By JOHN ANDERSON, photos by ELLA GREEN
The up’s and downs for Andover basketball have been heartbreaking over the years. The low’s were low — single digit win seasons.
The high’s are full of near-misses, losing in the semi-finals three times in the late 90’s and the last two years.
Meanwhile, Whitesville (first title in 1990) had the winning tradition for a span, with titles in 2004, 2005 and 2007, which included a trip to the state finals.
Now combined as Andover-Whitesville, fans and former students and players want a first-time title at the Rochester War Memorial.
A-W coach Jimmy Joyce started getting the good luck texts yesterday at work.
Then Monday night happened. The No. 1 seed Andover-Whitesville (20-2) squad downed No. 4 Mount Morris (12-10), 92-41.
A-W will take on No. 2 Elba (17-5) on Friday night at 7 p.m. in Rochester at the Blue Cross Arena/War Memorial.
Joyce will probably put “vacation” down on his CTC/Certified Safety Products timesheet for Tuesday. Oh, he was there, he just didn’t get any work done.
“Call, text, emails … so many people I have not heard from in years from Andover,” Joyce said. “We also have Whitesville support.”
When classmates leave Allegany County, sometimes you forget where they live or what they do for work. Tuesday was a class reunion for Joyce and the 1997 team.
But the reunion talk starts with the sting of losing. They were No. 1 and they lost. They want this title bad. The texts start coming in.
Maurice Wharton, B.J. Howland, Jake Brewster. The names of players start rolling off the tongue. Ryan Clark, Brian Perkins, Chad Green, Clint Calladine, Rob Belmont. And Tim Perkins running around.
But on Tuesday night, Joyce wasn’t thinking of that historic trip to the War Memorial, to Blue Cross Arena. He remembered losing in the semi’s five times as a player and a coach.
Then in the third quarter he smiled.
“I’m so proud of these young men. They deserve to finally get over the semi-final hurdle and get to BCA after losing in the semi’s two years in a row,” Joyce said. “They have busted their tails and it really shows in the results. I could not be more fortunate to coach such a great group and to have a great staff around me.”
In the other game, No. 2 Elba downed No. 3 Jasper-Troupsburg (14-8) 52-45 in an exciting game.
J-T led most of the game and Elba went on a 16-9 run to win as Alex Roscoe scored 15, Nick Scott 14 and Brady Werth 10
Nolan Valleries had a game-high 27 for J-T.
“We will be prepared. We have seen them live twice, I think we will be ready,” Joyce said. “They are very physical down low and that concerns me, we have to match it.”
Andover-Whitesville’s Brody Vance had a hug game with 37 points including 8-of-12 from the foul line. Colton Calladine had 17 and Vincent Joyce had 10.
“Brody lit it up for us as usual. I thought he distributed the ball very well also — it was a great game out of him,” Coach Joyce said. “Colt played a very solid game on both ends as well and Vinny was monster finishing three assists short of a triple double. Really, this was another game where everyone contributed. We will need that type of effort and more Friday verses Elba if we want to get the ultimate prize. There’s a big week of practice and perpetration ahead. I can promise we will not take this opportunity lightly.”
That’s right coach, the 1990’s teams won’t let you.
Andover-Whitesville 92, Mt. Morris 41
Mt. Morris 13 6 5 17 — 41
And-Whites 25 21 23 23 — 92
Mt. Morris: Donovan Zuhlke 2 2-2 5; Eli Davis 2 1-4 6; Ben Canary 1 1-3 3; Ed Colon 4 2-2 13; Eli Clester 0 1-2 1; Naysyawn Hightower 1 2-2 4; Jeremiah Roberts 1 1-2 3; Tommy Scymieder 0 1-2 1; Ilaijah Rowley 2 0-0 4. TOTALS 13 11-19 41.
Andover-Whitesville: James Miller-Young 3 1-2 7; Rogan Perkins 0 0-0 0; Trey Kent 2 0-0 4; Carter Grice 0 0-0 0; Jake Mattison 3 0-0 7; Vincent Joyce 5 0-0 10; Brody Vance 11 8-12 37; Gavin Frungillo 2 0-0 6; Colton Calladine 8 0-0 17; Skyler Orpet 1 1-2 4; Graham Clark 0 0-0 0; Darius Rossrucker 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 35 10-16 92.
