By HUNTER O. LYLE
PORT ALLEGANY, PA – The good times just keep on rolling for the Port Allegany boy’s basketball team. After surging through the middle of the season, the Gators have yet to look back. Instead, they look ahead, where the fruits of their labor await them.
After securing both their first North Tier League championship in over a quarter century and a home playoff game for the upcoming District 9 Class 2A postseason, the Gators quickly added to their resume, earning their spot in the North Tier League Tournament finals with a dominating 49-25 win over Otto-Eldred that was accompanied by Jarrod Funk scoring point No. 1,000.
On Tuesday, the Gators made it official. With a final win over Northern Potter, they concluded their campaign with a 14-2 league record, planting them atop the NTL for the first time since 2001.
“It feels great. We’ve just been talking about it for the last three years. This year, we didn’t talk about it,” said Port Allegany head coach Kyle Babcock. “We said if it happens, it happens. If not, we gave it our all. We didn’t mention it at all this year, we didn’t want to pressure ourselves. We took it one game at a time and it worked out for us. We’re ecstatic about it.”
Boasting the top seed, the Gators earned a rematch with the Terrors in the NTL semifinals, a team they had split their regular season meetings with. After a heated season series and a race to the top of the standings, the familiarity was apparent.
Cruising into their first postseason stage with a head full of steam, Port opened up the offense quickly. Funk, who entered the game just 18 points shy of quadruple digits, led the charge, knocking down a 3-pointer on the Gators’ first possession before following it up with a layup through contact not long after. While the Terrors faced the opposite problem, seeming uncomfortable out of the gates, it didn’t take long to find their rhythm.
After being held without a basket for over two minutes, O-E’s Wyatt Blendinger broke the seal, driving through the paint and finishing at the rim with a floater that seemed to open the flood gates. Cashing in on crisp ball and player movement that scattered Port’s defense, the Terrors swiftly sparked a 7-2 run that briefly put them ahead 9-8 with just over three minutes to go.
However, while Port salvaged their lead just before end of the quarter, scoring seven unanswered points as a flurry of Gators made their way into the scoring column, any momentum either team garnered in the first eight minutes quickly dissipated in the second. Despite trading 3-pointers in the initial minute of the next period of play – Liam Hawver sank the first before Jack Sherry retaliated – neither would add to their side of the scoreboard for the next five minutes of play.
The Terrors finally tied on a tourniquet with a newly implemented zone defense, immediately slowing and stifling Port’s thus-far rapid fire offense, but were unable to find comparable success on the other end. Despite finding easy looks at the hoop on numerous occasions, O-E was constantly met with odd bounces or in-and-out misses.
“Our defense is usually something we can rely on. It’s been our MO all year. We’re going to hold teams in the forties or the thirties,” said Otto-Eldred head coach Rob Wight. “Tonight was no different. We got the stops we wanted, we felt like the game was in the balance but we just couldn’t put the ball in the basket. That’s kind of been our way all year. If Jack (Sherry) and Mason (Rees) aren’t making shots, then we really struggle to score.”
Meanwhile, the Gators struggled with their own cold streak. Following five empty minutes, Funk eventually ended the drought with a crafty move in the post, but the score was far from the much needed spark they hoped for. Through the next handful of minutes, they would add just two more points to the board, entering the break up 24-14.
Returning to the hardwood, the Gators had apparently found that sought-after spark in the locker room. As they stepped back onto the court, they did so as a refreshed and refocused team, one ready to put the game out of reach.
Led by a noticeable burst of life and energy, Port exploded in the third, opening the second half with a layup, an offensive board, a block and a pair of triples, all in consecutive action. In the blink of an eye, the Gators had added eight more points to their lead, which quickly ballooned to 16 unanswered points.
“It seems like it’s been this way all year for us. Some would say we’re like the Buffalo Bills, we come out slow then after halftime we come out firing and that just kind of happened again tonight,” said Babcock. “We were up ten but I didn’t feel like we played our best basketball in the first half. We stressed to the guys at halftime that (Otto-Eldred) wasn’t just going to give up. They’re a good team, they’re good shooters and we had to come out with some fire. That’s what these guys do. They battle to the end, they never give up and they never think that we’re up enough.”
All the while, the Terrors suffered. As shots continued to miss their mark, desperation set in in the form of rushed and frequently errant passes, forced shots and a palpable loss of momentum. While their struggles continued, Port hit another milestone celebration.
With just a minute and a half left in the third, Funk’s quick first step carried him through the paint, taking contact as he pulled the trigger on a leaning away floater. Watching the ball roll through the rim, he rejoiced as he registered his 1,000th career point.
“I mean, it was surreal honestly, having everyone who cares about Port Allegany basketball, everyone who has seen us grow and personally seen the work I’ve put in,” said Funk, who became the eleventh 1,000-point-scorer in school history and the first since 2020. “It’s really nice to feel all that work pay off.”
After the celebration subsided, the action returned, however, it was far from anything that moved the needle. Holding a 19-point lead at the end of the third, the Gators continued to lean on their seasoned starters into the fourth. Finding themselves up by 23 after the first few minutes, Port ultimately called off the attack, swapping in their reserves as the Terrors reciprocated and relented. As the clock finally drained, Port had secured their first postseason win, surviving and advancing to the North Tier League finals.
Ending the night with a career total of 1,003 points, Funk ended as one of three Gators to record double-digit points with 21. He also tallied seven rebounds and two assists. Isac Amell finished with 10 points, six rebounds and two steals while Hawver scored 10 points, two rebounds and two steals.
For O-E, Sherry finished with 12 points and seven rebounds while Mason Sheeler contributed five points and Blendinger had four points and seven rebounds.
Moving forward, the Gators next face Cameron County on Saturday at Bradford Area High School for the NTL Championship game at 8 p.m. Beyond that, they look towards the upcoming Class 2A postseason, where they will try to sustain their momentum as they host Coudersport on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
“These guys don’t really talk about confidence. They just show up and play. They don’t get too excited and a lot of that carries over from football,” said Babcock. “I thank coach (Justin) Bienkowski a lot because he built these guys into that mentality and it carries over into basketball.”
For the Terrors, the road doesn’t get any easier. Coming off three straight losses, they enjoy six-day rest before entering the Class A playoffs. First, they see No. 4 Cameron County, a team they were unable to record a win against, on Wednesday for the first round matchup. Upon a win, their reward is a meeting with the near-perfect and championship favorite Elk County Catholic Crusaders. That game would take place on Tuesday, Feb. 24 at a neutral site.
“We’ll be ready. Cameron County is a really good basketball team but I’m glad we’ve seen them twice. We’ve got the scout on them, we’ve got a lot of film on them and we’ll be ready,” said Wight. “Both games were competitive, we were right in it but the game kind of swung on one or two plays, which you can build on. Those one or two plays go our way this time and we’ll pick up a victory.
AT PORT ALLEGANY
Otto-Eldred (25)
Sherry 4 2-3 12, Sheeler 2 0-1 5, Blendinger 2 0-2 4, Splain 1 0-0 2, M. Schenfield 1 0-0 2. Totals: 10 2-6 25
Port Allegany (48)
Funk 9 0-0 21, Amell 4 1-2 10, Hawver 3 2-2 10, Wilfong 2 0-0 4, Boyd 1 0-0 3, Smith 0 0-2 0. Totals: 19 3-6 48
Otto-Eldred 9 14 21 25
Port Allegany 17 24 40 48
Three-point goals: O-E (3) Sherry 2, Sheeler, PA (7) Funk 3, Hawver 2, Amell, Boyd; Total fouls: O-E 7, PA 8; Fouled out: None.
