Warriors roar back from down 30, but nipped late, 51-49
SALAMANCA – If you’d presumed this game was all but over at halftime, perhaps nobody could have blamed you. The Randolph girls basketball team, after all, at that point, held a commanding 38-8 lead over Salamanca.
As it turned out, however, this contest wasn’t over.
Far from it.
In one of the more incredible, and unlikely, rallies you might see in a local setting, Salamanca roared back from a 30-point deficit to twice make it a one-point game in the final 1:11 of its anticipated season-opener on Tuesday night. In fact, with just eight seconds remaining, following a steal in transition, the Warriors went to the free throw line down 50-49 with a chance to potentially win it.
Salamanca, though, for as splendid as it was over the final two quarters, couldn’t quite complete the comeback.
The Warriors missed both ensuing free throws before fouling Randolph with 2.5 seconds left. At the other end, Gianna Bowles sank her first free throw to make it a two-point game but missed the second. The clock, however, hit zero before Salamanca could be granted a timeout. And with that, the Cardinals managed to escape with a 51-49 non-league triumph.
This was a one-sided affair that wound up having a wild ending.
And it happened on, for all intents and purposes, the first night of the 2025-26 Big 30 season.
“I knew we weren’t out of it,” Salamanca coach Joe Hinman maintained afterward. “I told the girls in the locker room, it’s a fresh slate, the score is 0-0, we’re just going to play our brand of basketball, and we did exactly that. Defense to offense, transition basketball, that’s what we want to do. We struggled to move the ball in the first half, they put the pressure on, but our girls just played free in the second half.”
Yes, adjustments had plenty to do with it.
But so did a shift in personnel.
After sitting out the first half (due to what Hinman late described as a coach’s decision), Maliyah Foster exploded in the second half, piling up 21 points, including five 3-pointers, to help the Warriors slowly cut the deficit from 30 to 15 to five. Makenzie Crouse, meanwhile, shook off a quiet first half with nine key points after the break (and 12 for the game) as Salamanca’s comeback attempt evolved from pipe dream to entirely possible.
Foster tallied seven-straight points in the waning minutes to turn a 10-point deficit into a one-score game (46-43) with 3:30 left. One possession later, freshman Addison Earley drained a long two to make it 46-45 with 2:44 remaining.
In the end, Salamanca couldn’t eclipse that one-point margin. But Foster, and her sharp shooting, certainly gave the Warriors a chance.
“Maliyah’s one of those athletes that puts in the work in the offseason,” Hinman said. “She’s always working, perfecting her craft, whether it’s her 3-point shooting, her finishing underneath, her defensive ability; she’s so long that she can just get deflections whenever. … She’s really good at seeing the floor, shooting the ball, so it was good to have her come alive, and it’s early too, so we’re excited about what she’s going to give us.”
It wasn’t only Foster’s (and Crouse’s) presence that allowed this story to unfold, however.
After committing several turnovers in the first half, Salamanca took care of the ball in the second half. After allowing Randolph to score with relative ease before the break, the Warriors clamped down afterward, limiting the Cardinals to just five field goals while creating havoc defensively. After playing tentatively in the first 16 minutes, Salamanca played with conviction over the final 16 minutes.
The Warriors outscored Randolph 21-6 in the third quarter to make it interesting. They used a 20-7 run in the fourth to nearly pull off the improbable.
“Personnel-wise in the first half, we didn’t have our press really ready to go,” Hinman pointed out. “We did show a little glimpse of it in the second half … but then we got the right personnel in the second half, and it was like night and day, whether getting those deflections, steals, getting the ball up the floor. Personnel-wise, we made some changes and were able to get (back) in it.”
Salamanca’s Makenzie Crouse (3) looks to dish a cross-court pass. Crouse netted a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double against Randolph. (Salamanca Warrior Athletics)
On this night, especially in the first half, Salamanca was severely short-handed. Foster and Ella Crouse both made their season debuts after the break while Leilene McComber, the Warriors’ leading scorer last season, and another role player were sidelined for the game.
Having four regulars on the bench probably had as much to do with the deficit as anything. But with Foster and Ella Crouse back in the lineup, Salamanca looked much more like the team that went 18-7, won both the Section 6 Class B2 title and crossover and played Hornell in the Far West Regional last season.
“They’ve missed court time, and they’ll work their way back into the lineup. We were just getting them caught back up to speed on our offensive game plan and everything,” Hinman said of Foster and Crouse, before adding of the senior McComber: “We miss Leilene, but she’s going to be a big vocal leader down the road, and she still has a big role on this team.”
Of this heavyweight battle between two of the area’s top teams last winter – Randolph finished No. 13 in the Class C state rankings while Salamanca was No. 15 in Class B – Hinton added: “(Randolph) is one of the best-coached programs in Section 6; we really respect them.
“Really, it just comes down to execution with us going forward. The game plan was there. But we stepped it up big time in the second half, and hopefully that’s a sign of things to come.”
Ava Sears totaled a game-high 22 points while Bowles finished with 16 points for the Cardinals.
(Story courtesy of J.P. Butler as a special to The Olean Star)
