By SPENCER BATES
batesoleanstar@gmail.com
ALLEGANY — It was not the ending Allegany-Limestone coach Glenn Anderson drew up in his mind.
But, a win is a win. And thankfully for Anderson, just about everything else minus the ending went about how he had hoped as his Gators collected their fifth straight victory and kept their unbeaten run to start the campaign alive with a 53-51 win over Cuba-Rushford in the 7th Annual Joe DeCerbo Holiday Showcase.
A-L, the hosts for the two-day showcase, were in the driver’s seat for the grand majority of the contest, maintaining a steady double-figure lead. In fact, it took a 13-point lead into the fourth quarter before everything started to unravel.
The Rebels, on their way to winning the final quarter by a 20-9 margin, erased the deficit and brought the scores back level at 51 apiece with just under eight seconds remaining thanks to a number of forced turnovers and some luck with mismanaged possessions by the Gators.
But eight seconds was all A-L needed.
With just 2.1 seconds left the hosts successfully inbounded the ball to Collin Forrest who drove to the basket and, in going into the motion of a layup, drew a foul that was later changed to an intentional foul. So, with two drained free throws from Forrest and another successful inbound pass, the Gators narrowly escaped with the win.
Allegany-Limestone’s Collin Forrest (5) puts up a 3-point attempt. (Spencer Bates)
“The ending, that was different (than how we drew it up),” Anderson said. “The play, execution-wise, that was kind of exactly what we’re looking for. We knew they were going to foul, so we knew we had to get that flash and drop off quick, and Caleb put the ball in the perfect spot, and Collin made a great catch and got to the rim.”
Of course, the need for the dramatic would not have arisen if the Gators had not let the game slip away from them. Cuba-Rushford’s Carter Brown was a big thorn in their side as he finished with a game-high 20 points and he was helped along by Adam Roe’s 11.
“I think we hurt ourselves a little bit,” Anderson said. “We had a stretch there where we had a bunch of turnovers, a couple bad shots, which are just bad turnovers, and that let them back into it. We had a couple pitch-layups, we had run-outs that should have been easy ones we missed. So, definitely opportunities left out there for us.”
But for the majority of the contest, the execution was fluid and seemed effortless for A-L. On numerous occasions, they turned set plays into points. This is an area that Anderson has seen a great deal of improvement within his team.
Allegany-Limestone’s Carson Kwiatkowski drives past his defender. (Spencer Bates)
“The execution has definitely come along early in the season,” Anderson said. “I thought we couldn’t execute anything (earlier in the season). It felt like we’re just running motion 95% of the time. But, tonight was the first night where I thought we executed well, got buckets out of our set plays and definitely off the boards.”
A majority of the success that the Gators had on the night, was thanks to the big performances from Carson Kwiatkowski and Gavin Straub.
Kwiatkowski paced the scoring with 17 points, a team-high. While Straub recorded a double-double with his 15 points and 13 rebounds.
“Gavin’s an animal,” Anderson said. “I tell him, ‘Every shot that goes up is a potential pass to you.’ And he takes that to heart. … He’s always going to give you that every single night. He does a great job defensively. … And CK does what CK does. I think it was (Salamanca football coach Chad) Bartoszek that said ‘At some point you figure out you’re not that good at calling plays. Just get the ball to your dudes.’ And that’s kind of CK for us.”
Allegany-Limestone returns to action in the DeCerbo Showcase on Dec. 28 with its second, and final, game, a fixture against Bradford starting at 2:30 p.m.
Allegany-Limestone’s Caleb Strade rises up for a 3-point attempt. (Spencer Bates)
AT ALLEGANY
Cuba-Rushford (51)
Brown 8 2-2 20, Roe 5 1-1 11, Deck 3 0-0 8, Breckenridge 3 0-0 6, Ricketts 2 0-0 4, Sleggs 1 0-0 2. Totals: 22 3-3 51
Allegany-Limestone (53)
Kwiatkowski 6 3-6 17, G. Straub 6 3-4 15, Forrest 2 2-2 6, Wilczewski 2 0-0 5, Strade 2 0-0 5, Callen 1 0-0 3, B. Straub 1 0-0 2. Totals: 20 8-12 53
C-R 11 22 31 51
A-L 15 34 44 53Three-point goals: C-R 4 (Brown 2, Deck 2), A-L 5 (Kwiatkowski 2, Strade, Callen, Wilczewski); Total fouls: C-R 12, A-L 12; fouled out: None.
