Anastasia Hits Milestone As Olean Wins Another Sectional Crown

It was a milestone moment for Jeff Anastasia but the Olean coach wasn’t worried about that. He was just happy his Huskies got another championship.

Anastasia’s 600th career win came in the same gym as so many before and Olean repeated as Class B-1 Section VI champions with a 61-48 win over City Honors on Saturday afternoon at Buffalo State College.

“All I wanted the guys to do was to come in and continue their legacy and win the sectional championship,” he told reporters after the game. “They did that and it just so happened to be my 600th win.”

The Section VI title was the 14th in Anastasia’s career at Olean. The Huskies have won the crown 11 times in the last 13 years.

“This is what we’ve been talking about all year to get this and hopefully go farther,” Olean senior Mike Schmidt said. “This feels good to get, doing it with the guys I’ve grown up with since first grade.”

Olean took control of this one with an 11-0 run that closed the first quarter. The three-point happy Centaurs were limited to just 18 points in the first half.

“Defense is our thing, that’s what coach always preaches,” Schmidt said. “That’s what won it for us today.”

Matt Droney led the Huskies with 19 points. Schmidt added 13 and Alex Weakfall eight for Olean.

Jaden Slaughter led all scorers with 21 points. Amir Radford and Kevion Taylor added 12 apiece for Honors.

“They’re a very well-coached team,” Anastasia said. “At Olean last year we played them in the quarterfinals and the game wasn’t decided until the last minute. They have kids who know how to play. Slaughter is good. He’s tough. I said let’s try to deny him the ball, make his touches fewer. That’s what we went to do there and we were successful.”

“It was always in the back of our minds and if we get there we get there,” Schmidt said. “We really wanted to get this championship for him.”

The Huskies (23-0) will play Allegany-Limestone at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday in the overall Class B championship game. The Gators (19-3) advanced with a 50-29 win over Olmsted in the Class B-2 title game.

Sam Flanders led Allegany-Limestone with 12 points, Casey Curran added 11 points, and Connor Golley netted 10 points.