PrepTalkTV was on the court and the ice Thursday night -- and that's where St. Joe's won a pair of big games.
Check out highlights, interviews and analysis as well as coverage of big wins for MST Seneca and Frontier -- plus a lookahead to the season's final week:
It's again a very busy Tuesday night in boys basketball. I've got a Prep Talk column to write for tomorrow, so I'll probably be limited to one game (Cleveland Hill at Tonawanda at 6:30) but we can keep track of updates here and via Twitter.
Tweets to the hashtag #preptalkscores will automatically show up in the live blog. So if you are a game tonight and you're updating via Twitter, be sure to include that hashtag. I'll have periodic tweets updating the game at @KeithMcSheaBN, but most of my updating will come in the live blog.
Check out tonight's full schedule on our scoreboard page, and check back throughout the night for updated box scores and highlights.
See you out at the games, in the chat and on the tweeter. :-)
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Highlights and interviews from Cleveland Hill's win at Tonawanda:
Sophomore Jared Watkins ties it up late at 49-49 late in regulation; the score wouldn't change the rest of the way (above).
In OT, a big block on the double-team help by Jordan Parker in the low post and the ball goes out of bounds to Cleve Hill (above).
Play of the Game: Daryl Spencer, guarding Tonawanda standout Jesse Lalka, tips the ball away, gets it back from Miles Barker and makes the tough, full-speed finish to put the Golden Eagles up, 53-52, with 1:16 left in overtime (above).
Cleve Hill had the ball with 37.3 seconds left, got fouled, then Tonawanda had to foul three times to get to seven and kick in the one-and-one. The first one missed and Tonawanda had a chance (above).
Cleve Hill missed the front end with 4.5 seconds left, but DeVonte Davis grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 4.2 seconds left to go to the line (above).
Here's the postgame show:
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More to come Wednesday with Riverside at Hutch-Tech, plus the live chat at 9 p.m. starting video-style with Lauren Mariacher and myself.
Thursday it's St. Joe's at Bishop Timon-St. Jude in what should be a great atmosphere, as always.
I didn't get to ECC-City for OTC Middle College's game with City Honors as early as I wanted to (don't ask!) but I certainly saw plenty of reasons why the Kats are having a fine season.
They routed a City Honors team that had won seven straight with a balanced lineup for a 73-43 win. Check out the box score and details.
Here are the Kats talking about the win and their season:
Here's more, starting with video interviews with the victorious Lancers (classy job by St. Mary's coach Dan Gill starting his postgame comments by lauding longtime Timon coach/athletic director Jim Palano, who will be retiring at year's end):
I walked in at halftime and immediately saw that St. Mary's was ready to play in South Buffalo. Timon senior sharpshooter Kyle Kobis drained a jumper in the final seconds, but it left just enough time for Erik Simmons to speed to the other end and beat the buzzer for a tie at 33-33.
St. Mary's shot the lights out in the second half, but it's not like they just had a good shooting night, like one of those everything-they-were-throwing-up-went-in deals. They certainly shot the ball well, but most of the baskets came off good shots created by good passing and good decisions during good possessions. Some of it came off of alert, fundamental defense and/or rebounding.
The Lancers played with a confidence, an intelligence and a togetherness on both ends of the floor that was more than impressive. That play was rewarded with a big lead, and when Timon had Kobis and Jordan Williams hit big shots to give the Tigers a chance, St. Mary's responded.
Here's a recounting of the second half from my notebook & going over the game film (that means my iPhone video :-) ):
Third quarter
Redden hit a three-pointer (36-33). ... Ryan Winnicki hit a three off an Erik Simmons drive-and-kickout (39-37). ... Jake Denz got fouled on a three-pointer and sunk all three FTs (42-39). ... Simmons with a spectacular drive finished with an up-and-under scoop-to-the-hoop (44-39). ... Simmons again with a drive (46-39). ... Denz with a nice follow of a missed Redden drive (48-42). ... An offensive rebound by Paul Rath turned into a three by Nate Meyers (53-45). ... A Redden open three (56-47) was followed by pressure on the inbound that forced a Timon timeout with 1:25 left in the third. ... Denz with a nifty scoop vs. DeMilo Gibbs (58-49). ... Nicc Johnson with a nice-looking pop-up baseline jumper from the right side (60-51) -- that shot was the only one, to me, that was like, wow, they're hitting everything. There was some good defense and I believe the shot clock was running down, and he popped up and hit a tough jumper.
St. Mary's finished the third with a 60-53 lead after Kobis got the benefit of a goaltending call although -- from the way I saw it -- the shot never got above the rim. Kobis, Jordan Williams and Gibbs -- who played very well down low -- were effective on offense to keep Timon in the game.
Fourth quarter
St. Mary's did a great job defending Gibbs in the post, and they did it right from the start. There was some great help defense on Timon's first possession to earn the ball back for St. Mary's.
That was followed by two free throws by Redden after a good, aggressive drive to the basket (62-53). ... Johnson put on a fantastic drive with an off-the-glass finish (64-55). ... Denz made a great play to poke the ball free from a Timon dribbler, leading to a fast break in which Johnson's shot didn't fall but Denz was right there for the follow (66-55), prompting a Timon timeout with 5:48 to go.
