night is going to go down as one of the best in Section 5 history, not just Kendall history. 

He hit a fade-away 3-pointer in the second overtime to clinch the win. He beat former Division I and professional player Roosevelt Bouie's school record of 47 points, and pulled a team and school together.

The 51 points is believed to be the second-highest in Section 5 history, only behind Matt Kerkey's 57 points for Mynderse in 1992.

"I enjoyed it because it made me happy to do what I was doing, and it was making everybody around me happier," Josh said. "Everybody that was in the gym was having fun, not just me."

Laureano is one of the most prolific scorers in the GR, but 51 is a number that is rarely seen in Section 5. And his teammates have no problem with their go-to option.

"If I would just let Josh go, he'd probably have some pretty high scoring games," Justin said. "I try to restrain him because as a coach, it is always team first. And we truly do have a team. There is zero infighting, zero jealousy and everybody is rooting for each other."

Colt Tooley added 14 points for the Eagles (14-9), who will play No. 4 Dundee (13-8) on Friday.

"We have talked about how winnable our bracket it and if we want to win it, we can," Josh said. "We didn't play our best game tonight because we had it in our head that we should have won because we were a higher seed. We shouldn't have been like that."

 (It was originally reported that Laureano scored 53. The results were later changed and the total was 51. Still amazing)

UPDATE: Laureano's total is actually third all-time in Section 5. Prattsburgh's Brian Putnam scored 51 points in 1991 for the second highest total in a game. 

Brighton may have been just 8-12 going into Monday night's Section 5 Class A girls basketball playoff game with host Batavia, but one of those wins came against the Blue Devils. And several of the losses came to Monroe County League Division I and II schools.

So Bill Wade knew his team was going to have their hands full.

Even with a sloppy ending, that including many missed layups and free throws, Batavia escaped with a 44-39 win to advance past the opening round.

"I'm very happy," said Wade, whose team beat the Barons by two and lost by one in the regular season. "One of the things I said when I took over coaching the team was that I was going to enjoy every win our team gets - and I'm enjoying this win. We do have to fix some things. But if we didn't win, we weren't going to get a chance to fix them."

 Wade also notes that Brighton's record is deceiving. The team had some injury problems to key players that were factors in the losses.

The five point victory was the biggest margin of victory either team has had in the three matchups this year and the reason was because of the Batavia defense.

When the Blue Devils had a 51-50 win in January, Brighton hit nine 3-pointers in the win. The 12th seeded Barons did not hit a shot from beyond the arc against the fifth seeded Blue Devils Monday. Wade gives a lot of credit to the defense of Brittany Hein, who he calls one of the best defensive players he's ever coached.

"We tried to give them different looks," Wade said. "We normally play a 3-2, but we were almost in a 2-3 tonight. They run one in and four out and they are very wide. (Leanna) Brooks is a good post player and driver, and we had a hard time adjusting to her last time. We tried to contain her drive so we didn't have to help on other girls, then we tried to be in their vision on every shot."

Wade is also looking towards his senior leaders in these playoffs. And Brittany Mazurkiewicz didn't disappoint.

She converted 8-of-9 free throw attempts and scored 14 of her game-high 19 points in the second half.

"She started taking the ball to the basket," Wade said. "We used a little pick-and-roll play and she was taking the ball to the basket and getting fouled."

 Jaycee Shirk had four points and eight rebounds with Hein pitching in four assists and Brittany Wormley scoring six points.

Brenna Bauer had 15 points to lead Brighton (8-13).

Batavia (15-6) will get another home game on Thursday because No. 13 Aquinas surprised No. 4 Sutherland 69-59 Monday.

"Since I took over, I've talked about changing the culture," Wade said. "First I wanted to get kids to want to come out and play, and second, I wanted them to believe they can win a big game. If we win or lose, the next game is going to be a step in the right direction in changing the atmosphere if we play a good game."

Attica's Luke Pariso wasn't supposed to beat defending New York State Public High School Athletic Association champion Cody Hutcheson of Bath. Pariso has won a couple of sectional titles, but Hutcheson was a monster.

Pariso won the 171-pound title at SuperSectionals Saturday at Rochester Institute of Technology, but that was far from the biggest upset of the day.

Holley's Kyle Steadman has a season record of just 35-10 after the weekend, but he's moving on to states after shocking the thousands of people there to watch the SuperSectionals. He beat Genesee Region League foe Dave Jennings of Attica at 189 pounds, 3-1 in overtime, to move on.

"It feels really good, coming back from sixth place and taking the title," Steadman said.

Steadman wasn't even ranked in the top five by armdrag.com and was seeded sixth in his weight class. It was the second Holley grappler to win the championship on Saturday and could be the fourth to advance to states next weekend.

