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Bush Hill Beauty By Douglas Sciorra

Maldanado’s strong second half helps Hornell hold off Wellsville, 60-55 to kick-off the Barkley Showcase

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Photos and story by CHRIS BROOKS, managing editor, wellsvillesports.com

The two teams simply need no introduction — Hornell and Wellsville.

The atmosphere inside the gym that January night, one-of-a-kind. You had to be there to believe it. The grandstands on all sides of the playing surface, packed to the brim with spectators far and wide from the surrounding Wellsville and Hornell areas, with more and more circulating their way in through the double doors.

When it was all said and done, both baselines on each end of the floor were furrowed with fans anxiously awaiting the marquee battle of the night.

A phenomenal introduction, to say the least, to the Showcase that certainly helped lay the foundation down for what is today.

After some adjusting and some shaping of the annual winter classic through the years, both Hornell and Wellsville boys and girls teams now occupy the precursing event to the Showcase’s main docket the following day — the Sheriff’s Classic, from beneath a spotlight that has never burned much brighter than ever before on a night that now belongs to them, and them alone.

Fast-forward a decade back into the future, to the present day. The Barkley Showcase has made its grand return to where it all started. And what better way to celebrate the 10-year jubilee in Wellsville than with the very same Red Raiders-Lions clash that has registered numerous instant classics over the course of time.

Friday night once again proved no different.

Leading off with game one were the 10-1 Lady Red Raiders and the 10-2 Lady Lions — two teams fighting feverishly for prime positioning towards the top of the Class B1 leaderboard for Sectionals.

At this stage of the game, with the big dance beginning to lurk around the corner, momentum is desired. In their first rendezvous of two in this year’s crusade on the hardwood, there was most certainly enough of it to go around from every square inch of the floor.

After a back-and-forth conclusion to the first half that saw the playing surface become level going into the locker room, it became a dead heat straight to the finish line between Hornell and Wellsville, with the contest coming down to the very last minute of play.

With the Lady Red Raiders continuing to hold onto their one-possession advantage on top of the Lady Lions, Wellsville did everything in their power to dig in one last time to try and turn the tide in the game’s waning moments.

But after some mighty shots at the free throw line, along with a crucial forced turnover against the Lady Lions with five seconds left, they wound up surviving the night to give Steuben County their first win of the Showcase in thrilling fashion by a 60-55 final count.

“I thought we fought hard. It was a night where shots didn’t go in. We just really had to be physical and play defense,” said Lady Red Raiders coach Jimmy Dagon. “It was a scrappy win, I thought. Wellsville is always really good. They’re super tough to play here all the time. The crowd was awesome, and the girls stayed tough all throughout it. This was one of our tougher wins on the season, and we’re probably going to end up seeing Wellsville again in Sectionals at some point, so we have to be ready for it. Tonight was a good way to do that.”

Right from the start, the Lady Red Raiders (11-1) were in control, as they zipped out of the gate with two quick baskets to force Wellsville into the passenger’s seat. But after a brief timeout on the sideline, the Lady Lions regrouped and refocused on the task at hand, trading back-and-forth barbs with Hornell before claiming control of the steering wheel behind a long Natalie Adams bomb from downtown approaching midway in the frame.

It served as the first of three straight shots from the outer perimeter for the Lady Lions (10-3), with Jaden Dunbar sandwiching two of her own in between Adams’ second long shot from just outside the right wing to usher an early, but massive 9-1 run of Hornell.

The message from head coach Michelle Alvord to her Lady Lions? — Simple: Relax.

“I told the girls to just take a deep breath and just to remember what we had focused on in practice coming into this game,” the Lady Lions coach said. “We needed to execute, breathe and calm down, and if we did that, we would be fine. But we also have to remember what we were doing, what our purpose and our game-plan was. This team has a really good, strong team chemistry and that’s been one of my favorite parts about coaching this team these last few years.”

With a 13-7 edge now in the home team’s possession, it was now on the Red Raiders to guide their way back into the fray following a timeout after Wellsville’s latest run. Hornell proceeded to do just that, ending the frame with six of the final seven points — three of them off a clutch Jordyn Dyring triple to pull within a single point of the Lady Lions.

The momentum journeyed on for Hornell at the start of the second quarter, as they regained the upper-hand behind a Payton Bentley triple that saw the advantage ascend to as high as five in the midst of another constant trade of scores in the early-going.

