Wilson jumps on A-L early, denying Gators’ title hopes

BUFFALO The Allegany-Limestone boys basketball team had been used to getting knocked down, and finding a way back onto its feet.

But this time, the Gators had simply too steep of a climb.

A-Ls season came to a close with a 56-47 loss to Wilson in the Section 6 Class B2 championship game at Buffalo State University.

The Gators outscored the Lakemen in the second, third and fourth quarters, but a Wilson avalanche in the first quarter proved to be too much to overcome.

The Lakemen led 23-2 after the first quarter, a dominant eight-minute stretch where they threw off any plans the Gators had coming into the Saturday afternoon tipoff.

Wilson scored the games first 15 points, many of them in the fast break after forcing A-L turnovers.

A-L got on the board with a layup by Gavin Straub with two minutes remaining, but on their next trip down the court a Gators turnover led to a dunk for Wilsons Ryan Hough.

Later, Colton Frerichs and Aidan Neumann made back-to-back 3-pointers for the quarters exclamation point.

You gotta give all the credit in the world to them, Gators coach Glenn Anderson said.

The 1-3-1 (zone), we knew they had it, we worked against the practice.

But 14 (Hough) at the top of that 1-3-1 is ...

I mean, hes a freak of an athlete.

Their speed on the wings was a little faster than I was anticipating, even after seeing them a couple of times.

You gotta give all the credit to them and I should have done a better job getting us ready to see it, maybe a little better action or something up top to leave some pressure off our guards, but, I mean, hindsight is 20:20 at this point.

A-L found some offense in the second quarter, including six points from Straub, but still trailed by 15 at halftime, 30-15.

In the third, A-L kept Wilson off the board for more than four minutes to start the half, but made little headway with just one made 3-pointer in the same stretch and entered the fourth trailing by 12, 38-26.

After trailing by 21 early, A-L made Wilson close out the sectional title, cutting the lead to single digits multiple times in the fourth, but never closer than seven, when Caleb Strade hit a 3-pointer in the final minute to make it 52-45.

Wilson attempted 24 free throws in the game, 18 in the fourth quarter (12-for-18).

Coming off a 37-point game in a semifinal win over Eden, A-L senior Carson Kwiatkowski was held to two first-half points, but finished the game with a team-high 15, including three 3-pointers.

We ran our 1-3-1 so that got us a good start: we didnt run that at all on Wednesday night, so that pressure up top, I thought helped, Wilson coach Brett Sippel said.

(Kwiatkowski) never really got going in the first half, second half, hes a great player and not just him but they can really shoot the 3.

I was a little nervous about playing the zone against them but I thought especially in the first half we did a good job with that.

Kwiatkowski, who will play college hoops at St.

John Fisher University, broke his arm in early January but returned late in the regular season and collected a few Gator milestones.

He ended his prep career as A-Ls all-time leading boys scorer and 3-point shooter and the programs first 1,000-point player.

Hes never going to stop, Anderson said of Kwiatkowskis second-half response.

Hes one of the best competitors Ive ever coached.

Just a pleasure to be around that kid.

Along with Kwiatkowskis 15 points, two other Gators had double-doubles.

Straub scored 12 points with 10 rebounds and three steals and Collin Forrest had 10 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

Caleb Strade had four assists.

You talk about it all the time, but that time without Carson made everyone else better, Anderson said of Forrest and Straub.

Its quite honest probably what got us to the situation anyway.

But those guys keeping us going because we didnt really get CK going until late, finally saw a couple 3s go for him.

These guys just battle.

I cant say enough about those guys, theyre all really good in their roles and as a coach thats all you can ask for from those guys.

Neumann, who averages 21.9 points per game, led Wilson with 27.

Hough had 11 points.

After knocking off No.

1 Salamanca in the semifinal, Wilson earned its first sectional title in program history.

Sippel, in his 25th season leading the Lakemen, called the 63-60 win over the Warriors a huge confidence booster.

Just like that game, his team ran to an easy layup off the opening tip and took an early double-digit lead.

(We were) just talking about we did it against a really good team before and it felt like even though we were up the whole game, towards that last couple minutes it almost felt to the guys like we were down, Sippel said.

We talked about that, what we did on Wednesday if we could duplicate that and they did.

Great job finishing that off.

The Gators made it back to a sectional final for the first time since 2022, when they made a run to the state semifinal.

Kwiatkowski is one of nine A-L seniors, including fellow starters Forrest, Caleb Strade and Gavin Straub.

They kept carrying the torch, Anderson said.

I think weve been pretty good here for quite a bit, a good stretch.

Its all due to the players and what those guys bring to the table every day and they kept the standard high.

The goal was to get here and compete for the sectional title and they did.

AT BUFFALO Allegany-Limestone (47) Callen 1 0-0 2, Forrest 3 2-2 10, Kwiatkowski 4 4-5 15, G.

Straub 6 0-2 12, Strade 3 0-0 8.

Totals: 17 6-9 47.

Wilson (56) Martin 2 0-0 5, Neuman 8 8-12 27, Hough 2 4-8 11, Lepsch 1 0-0 2, Frerichs 3 0-0 8, George 0 3-4 3.

Totals: 16 15-24 56.

Allegany-Limestone 2 15 26 47 Wilson 23 30 38 56 Three-point goals: A-L 7 (Kwiatkowski 3, Forrest 2, Strade 2), Wilson 7 (Neuman 3, Frerichs 2, Martin, Hough).

Total fouls: A-L 11, Wilson 10.

Fouled out: G.

Straub (AL)..

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