For the first time in 27 years, the Lockport Lions are Sectional champions.
This feat was achievable thanks to a 78-74 overtime win over the Orchard Park Quakers on Saturday night at Buffalo State University. It also took a miracle shot and perseverance for them to win an AA1 title.
“This is great,” Lions coach Dave Gilson said. “We've been here the last three years, and the first year we got here, we were one and done. Last year we made it to this level, but didn’t win.
“We just kept working hard and I thought we've had a great deal of success, but we just never got over that hump. We caught up to Niagara Falls, we caught Jamestown, but we just couldn't get past them. These kids are resilient and they’ve fought hard. They did a nice job tonight.”
Maurice Woods, who led the team in scoring with 25 points and pulled down multiple rebounds, was nearly speechless.
“It feels great – amazing, really,” Woods said. “It’s my senior year, so it feels pretty great to bring a sectional championship back to Lockport in my last year here.”
The Quakers, meanwhile, felt despondent after coming up just a bit short.
“I'm really proud of my boys,” Quakers coach Chris Frankowski said. “They had a handful of days to try to execute a game plan and they believed that it would work. That took effort to do something different than what we would usually do.
“We're not a team that necessarily always locks into the same thing all the time, we try to do what fits for that day. For them to come out and execute that while knowing that we were going to give up a ton of size and just not letting any of that stuff rattle us, it sucks for them.
It kills us that we fell short. But I'm so proud of what they did and their execution.”
The Lions kicked off the game with a seven-point lead after the first quarter but Orchard Park quickly fought back to tie the contest at 32 by halftime and took an 11-point advantage going into the fourth. Justice Niver led the charge for the Quakers with 14 points by that spot in the game and Brody Monaco was a big contributor as well – allowing their team to outscore Lockport 38-22 after the first stanza of play ended.
Any team could have thrown in the towel at that point. But not the Lions.
“We came out strong and played well, which I hoped we’d do, but we kind of fell back,” Gilson said. “You’ve got to fight through it. These teams are going to come back – how are you going to respond to runs and stuff like that, and hold your composure? This is an older bunch, they're battle-tested and I thought they responded very well.”
Indeed they did, as they fought back to make it a three-point game late in the fourth quarter. When Devonte Pietricone drilled a shot with 4.3 seconds to go to tie the score and send it to overtime, it gave Lockport new life.
“Hell of a shot there by Devonte to propel us to overtime,” Gilson said. “That was no set play, he was just open and he took the shot. Congrats to him for making that, it’s a once in a lifetime moment.
“Does he shoot a lot? I'd be lying if I said yes. We actually like him to attack more than shoot, but you never know what we’re going to do right in that moment. He made it count.”
Woods continued to come up big in the extra frame by drawing fouls, making layups and nailing free throws as well as Charlie Croff, whose two converted free throws with 11.8 seconds left in overtime allowed the Lions to win a championship for the first time since Croff’s father played for Lockport.
“I thought Maurice and all those guys on the boards did a really good job,” Gilson said.
“That’s our strength, getting them on the boards and trying to beat them down from that point. They both cashed them in from the line too.
“I didn't think we shot very well throughout the game from the free throw line. But we did when it mattered the most.”
Up next for Lockport is Health Sciences in the crossover round, and Gilson knows they’ll be a challenge.
“They’re a good team and they’re going to come after you,” Gilson said. “They're aggressive. They play very physical basketball and they don't make a lot of mistakes.
“We’ll celebrate this, enjoy this and then get back to work tomorrow. Let's see what we can do.”
Photo Gallery Credit to Shawn Turri/WNYAthletics
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