NORTH TONAWANDA Boys Win Sectional Title

You might say Chris Juergens was dressed for success at Thursday night’s Class AA sectional boys final at Buffalo State. Juergens, North Tonawanda’s 26-year-old head coach, wore his wedding suit to the proceedings.

“I’m joking with the kids and student section because this is the suit I got married in,” Juergens said. “I said if I lost, I’m getting divorced.”

Well, his marriage carries on, along with his team’s surprising postseason. The seventh-seeded Lumberjacks concluded their underdog run on Thursday, stunning No. 1-seeded Orchard Park, 51-45, for the AA championship.

NT used a swarming 1-3-1 zone defense to befuddle an OP squad that was second in the section in scoring at 74.5 points a game. The Quakers, who struggled all evening to get open looks against the NT zone, scored only five points in the fourth quarter and had no field goals in the final four minutes.

It wasn’t easy, though, as the Lumberbacks also had problems on offense. They didn’t have a field goal in the last five minutes of the game. A senior-laden team needed late heroics from a precocious freshman, Spencer Juliano, who made consecutive three-pointers to give NT the lead early in the fourth quarter and two clutch free throws with 15 seconds left to seal it. Juliano scored 11 points to share scoring honors with Blake Suitor in a balanced attack.

“Spencer, that guy, I freakin’ love him,” said senior Jack Giancola, who had 10 points and anchored the interior defense. “He’s a freshman and he’s going to be something else. He puts in the work behind closed doors. Watch out for Spencer Juliano, I’m telling you, he’s going to be a problem in a couple of years.”

North Tonawanda’s defense was a problem throughout its title run. In four sectional games, they didn’t allow an opponent to score 50 points. That included OP and McKinley, their semifinal opponent, who were second and fifth in sectional scoring and scored well under their seasonal average against NT.

“Our defense has been one of our strong suits all year,” said Juergens, a third-year head coach. “In our class we gave up one of the lowest points per game. So we knew if we were going to win it had to be around this score. If the score was in the 70s or 80s, we knew we’d probably be struggling.”

Giancola said the Lumberjacks studied film of McKinley and OP and knew they both liked to attack in transition. He said the 1-3-1 was a key during the playoff run, limiting teams’ transition game and settling back into a suffocating 2-3. He was one of the seniors who were on the varsity when it went 6-14 in Jurgens’s first season and gradually evolved into a sectional champion.

“Oh, it means so much,” Giancola said. “We’ve all been together for years. So, if we could have told our younger selves that we’d be here, together, as brothers, it’s wild. It’s wild that we did this.”

Thursday affirmed the Niagara Frontier League as the best public league in the area. Grand Island won a title to start the day against another NFL team, Lew-Port. Kenmore West and Lockport were formidable opponents.

“I always knew it, but now coaching in it the last four years, it’s some damn good basketball,” said Juergens, who felt his team fed off the success of NT's girls team, which won the AA title the day before. “No game is an easy game.”

It’s easier when you’re the underdog. Juergens told his team beforehand that OP had all the pressure as the favorite. Giancola said being underestimated took a lot of the nerves away from the Lumberjacks. But they knew how good they were, and that a lot of people were sleeping on NT.

“I haven’t really processed it yet,” Giancola said outside the NT locker room. “I don’t think any of us have. We’re celebrating right now, but tomorrow when we’re looking back, we’ll say, man, we did that, against a team that everybody thought was winning it all. Nobody thought about us. Underdogs, man.

“We are not done yet,” Giancola said. “We’re definitely going to celebrate this, come back and practice tomorrow and work on —what are we at, regionals. State?”

Far West regional, he was told. Giancola laughed out loud. “Regionals then. Hey, we haven’t been here before.”

Feature Image/Chad Andrews @centercourt42