Three-Peat for Jamestown

Jamestown has now won three Section VI boys basketball titles in Bill Miley’s three seasons as the head coach. You’re going to spoil those people, he was told.“ I agree with you,” Miley said with a smile Friday night after the Red and Green defeated top-seeded Health Sciences, 61-55, in the Class AAA championship game at the Buffalo State Sports Arena.

The victory by No. 2 Jamestown wasn’t altogether surprising, but stunning in the way the contest unfolded. The Falcons, who led the section in scoring this season at 77 points a game, were confounded by Jamestown’s 3-2 zone defense and trailed, 30-16, at halftime. Amir Moye, who came in averaging 24.8 points a game, went scoreless. Nahssan Young, who averages 16.1, had one point.

Miley was asked what he would have thought if he had known that the two Health Sciences stars, who average 41 points a game, would combine for just a single point in the first half.

“I would have signed that contract all day long, I tell you that,” Miley said

Things got worse in the third. Senior point guard Dominic Gonzalez scored seven points in a 9-2 run, expanding the lead to 39-18. Moye finally scored with about three minutes left in the quarter, but Jamestown stayed in command and led, 45-27, after Gonzalez followed in his own miss at the buzzer.

Health Sciences went down 20, 49-29, with seven minutes to go. They seemed disconnected and discouraged. They were also desperate, and went on a frantic 18-2 run to the delight of their fans behind the bench. Moye had nine points in the run; Isaiah Guerrero, the 6-4 junior, had seven. Elijah Farmer (17 points) fouled out on Guerrero’s hoop with 2:42 left, and got a technical to boot.

Moye hit two technical foul shots. The Falcons kept the ball and Moye nailed a three-pointer. Suddenly, it was 51-47, with a little under three minutes to play, and a miracle Health Sciences comeback seemed a distinct possibility. Miley said he knew the Falcons would make a run, but this was ridiculous.

“As much as you tell the guys, ‘They’re not going to give up, they’re going to keep fighting,’ it’s tough to tell high school kids that when you’re up 19 or 20,” Miley said. “They did. You just hoped we could get a couple of stops to hold them off, and they did that.” Senior Gavin Johnson (18 points) hit the biggest shot of the night to stop the run. He pulled up from the right and shot a three-pointer, which rattled around and off the back iron and fell through to restore Jamestown to a seven-point edge. Gonzalez, who had 24 points, nailed a three and a floater in the lane to keep Health Science at bay.

There was talk all year that Moye might be the best player in the section, but Gonzalez certainly has an argument after outplaying him in the final.

“It was real fun going on a run at the end,” Gonzalez said. "Knocking down the three and the floater gave us a lot of energy. Sealing the game was the main part.”

Jamestown moves on to the Far West Regionals on Friday against the winner of Saturday’s Section V final between Fairport and Rush-Henrietta. The Red and Green have won the regional the last two years to reach the Final Four.

“We’ve come up short the last couple of years,” Miley said. “You’re always going to face really good teams. We hope we can get a look at them tomorrow, come up with a game plan and if we play as hard as we did today, I like our chances.”

Maybe they can get to the states again, even win it all. Now that would really spoil the good people of Jamestown.