Hawks rally late to nip Tigers in tourney opener

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Holley’s Corey Winter goes drives to the basket between Lyndonville defenders Brandon Schoolcraft (34) and Evan Milleville (5) during this evenings’ Hawks tournament semifinal.

Putting together a fourth quarter rally, the host Hawks edged past Lyndonvile 45-42 this evening in the opening round of the Holley Holiday Tournament.

Trailing by six, Holley rallied to outscore Lyndonvile 18-9 in the decisive final period to claim the win and advance to the tourney finals.

Joey DeFelice scored 6 of his game high 14 points, Corey Winter 6 of his 12 and Zach Vaccarelli 4 of his 9 to lead the Hawks late rally.

Winter had two rebound buckets and a layup, DeFelice a rebound bucket and a layup and Chris Balys a layup off a steal to key Holley’s 14-3 scoring burst to open the final stanza which rallied the Hawks from a 33-27 deficit into a 41-39 lead.

Layups by Winters and DeFelice upped the Holley lead to 43-39 but Lyndonville made the finish exciting as Patrick Hinkson hit a three with just eight seconds to go to cut the Tigers deficit to one at 43-42.

Vaccarelli answered with two clutch free throws to give Holley a little breathing room and a last ditch Lyndonville three attempt was off target enabling the Hawks to escape with the narrow win.

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Evan Milleville puts up a shot for Lyndonville against Corey Winter.

Winter also grabbed off 12 rebounds on the night, DeFelice 12 and Vaccarelli and Josh Porter 8 each.

Justin Edwards scored 10 points to lead Lyndonville’s balanced attack as Nick Hinkson netted 9, Patrick Hinkson and Evan Milleville 8 each, Ty Hrovat 5 and Brandon Schoolcraft 2.

The contest was deadlocked at 10-10 at the end of the first period which saw Porter hit a pair of early threes for the Hawks and Edwards click on a pair of layups for the Tigers.

Sparked by three straight threes, by Edwards, Patrick Hinkson and Nick Hinkson, Lyndonville used a 15-8 second period scoring edge to open up a seven point, 25-18, advantage at the half.

The Tigers maintained a six point ,33-27, advantage at the thee-quarter mark on third period tallies by Milleville, Nick Hinkson and Patrick Hinkson.

DeFelice had three buckets in the quarter to keep the Hawks close.

Holley quickly cut the deficit to two, 33-31, at the outset of the final period after a lay-up by Vaccarelli and a rebound bucket by DeFelice.

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Holley’s John Bower (10) drives against Lyndonville’s Justin Edwards.

Lyndonville did extend the lead a bit to 36-31 after a layup by Milleville and a free throw by Edwards but Holley countered with a key 8-0 run to take the lead at 39-36 on two rebound baskets by Winter, a layup off a steal by Balys and a layup by DeFelice.

Lyndonvile did briefly retie the contest at 39-39 on a three by Nick Hinkson but the Tigers could not regain the lead.

Holley answered with a layup by Winter and a jumper by DeFelice to regain the lead for good at 43-39 with two minutes to play.

Holley will now face Northstar in the championship game at 7 p.m. Monday after Lyndonville faces Oakfield-Alabama in the consolation contest at 5:30 p.m. Holley will be looking to avenge a 56-51 loss to Northstar in the season opener.

Northstar nipped Oakfield-Aalbama 48-46 in the other semifinal.

Prior to the game, the late Jim Ferris was inducted into the Holley Wall of Fame. A 1959 Holley graduate, Ferris was a basketball star for the Hawks during his scholastic days and later in life became very active in running. The Jim Ferris Memorial 5K race is held annually in Holley in his honor.

Photo By Cheryl Wertman – Holley’s Joey DeFelice (5) knocks the ball away from Brandon Schoolcraft.