"I hope Tim (Banks) goes because he has a lot of points," Holley coach John Grillo said. "He should go to states because of his past reputation and history of going to states. Quinton Murphy had an electrifying match, but Kyle Steadman was a surprise. He had a lot of losses, but has wrestled quality kids all year. We knew he had it in him and we just had to get it out of him."

"I wrestled him before and I know he's really strong on top," Steadman said. "I just had to go my hardest and give it all I had - never quit."

Steadman had a pin and a decision in Friday's opening two rounds before winning a 7-2 decision over Caledonia-Mumford's Jon Grann in the semifinals.

The other Holley wrestler to win a championship was Murphy at 119 pounds. The defending state champion at 103 pounds didn't need much time in the finals to get a return ticket to the big show. 

After a technical fall and two pins earning him a trip to the championship match, he dropped Palmyra-Macedon's Tyler Marlow in 1:36.

"It felt great," Murphy said. "I'm really known for that move so when I knew it was there, I went for it."

Banks was the other Holley finalist at 130 pounds, but lost to Pal-Mac's Matt Hausbrouck 3-1 in overtime.

Murphy says that he "just wants to re-win" a state title, while it is a different story for Steadman. He will be working with 2004 state champion Andrew Grillo - John's son - over the next week to prepare for another shot at an upset.

"Coach has to get me prepared because I've never been to states before," Steadman said.

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 Hutcheson will get to states with a wild card, but his loss to Pariso definitely stung. 

The Attica senior was ranked second but very few gave him a shot to knock off a state champion because he had never advanced past sectionals. But Pariso scored early and then got defensive to earn the title and a trip to Albany next weekend.

"I knew I had to go hard," Pariso said. "He has really good endurance so I knew I had to push the pace on him. I had that inside trip and put him on his back."

Pariso got that 2-point takedown with just 15 seconds left in the first period and then had an escape midway through the second to make it 3-0. He simply hung on in the third period to get the 3-0 decision.

"I didn't want him to get a reversal and put me on my back," Pariso said. "It could be 4-0, 4-3 or maybe a pin. I just rode him real tight and kept on at his cross-wrists and rode him for the rest of the match."

Pariso had two decisions on Friday and then topped Batavia's Anthony D'Aurizio 3-1 to advance to the finals. Now he looks forward to facing an even bigger challenge than what he's seen in Section 5 next week.

"I can't wait," Pariso said. "There is a real tough kid from Section 4, Kyle Beckwith, who has won a couple of national titles. I'm going to have to push the pace and beat him to, win a state championship."

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 The Batavia wrestling team had nine grapplers compete in SuperSectionals, but end up with just one champion.

Nick Lazarony was the second ranked wrestler at 112 pounds and won three decisions to make it to the finals, where he was paired up with top-seeded Joe Smaldone of Geneva. 

Both were going to get a trip to states via wild card, even if they lost. That was enough reason for Smaldone - who took second at 112 last year - to forfeit his finals match. 

Lazarony had a crack at states last year and will have another one this season. 

"He's looking good," Stewart said. "There are a couple of good kids we've scouted so far. He is in the top six there for sure. He still has to wrestle, but it's well deserved. He's given us four good years."

Ryan Darch was seeded No. 1 at 160 pounds and three easy decisions en route to the finals, where he was paired up with Brandon Mills of Canisteo-Greenwood, who was the No. 2 seed.

Darch took a 1-0 lead in the first period when Mills was called on a technical violation, then scored another point in the second period on an escape.

But Mills had a takedown at the mid-point of the frame and tied the match at 2. He had an escape in the third period and then kept Darch from making a move the rest of the way. He tried, making a few attempts to lunge and get ahold of Mills, but the Canisteo grappler was too slippery.

"It was a very defensive match," Stewart said. "He got caught in that little scramble there and tried to battle back from it. It is what it is."

Darch should get a wild card trip to states, but we will not know until it is announced Monday night.

Batavia's Troy Ireland lost to Mills in the semifinals, but won his wrestle-back to take third. He won a 7-6 decision over Wellsville's Ethan Lamphier.

After losing to Pariso in the semifinals, D'Aurizio lost his bid for third place against Byron-Bergen's Zack Green. Green won the third-place match with a pin at 3:53.

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The highlight match of the Division II card was at 135 pounds, where two three-time defending state champions and NCAA Division I scholarship recipients squared off.

Warsaw's Ian Paddock - who will attend Ohio State next year - won a 3-0 decision over Pal-Mac's Alex Ekstrom - who will attend Oklahoma. 

Two other Genesee Region League wrestlers made the finals but lost as Kendall's Jake Requa took second at 96 pounds and Lyndonville's John Brabon was second at 140.