Hornell – 53, Avon – 51
From Hornell High School Athletics,
After losing three straight games including two at home, the Hornell Red Raiders pulled off a big come-from-behind win over the Avon Riverhawks Thursday night in front of their home crowd.
The Riverhawks came out with an early 10 point lead after the first quarter and went into halftime up 39-26.
The Red Raiders played solid defense all night, but really stepped it up in the second half, holding Avon to just 12 points. Hornell pulled out a big offensive half, scoring 27 points in the 53-51 win.
Hornell coach Kirk Scholes reflected on the game. “The 2nd half tonight was about as well as we can play defensively. I thought we showed a lot of grit and togetherness to fight back. I loved our spirit tonight. The job the guys did in the face guard were phenomenal. Wyatt [Evingham] and Demayne [Dixon] along with Marco [Picco] and Ben [Woolever] had to chase them around all night. Harter and Stroud are really good guards; two 1,000 point scorers. I think they’ve been on varsity since 8th grade. They have put in a ton of time and they are so hard to stop 1 on 1. You need multiple defenders and we were just trying to make them take tough shots.
“PJ, I thought, really got going in the 2nd half. He was dominating the boards. He got into the paint offensively and got his floater working and hit some big shots. I thought we did a much better job of getting the ball into the paint and playing smarter at the offensive end.”
Hornell senior, PJ Picco led all scorers with 21 points and grabbed 15 rebounds on the night. Junior, Wyatt Evingham added 13 points for the Raiders.
Avon was led by Trevor Stroud and Josh Harter, who scored 16 and 14 points respectively.
“I’m hoping we can use this game as a spring board down the stretch,” continued Scholes. “The kids need to realize that they are capable!! We are a good team, but we need to play hard and we need to play together! If those two things happen at the same time, this team can be dangerous!”
The Red Raiders travel to Wayland-Cohocton for another Class B match-up tomorrow night.
