SALAMANCA — Against a defending sectional champion and without one of its star guards, the Salamanca boys basketball team still found a path to victory in its home opener.
The Warriors played lockdown defense and rode a big night from senior Andy Herrick, who scored 24 points in a 49-35 non-league victory over Niagara-Wheatfield on Tuesday.
“Niagara Wheatfield is the defending Section 6 Class A1 champion and Xander Fletcher is an All-Western New York player,” SHS coach Adam Bennett said. “I’m just really proud of our effort, especially defensively. We held him to eight points and it was led by Andy Herrick. It was a team effort, really. We played some man-to-man, some box-and-one. Our guys really accepted the task of limiting his touches.”
Lucus Brown sat out with an ankle injury he sustained over the weekend.
“We had big shots out of just about everybody on the team,” Bennett said. “It was an unbelievable performance (for Andy). He’s had a great start to the year and he’s been a great leader for us. It allowed us to get a win against a great team.”
With Fletcher held to eight points, Luke Walck had 12 points for Niagara Wheatfield (0-2).
NON-LEAGUE
Ellicottville 48, Portville 46
PORTVILLE — Trailing by as much as 14 points in the third quarter, Ellicottville turned up the defense and rallied to win on buzzer-beating jumper by Gavin Dietrich.
Tied 46-46, Dietrich made a baseline jumper out on an inbounds play out of a timeout.
“We just kind of ran a little play to get him open in the corner and he hit a jumper,” ECS coach Dave McCann said.
Caedon Wyatt led ECS (1-1) with 13 points and four steals, while his brother Braylon Wyatt grabbed 10 rebounds. Owen Chudy had six rebounds and Brad John swiped three steals.
“We took a timeout early in the third quarter, we were down 14 about two or three minutes into the third quarter,” McCann said. “We just challenged the kids to fight. We weren’t doing some things in terms of hustle and getting back on defense. From that point on, I think we gave up 12 points the rest of the game… Just really proud of the way the kids battled tonight.”
Ellicottville’s comeback spoiled a big game for Portville freshman Aidan DeFazio, who scored 22 points including a pair of 3-pointers. Troy VanSickle added 10 points for the Panthers (0-3).
Gowanda 60, Cattaraugus-Little Valley 37
GOWANDA — Quentin Centner sparked Gowanda’s victory with 20 points.
Noah Ondus added 15 points for the Panthers (2-2).
Cattaraugus-Little Valley (0-2) had eight different scorers, led by Mike Brwer and Camden Young, who scored seven points each.
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Three-point goals: NW 1 (Liberti); Sala 6 (Herrick 3, Ross 2, Isaac). Total fouls: NW 9, Sala 16. Fouled out:
JV:
Three-point goals: E’ville 4 (C. Wyatt 3, John); Portville 2 (DeFazio 2). Total fouls: E’ville 14, Portville 12. Fouled out:
JV:
Three-point goals: CLV 1 (Young); Gowanda 6 (Warrior, Centner, Herman, Ondus, Rivera). Total fouls: CLV 9, Gowanda 11. Fouled out: None.
