By HUNTER O. LYLE
lyleoleanstar@gmail.com
BUFFALO, NY – Laying their groundwork early with an emphatic offensive performance, the Olean boy’s basketball team dominated and dispatched East Aurora, earning their spot in the Section VI championship for the third time in five years.
Having made deep runs in the postseason in all of the past four years, the Huskies were no stranger to the challenge that comes with chasing a title. Entering this year’s Class A2 bracket as the No. 7 seed, they made that point clear as they narrowly upset second-seeded Maryvale in the quarterfinals. Their reward for that feat was another uphill battle: the third-seeded Blue Devils. However, leaning on their confidence gained through experience, Olean walked back onto the Buffalo State University court fearlessly.
“Our guys, they don’t care about things like seeding. We wear our red uniforms and we sit on a certain bench. It doesn’t matter to them,” said Olean head coach Tim Kolasinski. “In all seriousness, we just try to say, ‘it’s another basketball game. It’s another basketball game and let’s not get caught up in anything outside of it.’ I’d like to say that they embrace the underdog role, but it’s not even about that. It’s about who’s our next opponent and how we can be the most prepared.”
Against East Aurora, a team they had met and conquered already during their lone regular season meeting, their fearlessness was on display from the jump. Owning the size advantage, the Huskies immediately got to work exploiting their size, specifically through Mykel Rivera, who bashed, crashed and cut his way to the rim with ease.
Rivera opened up the game with Olean’s first four points before being joined in the scoring column by multiple of his fellow Huskies. Using fluid player movement, crisp passing and stonewall screens, Olean set the pace in the half court, swiftly finding crystal clear looks at the rim while the Blue Devils struggled to hang on.
On the other side of the court, East Aurora faltered just as badly. Unable to break through the wall of Red and Gold that guarded the rim, the Blue Devils instead settled on long range jumpers, none of which fell and a few of which missed everything entirely. By the time they tallied their first points of the night, scoring on a baseline drive with just under a minute and a half to go, Olean had already amassed a 14-point advantage, which ultimately grew to 16 by the end of the first eight minutes of play.
“One thing that we do a really good job of is we play some really solid defense. No offense to anybody else on East Aurora’s schedule, but I think they do some really good things offensively but I don’t think they play defense the way that we come out and play it,” said Kolasinski, whose team held the Blue Devils to just two points in the first quarter. “Now, did I think we’d come out and play quite like that? No I didn’t. That was a pleasant surprise. The guys really stepped up and I felt like even as the game went on, (East Aurora) really had to work for everything they got.”
Although East Aurora managed to tack on the first points of the second quarter, their offense fell flat again soon after. As turnovers began to pile up, empty possessions gave way to deflation and while they initially held Olean at bay, their frustration eventually corroded their defense.
Starting the quarter dabbling in shots behind the line, the Huskies quickly returned to their high-octane attack by forcing several Blue Devil turnovers. Turning steals into points in transition, Olean continued to dominate their opponent, scoring seven unanswered points as their cushion on the scoreboard swelled to 20. With their defense executing just as effectively as their offense, Olean sat atop a 32-15 advantage heading into the break.
However, after seeming unstoppable through the first two quarters, Olean settled into a lull in the next two.
Coming out of the intermission, the tables seemed to turn against the Huskies as, despite finding close looks at the basket from cuts and offensive rebounds, their shots refused to fall. Meanwhile, East Aurora cracked open their first scoring run of the night. Cashing in on a triple on their first touch of the third, the Blue Devils strung together a 6-0 stretch that cut the lead down to 10 within the first minute of play.
Olean preserved their double-digit buffer, but it took over two and a half minutes before they began to find their rhythm once again. Replacing their smooth efficiency with clunky physicality, the Huskies’ offense came in sporadic bunches, narrowly holding the Blue Devils at arms’ length as they scored just nine points in the third quarter.
“The thing is, I have five seniors that start. Those five seniors have a lot of experience overall, they’ve played a lot of games up here, so sometimes we can adjust on the court but tonight we took a timeout or two in the second half and just kind of exhaled,” said Kolasinski. “We kind of just reset and said, ‘this is what we need to do to finish this game out.’”
Despite finding a respite from their stumbles, Olean’s offensive woes carried over into the fourth quarter, where it would again take them several minutes to make an entry into the scorebooks. Fortunately, East Aurora suffered the same inconsistencies and as they swapped baskets, the ten-point gap on the scoreboard remained largely unchanged.
As the final quarter wound down, however, East Aurora made a final lunge. Installing a frantic yet effective high pressure zone in the half court, which included double and semi-triple teams, the Blue Devils tried to blitz the Huskies into discomfort. While they did find some incremental gains, drawing to within single digits of the lead, their progress came just too late.
Still holding a nine-point advantage, all Olean had to do was sit back and wait. That and make some clutch free throws. As East Aurora ran out of options, they were forced to intentionally foul, sending Olean into the bonus with just over a minute remaining. Finishing the night at the line, the Huskies sealed the victory as well as their third trip to the Section VI championship in the past five years.
Three Huskies ended in double-digit scoring during the win. Rivera led the pack with a team-high 13 points, followed by Taylor Teachman and Joe Mest, who both scored 10 points each.
Moving forward, Olean has just one team in between them and another blue patch. Next Thursday, they will return to Buff State to play top-seeded Fredonia, a team that has thus far stumped the Huskies.
“It’s going to be tough. Obviously, Fredonia is in our league so we’ve seen them twice already this year and they’ve gotten us twice, so there’ll be some familiarity there,” said Kolasinski. “We always talk about how we want to be playing our best basketball at this time of year and I’m sure they’re of the same mindset. Since we’ve met last, they’ll be thinking that they’ve improved, we’ll be thinking that we’ve improved but I think both teams are excited to be here and excited to get that matchup one more time.”
AT BUFFALO
Olean (52)
Rivera 6 1-2 13, Teachman 4 2-2 10, Mest 3 4-5 10, Hogle 4 0-0 8, B. Ruggles 3 0-0 6, Myers 1 0-2 3, Bohdanowycz 1 0-1 2. Totals: 22 7-12 52
East Aurora (39)
Bell 8 0-0 20, Ziegler 1 4-5 6, Greco 1 2-2 5, Kenny 1 0-0 2, Jamesson 1 0-0 2, Mior 1 0-0 2, Briggs 0 1-2 1, Finnerly 0 1-2 1. Totals: 13 8-11 39
Olean 18 32 41 52
East Aurora 2 15 28 39
Three-point goals: OL (1) Myers, EA (5) Bell 4, Greco; Total fouls: OL 11, EA 15; Fouled out: None.
