Ellicottville holds off Randolph’s late attack

Ellicottville and Randolph squared off last night in what has been a nice little rivalry so far this season. Their first game saw an intense battle at Randolph high school, ending in a 48-40 victory for Ellicottville.

The second meeting saw both squads defensively on their game, scoring 16 combined points at the end of the first quarter. Randolph sophomores Jaiden Huntington and Ashton Bushey hit a pair of three pointers to give their team a 6-4 lead. Ellicottville would end the first quarter on a 6-0 run, which ended with a Leif Jimerson trey at the buzzer.

Ellicottville would continue their offense, starting off the second quarter on a 9-2 run. Junior Logan Grinols nailed a three pointer at the top of the key while senior Clayton Rowland scored six second-quarter points in the paint. Their defense was stellar, making Randolph have a hard time to set up plays and attack the basket. The Eagles would finish the first half up 25-14.

“We knew they wanted to get the ball inside. I think they had some success the other night and we felt that they would try and go back inside,” said Dave McCann, Ellicottville’s head coach for boys’ varsity basketball and athletic director for the school. Randolph would respond, but Ellicottville would make it a challenge along the way. Huntington provided perimeter and inside scoring while sophomore Carson Conley provide tough scoring. Rowland would pick up his fourth team foul and it opened enough for Randolph to outscore Ellicottville 18-11, heading into the fourth quarter down 36-32.

Huntington would go off in the final eight minutes, hitting multiple threes to shed Ellicottville’s lead. He would knock down a huge three points by his team’s bench, knocking their opponent’s lead to one with 14 seconds left. “Huntington is a heck of a player, he did the same thing to us in Randolph. He was open off the ball reversely, move the ball well and he got hot in the fourth quarter,” McCann said.

Ellicottville junior Logan Grinols would be intentionally fouled and knocked down both of his free throws, heading into the final seconds up 50-47. Grinols would finish the game with 10 points.

It was the perfect setup for Randolph; they found their best scorer and hottest hand in Huntington. He found space to get open on the right corner and shot a trey that unfortunately did not fall in. Ellicottville got the must needed rebounded and the clock expired; the Eagles won 50-47 and swept Randolph in the regular season.

Ellicottville’s Rowland finished the night with a double-double performance (16 points and 11 rebounds) while Jimerson had 15 points. Randolph’s Huntington ended the game with more than half of his teams’ total points, putting up 26 in his effort. Ellicottville stays undefeated (5-0) and look to extend the winning streak. They hit the road to face their rival Franklinville tonight at 7:30 pm. Randolph falls to 5-2 on the year; they will play against Falconer on the road tonight for a 7:30 tip off.

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