High School Extra /News and notes
EA takes stunner, Clarence wins title
East Aurora secured its first lead of its season-opening boys basketball game with two seconds left in the Greg Martin Memorial at Iroquois. That was good enough for the Blue Devils as they rallied from an 11-point second-half deficit to beat Kenmore East, 61-58, in the first round of the tournament.
Steve Buzzelli scored his only points of the game via putback to give EA a 60-58 lead, capping a furious comeback in which the Blue Devils scored nine points in the final 51 seconds. Matt Votterich hit a trey with 51 seconds left to trim the Bulldogs’ lead to three and Thad Wier (20 points) netted another three-pointer with 13 seconds left to tie it. Wier made a steal on Kenmore East’s ensuing possession leading to Buzzelli’s basket.
Sophomore David Hill earned MVP honors of the Ryan Kennedy Memorial Tournament at North Tonawanda, scoring 24 points in helping Clarence beat the host Lumberjacks, 70-55.
Morreale has big night for Lew-Port
It’s common knowledge that Robby Seyler has the ability to score a lot of points for Lewiston- Porter. It’s bound to get around that sophomore guard Marc Morreale has the ability to light it up as well as Morreale poured in a career-high 28 points on 11-of-20 shooting. He canned six three-pointers in helping the Lancers advance to the final of their Jim Walker Tip-off with an 86-49 rout of Royalton-Hartland.
Morreale finished with seven rebounds and shot 6 for 11 from beyond the arc, while Seyler finished with 26 points and eight rebounds and Eddie Wilson had 12 points and 10 boards.
Lackawanna, Frontier post wins
Lackawanna held Cardinal O’Hara to four field goals in the second half of a 72-45 win in the consolation of the Pastor Division of the Pastor- Cooper Memorial Tournament at Daemen College. Jon Alvarado had 20 points and Darren Cleveland had 12 rebounds as the Steelers evened their record at 1-1.
The tournament concludes tonight when Grover Cleveland plays Nichols at 8:15 for the Cooper title and East meets Depew at 6:45 in the final of the Pastor division.
In the Jerry Cooper Division consolation game in the Pastor-Cooper Memorial Tournament, Jason Norsen had 22 points and 14 rebounds, while Pete Morgante added 16 points and 10 assists for Frontier in a 68-63 win over Maryvale, which received a double-double from Andre Davis (14 rebounds, 10 points) and a game-high 24 points from Brooks Estarfaa.
Orchard Park opened with a nice nonleague win over Yale Cup member Riverside, 67-58. Tom Comfort had 14 points and 12 rebounds in the win.
Nichols girls open with win
Nichols, the No. 1 Small School in The Buffalo News Poll last year, opened a new girls basketball season with a 54-41 triumph over visiting Niagara Frontier League power Kenmore West in a nonleague clash.
Moriah Camp had a monster game for the Vikings, finishing with 14 rebounds, 12 points and eight blocks. Sophomore Sloan Walton canned 7 of 10 shots in finishing with a game-high 20 points.
St. Joe’s ties Canisius
At the Amherst Pepsi Center, Canisius and St. Joe’s played to a 1-1 tie before an estimated 1,000 in the Western New York Hockey Federation opener for both teams.
Brian Wagner of Canisius scored the game-tying goal on the power play at 9:05 of the second period to deny the rival Marauders and their first-year coach Rich Crozier a league-opening triumph. St. Joe’s took 1-0 lead in the first on goal by senior Cory Dawson.
Marauders netminder Michael Whitney made sure the Crusaders didn’t experience victory as he finished with 31 saves — including a tough stop with no rebound off a screen shot from the point with 10 seconds left and Canisius players looking for the loose puck around the crease.
Canisius goalie Eric Terapicki finished with 20 saves.
Niagara-Wheatfield’s Federation debut was solid but not solid enough to produce a win as the Falcons dropped a 3-1 decision to perennial state power Williamsville North as Mark Maracheiellio, Joe Johnson and Dan Irving scored for North.
Orchard Park routed Frontier, 6-2, as Nick Friol had two goals and two assists.
