SALAMANCA — After winning its first five games by an average 27-point margin, the Allegany-Limestone boys basketball team didn’t show any ill effects of suffering its first two losses over the weekend.
If anything, coach Glenn Anderson thinks the pair of setbacks to Franklinville and Bradford in the Joe DeCerbo Memorial Tournament may have helped his Gators focus before Thursday night’s start of CCAA East I play. Behind a red-hot start from junior guard Sam Flanders and intense defense, the Gators jumped out to a 31-9 halftime lead in their league opener against Salamanca and cruised in the second half to a 64-38 victory.
“That always humbles you a little bit and you get a little bit more hungry and back to it,” Anderson said of his team’s first two losses. “Against Franklinville, watching the film I thought we played well, we just didn’t shoot as well as we normally do. (Losing to) Bradford was maybe a little bit of a hangover from the game before, but credit the Bradford kids, watching the film I thought they looked real good. They were big, they were physical, they hit shots, they did a real nice job. I think definitely to refocus after a couple losses helps.”
The Gators particularly focused on defense and rebounding after the 67-56 consolation loss. It paid off as they held Salamanca to 21 points through three quarters.
“Watching the film we saw that we didn’t do as well as we could have defensively or rebounding-wise,” Anderson said. “We spent a lot of time the last couple days working on defense and back to fundamentals, preaching and trying to make that our focus. When we’re locked in on it, we’re pretty good.”
Flanders scored his team’s first 14 points, all of A-L’s first-quarter offense, and finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and three steals.
“He was huge,” Anderson said. “He had our first 14 and it wasn’t all threes, he was hitting tough shots in the lane with contact, and-ones, knocking down threes from the volleyball line. He’s just a really, really good offensive player and I feel like if he doesn’t get the attention he deserves, then he makes you pay for it and he’s perfectly capable of distributing too.”
Sophomores Michael Wolfgang and Casey Curran added 17 points and 11 points and 10 rebounds, respectively for A-L (6-2, 1-0).
Junior forward Zariah Armstrong led Salamanca (3-6, 0-1) off the bench with 14 points, 12 of them in the fourth quarter, and five rebounds, while senior Braden Siebert pulled down seven boards.
“He’s had three good games in a row,” Bennett said. “He had two good games at the IAABO (DeCerbo Memorial). He took another big step forward tonight. We preach it, every day we play we just want to get better and so as he continues to improve, my thing with him is no steps back, keep going. I’ve been so happy with him all year long as he has played really hard and he’s a coach’s dream. He’s very coachable, he’s listened to what we’ve asked him to do and it’s starting to pay off.”
As for the start of the game, Bennett summarized the obvious with a smile: “They made shots and we didn’t make a lot of them.”
“What I like is it’s not for a lack of effort,” Bennett added. “When we played Ellicottville (Friday in the DeCerbo Memorial), I thought we kind of slouched down a little bit. Tonight we kept fighting. That fourth quarter (17-12 Salamanca) was a really good indication. We kept taking it to them, (but) they didn’t go in tonight. Had they gone in, we still probably wouldn’t have won, but we played really, really hard. That’s a good them, they’re playing good basketball and we’ve just got to keep fighting from start to finish every game.”
Bennett, whose senior-laden 2016-17 Warriors beat A-L twice in the regular season but lost a third meeting in the Section 6 Class C-1 playoffs, was impressed with the Gators’ growth with experience through the last year.
“They can all shoot the ball and space you out and that makes defense really tough,” he said. “We gave up 60 tonight and I thought we actually played pretty decent defense, but they also have size inside and most importantly they have basketball IQ. They have guys that care that have bought into what Glenn and his staff are doing. When you have that year after year, that’s going to allow you to do some really good things.”
Allegany-Limestone (64)
Flanders 6 4-4 19, Giardini 1 1-2 3, Davis 1 0-0 2, G. Napoleon 1 0-2 2, R. Napoleon 2 3-4 8, Nye 1 0-0 2, Curran 5 1-2 11, Wolfgang 7 2-4 17, Moran 0 0-1 0. Totals: 23 11-18 64.
Salamanca (38)
Hedlund 1 2-2 4, McKenna 1 1-4 3, Armstrong 6 2-2 14, Siebert 2 1-5 5, John 0 0-1 0, Rasha 2 0-0 5, Brown 3 0-4 7. Totals: 15 6-18 38.
Allegany-Limestone 14 31 52 64
Salamanca 5 9 21 38
Three-point goals: A-L 5 (Flanders 3, R. Napoleon, Wolfgang), Sala. 2 (Rasha, Brown). Total fouls: A-L 17, Sala. 18. Fouled out: None.
JV: A-L won.