Later on, the lead was relinquished back to Wellsville again behind the leadership of Makenna Dunbar, who assembled a strong inside presence with back-to-back strikes to propel the team back on top, 23-22 with 2:18 left in the half.

Then, it was Selena Maldonado’s turn to tilt the balance, as she accounted for the last five points of the half for the Lady Red Raiders — her first connection on a hard run up to the rim, following it up on the very next possession with a game-tying triple to place a 27-27 deadlock on the scoreboard going into the break.

In the third quarter, the Lady Red Raiders ran the full sprint behind a half-opening trey from the hand of Mia Nasca, gaining more traction alongside inside assistance from Maldonado, as well as back-to-back baskets from Jordyn Dyring and a nice inside look from Raegan Evingham to enforce a 9-0 jaunt on the Lady Lions to break the ice.

The lead held firm for the visitors in red and blue, as they carried a 40-36 advantage into the fourth quarter and added more onto the pile with six of the first eight points going their way. Just as Hornell began to find a smooth groove to travel on, the Lady Lions rebounded and disrupted the path with an 8-0 run in return, led by Caelyn Stevens and Jaden Dunbar, as the two shooters went back-to-back from three-point range in the midst of all the chaos to tie the game at 46 approaching midway.

From that juncture forward, it was anyone’s game.

With Wellsville remaining hot on their trail, the Lady Red Raiders witnessed a clutch outing come to fruition by A’Jonay Hawkins, who scored five massive fourth quarter points to essentially cement Hornell’s advantage, including a gargantuan three-point play with less than a minute remaining before recording another basket down low to branch the lead back out entering the waning stages.

The Lady Lions managed to close the gap to a single point behind Dunbar and a clutch three-point play at the line of her own, but it would be as close as they would get to Hornell, as the Lady Red Raiders survived the night with more assistance from the charity stripe from Dyring, who finished a perfect 6-for-6 in the frame, along with the forcing of a turnover by Maldonado with five seconds left to freeze the Wellsville offense completely.

Maldonado was awarded MVP honors for the Lady Red Raiders, paving the way forward for the offense behind her team-leading 19 points.

With the win over their archrival now in the wagon, the message going forward for Dagon is to just keep improving all the way to the end.

“We just need to keep improving every day. I think that we’re better today than we were yesterday,” he said. “We’re definitely better than we were in our first game of the season. Just focusing on the minor details and things like that, taking key steps, staying healthy, staying fresh. We get next week off after we played our third in four days. We’ll be rested up to focus up and take things one game at a time again.”

Following behind Maldonado was Dyring, who finished with 17 points for Hornell. Payton Bentley chipped in with eight points.

For the Lady Lions, the offense was powered by Dunbar, who concluded the evening with a game-high 25 points. Jaden Dunbar and Natalie Adams each followed with 11 points each.

“The girls have played together a lot more and they established so much more experience from that. Even the beginning of the season to the Barkley last year to now has obviously shown a lot of improvement,” Alvord said of the team. “I thought tonight, other than the foul trouble, Emily Stuck really gave us a spark, Alexa Hennessy gave us strong minutes, and then you add in the consistency of Makenna Dunbar and Natalie Adams, and Caelyn Stevens. It’s just a matter of experience. The idea has been to just take care of business and to be able to keep that focus in view. We definitely have some opponents that we’ve lost to early in the season coming up later, so I’m really looking forward to the growth and development, and the continued effort and consistency that these girls are putting in.”

Hornell 13 14 13 20 – 60

Wellsville 14 13 9 19 – 55

HORNELL: Mia Nasca 2 0-0 5, Jordyn Dyring 5 6-6 17, Payton Bentley 3 1-2 8, Selena Maldonado 7 4-6 19, Raegan Evingham 3 0-0 6, A’Jonay Hawkins 2 1-3 5. Totals: 22 12-17 60.

WELLSVILLE: Caelyn Stevens 2 1-2 6, Natalie Adams 3 3-4 11, Emily Stuck 1 0-0 2, Makenna Dunbar 8 9-14 25, Jaden Dunbar 4 0-0 11. Totals: 18 13-20 55.

3-point goals: Hornell 4 (Nasca, Dyring, Bentley, Maldonado), Wellsville 6 (J. Dunbar 3, Adams 2, Stevens).
Total Fouls: Hornell 19, Wellsville 16. Fouled out: Evingham (HHS), Stuck (WLSV).

Chris Brooks photo gallery after team photo:

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