By SPENCER BATES
ALLEGANY — Over its last two games combined, both at the 50th Annual Joe DeCerbo Holiday Showcase, the Salamanca boys basketball team lost by a combined 91 points.
The Warriors suffered a 55-point defeat to Pennsylvania powerhouse Warren and a 36-point defeat at the hands of currently unbeaten Cuba-Rushford. According to head coach Adam Bennett, illness ripped through his team and through those games a majority of his players were afflicted by one thing or another.
But he refused to use that as an excuse. Instead, he allowed his players to heal and got them to run off whatever sickness remained. What resulted was a hard-fought 48-45 CCAA Div. I victory over league rival Allegany-Limestone.
“What we went through, to lose by as much as we did, we had the best week of practice we’ve ever had here,” Bennett said. “We had to start over. From a conditioning standpoint, we had to completely start over. … We made a lot of mistakes today, but like Coach (Greg) Herrick said in the locker room, ‘when you’re wounded like that and you’re trying to get everything back, it’s not going to be the skill that brings you back, it’s going to be the heart and the effort.’ That’s what we had. At the end of the game, we made a lot of mistakes. But after those mistakes, we got the ball back, they didn’t compound and we were able to find a way. I’m proud of them for that.”
Getting a response on the back of the two tough Showcase losses was important for Bennett. But he didn’t have to tell his players that. Apparently, the first practices after the poor weekend were extremely positive and the conditioning and hard work put in to get back to relative health paid off.
“There wasn’t a lot to talk about, they just wanted to get back to work,” Bennett said. “We made a decision, as a team, that we were going to heavy condition to get through (our illness). That’s not an easy thing and they did it. … We had three guys play 32 minutes tonight, and I’m just proud of their intensity. (Allegany-Limestone) is a good team. Glenn does a great job. It’s really hard to beat this team, at their place especially. So to get out of here with a victory is important. We got a lot to work on. But lessons out of wins are the fun lessons.”
But it was tough sledding for the Warriors early on, having scored just five points in the first frame. They committed turnovers on botched offensive sets and conceded big second-chance points, all of which elicited animated responses out of Bennett.
“We talked about pace all week, and upping the pace of play,” Bennett said. “I think we did it too much offensively. We were flying around on defense, but then we were leaving our feet to throw passes on offense. We want to play fast on offense, but we got to do it (while being) fundamentally sound. We got to play off two feet. We got to step to passes. A lot of times we were driving lanes, we had cutters and we were throwing it over their head because we were leaving our feet. I get animated at those (turnovers) because our guys know that if we just fix the fundamentals, those looks are going to be there.”
Salamanca cleaned up its act and behind a 14-3 run in the second quarter, took a 21-20 lead into the break.
However, the Gators — who also suffered two losses in the DeCerbo Showcase — were not downed by the positive second quarter from their guests. In fact they came out and with contributions from just about everywhere, tied the game at 31-31 going into the fourth quarter.
Allegany-Limestone was led by Tayden Margeson on the night, who scored a game-high 21 points, all coming from beyond the arc. He hit two massive, back-to-back 3-pointers to cut their deficit to just one as Salamanca looked to slam the door shut. Nolan O’Brien, who finished with 13 points, netted six in the fourth alongside Margeson. But little offense came from other sources and for A-L head coach Glenn Anderson, it is just a matter of getting his youthful team to start clicking at the same time.
“That’s the name of the game,” Anderson said. “They’re freshmen and sophomores. That’s going to come with time. I think right now, it’s about stacking days and making progress. I thought, defensively, this was by far the best we played all year. Offensively, it’s nice when we hit shots. We do need to have a little better inside presence. But I mean, overall, I was proud of the way we played today. There haven’t been a ton of games where I could say that and really believe it. But today we played pretty well.”
Allegany-Limestone’s Tayden Margeson (12) attempts a layup while being chased down by Salamanca’s Payton Bradley. Margeson scored a game-high 21 points for the Gators in their loss to the Warriors. (Spencer Bates)
Down the stretch, the Warriors shifted their defense to try and steal some momentum. A gamble that yielded positive results as their high press had the Gators looking for answers. But before they could come up with any, the visitors were going the other way for easy buckets.
“(St. Bonaventure women’s basketball coach) Jim Crowley said to me a long time ago, when I was a student at Bonaventure, that the most important part of a basketball game is tempo. And he’s right,” Bennett said. “If you can dictate pace and tempo, you got a strong hold on the game. I thought Allegany-Limestone did a good job in the half court, so we wanted to get them out of that. We wanted to try to run a trap. Honestly, our press had not been very good before the game tonight. But our guys really bought in. We didn’t get split on traps, we were really good on the weak side, taking the middle away, and thankfully, we were able to get some offense out of that.”
It was another tough loss for A-L, which dropped its fifth game in a row. But as Anderson noted, the type of game, like the one his side had just had against Salamanca are only going to provide them with critical experience for the years to come.
“We talked about getting consistent scoring outputs and consistency on defense and he’s come a long way,” Anderson said. “We were talking in the coach’s office about all things we could have done better here and there to win the game. But, my God, there’s so much better than a month ago. We just got to keep stacking days and putting games like this together back to back. You got to lose games like this before you win them.”
Salamanca jumped back into the win column after a three-game losing skid and moved its record to 5-4 on the season. It will face Fredonia at home on Jan. 8 at 7:30 for its next game.
As for Allegany-Limestone, it will host Falconer on Jan. 12 with a time currently TBD.
——
AT ALLEGANY
Salamanca (48)
Bradley 5 1-3 11, Hill 5 1-4 11, Farmer 4 0-1 10, Ghani 3 1-2 7, Maybee 3 1-2 7, Farnum 1 0-0 2. Totals: 21 4-12 48
Allegany-Limestone (45)
Margeson 7 0-0 21, O’Brien 5 2-2 13, Callen 1 2-2 5, Parry 2 0-1 4, Wilczewski 1 0-0 2. Totals: 16 4-5 45
Sala. 5 21 31 48
A-L 9 20 31 45
Three-point goals: Sala. 2 (Farmer), A-L 9 (Margeson 7, Callen, O-Brien); Total fouls: Sala. 9, A-L 10; Fouled out: None.
