As Brian Cannon reported earlier today, tonight when Andover/Whitesville visits Wellsville, it’s the first matchup between the Panthers and Lions in almost 80 years. (CLICK HERE to read the story)
Andover/Whitesville coach Jimmy Joyce said it was great to put the game together.
“This matchup is going to be fun. (Wellsville coach Tom Muska) and I talked about this for a while and we were finally able to make it happen with a lot of help from both sides,” Joyce said. “It’s been far too long, something like 80 years or so. Hopefully we can make this much more of a regular occurrence.”
The programs are successful in many sports because of off-season work. Athletes from Andover and Wellsville play together on some of those teams.
“There is a ton of familiarity between the players and coaches. They have all played with and against each other at different levels and in different sports,” Joyce said. “I was lucky enough to coach many of the Wellsville guys in youth football and Little League baseball in Wellsville and not to mention many of us parents are pretty close. It should be a very fun night.”
Muska is impressed with Andover-Whitesville, who come in as the No. 1 seed in Section V Class D and have had some impressive wins this season.
“It’s not going to be easy — they’re a favorite in their class for a reason,” Muska said. “They have a lot of kids who play basketball year-round. Were going to have to play better than we did in our win against Bath to walk away with another win Friday.”
Andover/Whitesville 93, Bolivar-Richburg 67
On a big stage during a four-game IAABO Board 50 referee tournament in Wellsville on Saturday, Brody Vance was the star, scoring his 1,000th point for Andover/Whitesville in a 93-67 win over Bolivar-Richburg.
“I was so happy to see Brody get to 1,000 career points,” said Andover-Whitesville coach Jimmy Joyce. “He has busted his tail since he was in third grade. Nobody more deserving than him and being only a Junior, he’s going to smash a lot of records at A-W.”
In the victory, Vance had 37 points.
Also in the victory, Vinny Joyce had 18 points.
“It was a great display by the guys today,” said Coach Joyce. “You really never know what you are going to get with a noon Saturday matchup. We are getting closer and closer to playing a complete game. Still a lot of room for improvement but today they did everything us coaches asked of them. Vinny was completely dominant. I’m not a big stat guy, but a line of 18 points, 19 rebounds, 6 assists and 8 blocks is pretty amazing. He changes the game for us on a regular occasion. We will take the win, look to improve what we can and see what we can do next. Thanks you to IAABO for inviting us to this great event.”
Also for A-W, Colt Calladine had 15 points, James Miller-Young had 11, Jake Mattison six, Gavin Frungillo three, Peyton Chamberlain two and Skyler Orpey one.
Wellsville 62, Bath-Haverling 53
Trent Green’s first game back from a football season injury was one to get his basketball legs back as the Lions fell to Cuba-Rushford, 87-53.
However, on Wednesday night, Green played at full-strength leading the Lions to a 62-53 win, scoring a game-high 21 points.
Blake Kalkoff and Nicolas Germain-Tardeau each had 12 points for Wellsville while Cole White had seven, Cole Densmore six, and Payson Root and Ben Helveston each had two.
For Bath, Own Burlingame had 17 points, Bentley Decker 14 points and Connor Binkowski had 12 points. Josh Wheeler added eight for the Rams.
“It looked like Trent shook the rust off tonight,” Coach Muska joked.
