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Bush Hill Beauty By Douglas Sciorra

Wellsville overcomes huge performance by Picco to down Hornell 63-57 in another Barkley Showcase Classic

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Cutline: It was standing room only for the students during the Barkley Showcase Friday evening in Wellsville.

Story and photo gallery by CHRIS BROOKS, managing editor, wellsvillesports.com

WELLSVILLE — Let’s take a trip back in time, shall we?

10 years ago, the inaugural installment of what is renowned as the local basketball scene’s biggest weekend of the winter. The Dan Barkley Showcase was born.

Since the very genesis of its journey, the Allegany County-Steuben County battles have provided countless amazing memories over the years. So many different participants, and from them, many new rivalries were formed.

Just some of those memories that have been stashed away in the Showcase’s memory bank? — An absolutely sinister, record-breaking 54-point night from Adam Enders to pace Belfast past Avoca at Alfred State in the tournament’s first-ever overtime game back in 2019.

One year later in the Showcase’s return to the Orvis Activities Center, Max Jusianiec raked in a 1,000-point career with Wellsville with his father, Jerry Jusianiec, serving as the team’s interim head coach in their instant classic win over Hornell.

Back a couple of years ago, the Showcase witnessed the first double-overtime game between Bolivar-Richburg and then-host Bath-Haverling, with a Jake Hagadone game-winning shot heard all around Bath aiding the Rams in knocking off the Wolverines in the final game of the Showcase to earn Steuben County a complete 7-0 sweep over Allegany County in 2023 — also a Showcase first.

We can go even further back than this, right? Sure we can!

How about the very first year back in 2015? The first of many clashes in the famed Showcase between two archrivals. One of Section V’s most notorious rivalries to date, gracing the center stage in the Lion’s Den.

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.

With everyone still clinging to the edge of their seat in the opening act of the night, the girls’ basketball game which was a thrilling win by 11-1 Hornell over 10-3 Wellsville. the nightcap spotlight now shone on the boys to continue setting the bar for the weekend.

When you take a quick skim through the history books at the Hornell and Wellsville boys basketball rivalry, it should come as no surprise that the expectation in store for battle almost every occasion, was another potential instant classic in the making.

That was exactly what the fortune teller saw through the crystal ball.

In front of another near-standing room only crowd in the Lion’s Den, Hornell and Wellsville assembled yet another timeless masterpiece to affix into the collection. Plenty of fireworks were put on display, plenty of momentum shifts were balanced and plenty of adrenaline rushes were coursing through the veins of the 10 shooters on the basketball surface from start to finish.

With a halftime lead for the Lions being wiped out completely by a giant third quarter run by the Red Raiders, the fourth quarter once again proved its mass significance. With Hornell holstering all the momentum entering the stanza, the Lions remained poised and vigilant to shake it off with their opposition facing a dangerous amount of foul trouble.

They lived up to the promise, hanging right behind their archrival through thick and thin of the second half to piece together one epic finish.

It began as a stealthily-lit flame at the start of the quarter, but as time passed, it exponentially grew in size to the point where Hornell could not supply an extinguisher to the hottest hand on the floor.

That belonged to Aiden Cowburn. And because of his efforts, the five-alarm fire kept on burning with no end in sight.

After being held scoreless across the board in the first half, the Wellsville senior turned it up in the last eight minutes of play, as he led the Lions and their herculean 23-point fourth quarter with a 14-point amalgamation of his own, running the table against the Red Raiders to finish off yet another remarkable instant classic for the Showcase’s history books with Allegany County’s first win of the weekend in a 63-57 final tally.

“There’s perseverance here, because it’s a loud environment. It’s a hyped-up game. To be able to come out here and execute is something. It prepares you for games down the road, and it’s what everyone wants to be a part of,” Lions coach Tom Muska said. “You want to be a part of games like this, so it’s good to walk away with a win. There’s no game I would rather be a part of, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be than coaching Wellsville. I want to be here for as long as I can coach, and I want to be a part of these games for as long as they’re here. It’s a rivalry I hope continues on for another 140 years. We have high expectations. Every year, it’s to put one of these banners back up on the wall. We have a lot of these in here and it’s all we talk about. We have our eyes on it this year, and I think we can get there. But we have to keep working every day.”

The epic finish allocated by Cowburn in the game’s waning moments could not be done without the rapid-fire arm of Ty Vogel almost immediately off the tip at mid-court to start the heat of battle, as his fellow Lions (7-5) senior was untouchable from all over the floor, putting strong emphasis on his first half of play with 18 of his game-high 20 points coming in the first 16 minutes — 13 of them in the first quarter alone off three triples and an array of baskets inside to help kickstart what was an 11-2 run early on.

Red Raiders coach Kirk Scholes praised Vogel’s red hot hand for the Lions.

