ELLICOTTVILLE — After both rolling to 30-point wins in opening round tournament games, Ellicottville and Chautauqua Lake matched up for one of the most compelling Big 30 boys basketball games of the early season.
Monday’s championship to the Holiday Valley/Ellicottville Sports Boosters Tip-Off Tournament featured two Section 6 finalist teams from a year ago, Ellicottville in Class D and CL in C1.
Chautauqua Lake erased a 13-point second quarter deficit to take a one-point lead entering the fourth, and took a 58-51 lead with four minutes to play. Despite fatigued starters and foul trouble, Ellicottville nearly pulled off its own comeback, not allowing a field goal over the final three minutes, but fell just a few free throws or a missed layup short as the Thunderbirds (3-0) held on for a 59-57 win.
Ellicottville (3-1) shot 16-for-24 from the free throw line but just 5-for-10 in the fourth quarter, including two misses by junior all-state center Elliot Bowen with just six seconds to play and a chance to tie or go ahead with CL leading 58-57. After CL went 1-for-2 at the line, Ellicottville junior guard Deric Leiper just missed a deep three off the backboard at the buzzer.
Bowen played the whole way and posted another double-double with 15 points (5-for-7 field goal shooting) and 17 rebounds with four blocks.
“We say the battle has to be done before he has the ball,” CL coach Michael Putney said of defending Bowen. “Once he has the ball, he’s a great post player. Every time he got a clear look, he hit the banker every time.”
Two of Ellicottville’s three leading scorers since last season, Griffin Chudy and Austin Grinols, fouled out in the final minutes. Grinols scored 20 points before picking up his fifth foul to force a Chautauqua Lake free throw trailing with six seconds left. Chudy had 10 points and nine rebounds before fouling out with 1:16 left.
From taking care of the ball (17 turnovers) to avoiding unnecessary fouls, Eagles coach Dave McCann hopes his team can learn about closing games against tough competition.
“I thought we made some mistakes, missed some layups on breakaways,” McCann said. “We just missed some opportunities, but on the flip side of that, that’s a really good team over there and that’s a tough game. It’s what we wanted in bringing them here, but (it was) a lack of execution, I think, and a little fatigue set in.
“I think we learned that we need to execute down the stretch, but at the same time I thought both teams played really hard and there’s a lot of late-game situational things that I thought we did do well to a point but we just didn’t execute with the finishing of the layups and finishing of a fast break we needed.”
Named tournament MVP, Chautauqua Lake junior Devin Pope scored 20 points with 12 rebounds and two steals. Senior forward Tyler Meredith added 13 points, 12 boards and three steals.
The Thunderbirds’ bench outscored the Eagles’ reserves, 17-4.
“We have a deep bench,” Putney said. “Aaron Swan, our point guard, is a huge part of our team and he went out with three fouls kind of early. That’s one of the reasons I called up some sophomores, because they’re players.
“We knew that they (Ellicottville) are one of the best teams in that D division in our area. We looked forward to playing them. We didn’t get to play them last year. We lost the first game (in this tournament) here last year and I want to play better competition. That’s always our motto, and these guys are really good and these guys should make a huge run this year so I was very excited to play them, especially early.”
Chautauqua Lake (59)
Vinciguerra 2 0-0 5, Meredith 3 6-8 13, Majka 1 0-0 3, Swan 2 2-2 6, Gleason 1 1-1 5, Pope 8 3-5 20, Hammond 3 0-1 7. Totals: 20 13-18 59.
Ellicottville (57)
Sexton 0 1-2 1, Leiper 1 0-0 3, Stuve 2 1-2 5, Rowland 1 0-0 3, Chudy 3 4-6 10, Grinols 6 5-6 20, Bowen 5 5-8 15. Totals: 18 16-24 57.
Chautauqua Lake 10 33 50 59
Ellicottville 19 36 49 57
Three-point goals: CL 6 (Vinciguerra, Meredith, Majka, Gleason, Pope, Hammond), Ellicottville 5 (Leiper, Rowland, Grinols 3). Total fouls: CL 10, Ellicottville 18. Fouled out: Chudy, Grinols, Hammond.
JV: Ellicottville 47, Allegany-Limestone 44.
