Photos by Cheryl Wertman – Lyndonville’s Nathan Hydock puts up a shot against Cal-Mum defender Joe Laursen during the Tigers semifinal sectional loss to the Raiders this evening at GCC.

Setting the tone at the outset with four layup baskets for a quick 8-0 lead, top seeded defending champion Caledonia-Mumford rolled to a 67-43 win over No. 4 Lyndonville in the semifinal round of the Section V Class C3 boys basketball playoffs this evening before an overflow crowd of over 2,000 at Genesee Community College.

Lyndonville did stay within five, 14-9, at the end of the first period after a rebound basket and two free throws by Nathan Hydock, a three by Nate Dillenbeck and a layup by Noah Poler but the Tigers would get no closer.

Driving to the basket for layups at every opportunity, Cal-Mum opened the second period with a 13-2 run for a 16 point, 27-11, lead and the Raiders maintained a 13 point, 29-16, half-time advantage.

Lyndonville’s Nate Dillenbeck dries to the basket around Cal-Mum defender Vin Molisani as Nathan Hydock sets a pick.

In all 12 of the Raiders 14 first half baskets were layups including all seven in the opening quarter.

Vin Molisani scored 12 and Joe Laursen 11 to spearhead the Raiders fast break oriented attack in the opening half.

However, Lyndonville struggled through a dismal shooting stretch in the half as the Tigers clicked on only 3 of 13 shots in the first period and just 2 of 14 in the second quarter.

Continuing to drive to the basket with excellent results, Cal-Mum then broke the contest wide open in the third period outscoring Lyndonville 22-10 to extend the advantage to 25, 51-26, at the three-quarter mark.

Molisani erupted for 16 to spearhead that surge which saw the Raiders score 8 of their 10 baskets on layups.

Molisani finished with a game high 32 as Laursen added 15 and Kyle Wade 14.

Dillenbeck scored 13 to lead Lyndonville as Poler had 9, Anthony Moule 7, Hydock 6, Russ Stephens 5 and Rolland Balcerzak 3.

Cal-Mum will take a 19-3 record into Friday’s Class C3 title game against the winner of the York vs. Oakfield-Alabama semifinal.

Lyndonville finishes the season at 13-9.

Click here to view a video of highlights from the game.

Russ Stephens puts up a shot for Lyndonville against Cal-Mum defender Kyle Wade as part of the overflow crowd looks on.

Contributed Photo – NCCC players and coaches celebrate after capturing a second straight Region III title Sunday to earn a return trip to the national championship tournament.

The Niagara County Community College women’s basketball team earned a second straight trip to the NJCAA Division II national championship tournament by defeating visiting Genesee Community College 92-54 Sunday for the Region III title.

Newfane graduate Paige Emborsky led the Thunderwolves with 26 points and 5 rebounds as she topped the 1000 point career scoring mark. She now has a total of 1011 points.

Improving to 30-1, the Thundewolves also got 21 points from tourney MVP Cierra Harrison, 13 from Aubrey Halloran and 11 from Alaina Forbes.

Emborsky and Halloran were both named to the All-Tournament team.

The NCCC lineup also includes a trio of Albion High graduates Caitlynn Snook, Sierra Newton and Janae Doty.

NCCC will compete in the national championships from March 17-21 at Port Huron, Michigan.

The Roy-Hart/Barker/Medina club hockey team bowed out of the state tournament after going 0-2-1 in the preliminary round over the weekend at Jamestown.

RBM opened the tourney on Saturday afternoon with a 5-2 loss to Wilson-Newfane.

Jason Kuchey opened the scoring for RBM with a first period goal unassisted.

In the second, however, Wilson- Newfane scored twice to take the lead.

Opening the third, Kuchey went end- to- end to again to score unassisted and bring RBM into a tie.  However, that did not last long as W-N scored the last three goals, the final coming on an empty- netter.

In the evening game, RBM faced Long Beach, the reigning state champs, to whom they lost twice in last year’s tournament, and emerged with a 2-2 tie.

Falling behind 1-0, Kuchey again scored unassisted to even the game.

In the third, RBM fell behind 2-1 before Kuchey scored his fourth goal of the day on an assist from Nick Wood.

On Sunday, RBM was ousted by a 4-1 loss to Cold Spring Harbor.

Cold Spring Harbor took a 1-0 lead with 42 seconds to go in the first period but RMB rallied to tie early in the second period on a goal by Kuchey assisted by Colin Dodge.

The game remained tied until early in the third period when Cold Spring Harbor scored the game winner. The victors added two more late goals.

RBM finishes the season at 16-7-1.

Contributed Photo – Jacob Bruning

Roy-Hart graduate and Niagara University sophomore Jacob Bruning picked up the win on the mound in the Purple Eagles 8-6 victory over Cornell University on Saturday at Colonial Heights, Virginia.

Enjoying his biggest day to date on the mound, Bruning struck out a career high 13 batters and allowed only 4 hits, 1 walk and no runs in six innings of work.