Timon made it 66-60 with a little over five minutes to go by doing what they do: Kobis hit a three; Williams drove and scored. At this point, crunch time seemed to get both sides a little tight -- no field goals for about two minutes.
Denz made a nice play to pick off an entry pass for Gibbs, St. Mary's called a timeout with 3:15 left, and then ran a play which resulted in a Denz kickout to Simmons for a three (69-60).
This started a nice-back-and-forth (video below) that saw a Jordan Williams crossover-and-fadeaway (69-62), then a Redden jumper off a Meyers kickout (71-62), then a Zach Hayes follow of a missed Kobis drive (71-64) that prompted a Timon timoeut with 2:03 left.
Redden took advantage of some loose Timon defense to score on a drive (73-64); Kobis hit a three (73-67) to make it a two-possession game with about 1:20 to go. St. Mary's had some great ball movement against some aggressive defense that resulted in Denz finding Redden on the baseline but that was one shot that rimmed out for the Lancers. It was still a two-possession game with 1:00 left.
Big play here. Jordan Williams got the ball on the left wing, faked out his man and drove to the basket, and Denz came off his man (Gibbs) and drew a charging foul on Williams with 37.6 to go.
Now, I am the biggest anti-flopping basketball fan in the world. I think the beautiful game of basketball is soiled by "take a charge," which I like to call flopping, because that's what it is most of the time. That being said, and this is a testament to how difficult this call is to make for officials (maybe the most difficult in sports?), at first glance I thought this was a good call.
But when I went to the iPhone video, it was a block. Williams is leaving the floor as Denz slides over. Denz makes sure he gets a shoulder in Williams' way and falls to the floor. That's defense? That's not defense, but that's what passes for defense in basketball for many people these days. The offensive player blows by his defender, has a clear lane, and he's made his move to the basket truly before the help defender has established position.
The shot didn't fall, and it would have been two free throws, so Timon would certainly have had a better shot to win. I don't think they got robbed of the game whatsoever. St. Mary's went 0 for 2 down the stretch so Timon still had a shot to win. I definitely think St. Mary's deserved this one, big-time. And to be clear: This is not a knock on Denz by any means. He was fantastic on both ends, he did a great job fronting DeMillo in the fourth quarter, and the charge play was one of several smart ones he made during the game -- including not inbounding the ball on this final play.
Overall, a fantastic performance by St. Mary's. Timon may have underperformed a bit, but they were mostly outplayed by St. Mary's.
I'll be headed to another top 10 large school-small school matchup of the Monsignor Martin Association this evening when Canisius hosts Archbishop Walsh at 6:30 p.m.
I'll talk about that game, the St. Mary's game, Friday's Canisius at St. Joe's game, today's Prep Talk column, the basketball polls, the Power 10 and whatever else comes up during our video chat starting at 9 p.m.
Photographer/videographer Mark Mulville & I headed to Athol Springs this afternoon to talk to St. Francis standout senior running back Akeel Lynch about committing to Penn State:
More to come in Tuesday's paper and we'll certainly discuss Lynch's choice during Wednesday evening's live video chat.
It was a busy night in the gyms and a busy night for PrepTalkTV: Highlights and interviews from six games, discussion of even more and a look ahead to next week:
Our weekly chat returns tonight from 8 to 10 p.m. We'll again start with a video chat -- I'll be joined by fellow News Sports Reporter Lauren Mariacher as we answer your questions on camera.
Afterwards, I'll go back to the traditional chat and get to your questions and comments there. The video portion of the chat will be able to be accessed here and will also be available on the buffalonews.com home page.
A big part of our discussion will be football's Monsignor Martin championship and state semifinals, other fall teams headed to the state championships and maybe even a tip-off of winter talk.
As always, anything in the world of high school sports -- or our coverage of it -- is up for discussion.
I promise I'll get to your question or comment in the chat -- but please be patient. It can get busy fielding all of the questions and I can only answer one at a time. And PLEASE don't enter your question/comment multiple times -- that only makes things more hectic.
As always, if you have a question but you won't be able to make the chat, post one in the comments section here, email me, Tweet it or post it on Facebook and I'll do my best to address it.
We're chatting tonight at 8 p.m., we'll again start with a video chat, and a big part of our discussion will be football's Monsignor Martin semifinals and Far West Regionals. We're also in the midst of a huge two-week period for all of the fall sports.
I'll be joined by fellow News Sports Reporter Lauren Mariacher as we answer your questions on camera. Afterwards, I'll go back to the traditional chat and get to your questions and comments there. The video portion of the chat will be able to be accessed here and will also be available on the buffalonews.com home page.
As always, anything in the world of high school sports -- or our coverage of it -- is up for discussion.
I promise I'll get to your question or comment in the chat -- but please be patient. It can get busy fielding all of the questions and I can only answer one at a time. And PLEASE don't enter your question/comment multiple times -- that only makes things more hectic.
As always, if you have a question but you won't be able to make the chat, post one in the comments section here, email me, Tweet it or post it on Facebook and I'll do my best to address it.