“First half, I thought Tyler Vogel was outstanding for them. He carried them early on. I think he had 15 or 18 points at the half. He really put us in a hole,” he said of the Wellsville senior. “I thought we were really gritty, and we found a way to fight back after that. We talk all the time about defense. We’re always defense first. We start practice every day with it. We know that your offense won’t always be there, the defense has to carry you night in and night out, especially when you’re not shooting well. That’s always our identity to start with.”

The lead ultimately worked its way towards 13 at the absolute most for the Lions, all behind Vogel’s third triple of the quarter, but the Red Raiders (7-4) were able to find their rhythm with a strong conclusion to the frame, as Austyn Gollnitz and Wyatt Evingham each put away a basket in rapid succession to close the gap down to a 19-8 deficit.

The Lions remained in cruise control through much of the second quarter, despite Hornell continuing to chip away at their deficit in any way, shape or form they could, maintaining their lead through a flurry of back-and-forth exchanges.

As a result, the hosts in white and orange went back to the locker room with a 31-22 advantage in hand.

In the third quarter, a much different story was told.

The Lions were denied the basket through the first five minutes of play in the second half, which allowed Hornell to break down the door and explode for an 8-0 run behind PJ Picco and his fiery hand, delivering back-to-back triples from long range to grant the team their first lead of the game, sending the bench into a craze in the same swing. Picco also started coming up with steals or tipping passes away causing Wellsville turnovers.

Just as Wellsville began to regain their scoring edge behind some help at the charity stripe, followed by a big offensive board cashed in by Trent Green down low to tie the game, the Red Raiders received the advantage right back again behind the efforts of Picco, who proceeded to bucket his third trey of the frame to fully ignite the offense with 90 seconds remaining.

“PJ got us going and led us for a good portion of it. We did a better job of things in the third quarter, letting them move the ball and sharing. We have to do it more and we have to do it much better,” Scholes said. “We’ll get there. It’s good for us to be tested in an environment like this. We need games like this, where the crowds are against us, a student section is after us. It builds your team and makes you better. I like playing at Alfred State, Alfred U, but these Hornell-Wellsville games are much more special getting after it both ways, home and away.”

After garnering a 44-40 lead to carry into the fourth quarter, the Red Raiders now had to navigate treacherous waters due to foul trouble in order to keep their lead intact. But along the way, a hero arose to the occasion for the Lions — Aiden Cowburn, beginning his shape-shifting fourth quarter with two of his three long bombs from downtown in furious succession to trim what was a nine-point deficit down to three.

With both Gollnitz and Marco Picco each being escorted to the bench following their fifth foul violations, that allowed the Lions to connect from the free throw line with Cowburn knocking down two big shots to flip the lead in their favor before two shots from Wyatt Evingham on the opposite end of the floor reversed the 57-56 lead back in Hornell’s favor in the final stages of battle.

Cowburn then took matters into his hands one more time to finish off his MVP performance for the hosts, knocking down his final three-pointer that ultimately served as the game’s dagger with 20 seconds remaining to claim a 59-57 advantage, as the team proceeded to hold it together until the final buzzer behind four more clutch shots at the charity stripe.

“In the fourth quarter, Cowburn took over,” said Scholes. “He knocked down three threes and had like 13 points in the quarter. Wellsville really made some plays down the stretch and we missed shots of our own down the stretch. It’s a Hornell-Wellsville game all the way through. It was gritty, but Wellsville got the better end at the end. They had the game’s last run, and they got the better of us. We live and learn. We have to be much better down the stretch of a basketball game if we want to do anything in Sectionals.”

Behind Vogel’s 20 and Cowburn’s 16 points for the Lions, two more scorers eclipsed the double-digit mark for the attack, with Trent Green finishing with 14 points of his own. JJ Howard pitched in 11 points, while Karson Grover connected on a pair of points from the line to help round off the attacking efforts.

For Hornell, PJ Picco led all shooters with a game-high 25 points. Wyatt Evingham concluded with a 16-point performance, while Austyn Gollnitz had eight points.

Hornell 8 14 22 13 – 57

Wellsville 19 12 9 23 – 63

HORNELL: Wyatt Evingham 6 3-4 16, Demayne Dixon 1 0-0 2, Marco Picco 1 0-0 3, Austyn Gollnitz 4 0-0 8, PJ Picco 8 6-7 25, Benjamin Woolever 1 0-0 3. Totals: 21 9-11 57.

WELLSVILLE: Aiden Cowburn 3 7-8 16, Karson Grover 0 2-2 2, JJ Howard 5 1-6 11, Ty Vogel 7 2-2 20, Trent Green 6 2-5 14. Totals: 21 14-23 63.

3-point goals: Hornell 6 (P. Picco 3, Evingham, M. Picco, Woolever), Wellsville 7 (Vogel 4, Cowburn 3).
Total Fouls: Hornell 23, Wellsville 18. Fouled out: Dixon (HHS), M. Picco (HHS), Gollnitz (HHS).

Chris Brooks photo gallery after team photo:

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