Eatlier in the season, Bruning pitched three innings in middle relief in Niagara’s 3-1 win over Florida State striking out 5 and allowing only 2 hits.

He also pitched four and one-third innings in Niagara’s recent 4-3 win over North Carolina Central allowing 3 hits and striking out 3.

Bruning is majoring in Marketing.

Photo by Cheryl Wertman – Lyndonville’s Nathan Hydock (34) and Noah Poler (14) and their Tiger teammates will face top seeded Caledonia-Mumford in the Section V Class C3 semifinals Monday at Genesee Community College.

No. 4 seeded Lyndonville will take on top seeded Caledonia-Mumford in the semifinal round of the Section V Class C3 boys basketball playoffs at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Genesee Community College.

The victor will face the winner of the No.2 York vs. No. 3 Oakfield-Alabama semi in the Class C3 title game on Friday at the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester.

Lyndonville, which is 13-8, advanced to the semifinals by downing No. 5 Dundee 61-35 while Cal-Mum, which is 18-3, defeated No. 9 Wheatland-Chili 85-54.

Offensively, Lyndonville has been led by junior Nate Dillenbeck, who is averaging 21 points per game, senior Nathan Hydock (14) and junior Russ Stephens (12).

Cal-Mum has been sparked offensively by the trio of senior Vin Molisani (21 points per game), senior Joe Laursen (14) and sophomore Kyle Wade (12).

Four other Genesee Region League boys teams are also set for semifinal round contests including No. 3 Notre Dame vs. No. 2 Genesee Valley in Class D1 on Monday, No. 1 Elba vs. No. 4 Bradford in Class D2 on Tuesday, No. 4 Byron-Bergen vs. No. 1 Red Jacket in Class C1 on Monday and No. 6 Alexander vs. No. 3 Perry in Class C2 on Monday.

Two Niagara-Orleans League teams, the Newfane boys and Wilson girls, have advanced to the Section VI Class B2 semifinals.

No. 4 Newfane will take on top seeded Olmstead at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday at Buffalo State College. The victor will take on the winner of the No. 3 Fredonia vs. No. 2 Allegany-Limestone semi in the B2 title contest.

Top seeded Wilson will face No. 5 Southwestern at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Starpoint. The victor will take on the No. 3 Olmsted vs. No. 2 Eden semi in the B2 final.

Contributed Photos – Chase Pecoraro and Chanyce Powell

Albion High graduate and SUNY Brockport junior Chanyce Powell won the Triple Jump at the SUNY Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field championships held this weekend at Brockport.

Powell, who is a Physiology major at Brockport, won with a personal best and near school record jump of 11.82 meters.

She also placed eighth in the Long Jump with a leap of 5.18 meters.

Contributed Photos – Holly Heil and Daniel Heil

Medina High graduate and Utica College senior Chase Pecoraro won the Empire 8 Conference pole vault title.

A Health Studies major, Pecoraro took first place with a vault of 4.25 meters.

Two other Medina High grads and SUNY Brockport students, Daniel Heil and Holly Heil, also both placed at the SUNYAC championships.

Daniel Heil, who is a sophomore majoring in Accounting, was on the Brockport Distance Medley Relay team which placed third. He was also 16th in the mile.

Holly Heil, who is a senior Psychology major, was on the 1600 Relay team which placed sixth. She also placed seventh in the 800 meters.

Avenging a pair of regular season losses, Perinton Jasie upended top seeded Tri County Yellow 5-3 today in the semifinals of the Empire Amateur Hockey League Midget Division playoffs at Webster.

Zack Geitner scored for Tri County in the first period to knot the contest at 1-1.

Perinton took a 3-1 lead in the second period but Tri County came battling back in the final period.

James Hapeman scored to cut the deficit to 3-2 and then Patrick Ricker tallied with five minutes remaining to pull Tri Conty even at 3-3.

However, Perinton answered with what proved to be the game winning goal a minute later and tacked on an empty net goal in the final seconds.

Perinton Jasie will next face Perinton Stantz, a 3-2 winner offer Batavia, in the championship game on Sunday.

Tri County, which is now 23-3-2, will next host the David Bigelow Memorial Tournament next weekend at Brockport where the tournament field will also include Corning, west Seneca and Tri County Green.

Cody Wilson, left, and Mario Fidanza

Albion’s Cody Wilson (285) has placed sixth and Lyndonville’s Mario Fidanza (220) eighth at the state Division II (small schools) wrestling championships which concluded today at the Times Union Center in Albany.

Wilson went 1-2 today in the consolation bracket competition. He defeated Spencer Dickinson (Whitehall/Fort Ann) 6-0 but then lost 2-0 to Tyler Rice (Norwich) and 5-1 in overtime to Isaiah Trage (Mt. Markham) in the bout for fifth and sixth place.

Fidanza went 0-2 on the day in consolation bracket competition as he was pinned by Tyler Smith (Bolivar-Richburg) in 2:38 in the bout for seventh and eight place.

A big fourth quarter scoring edge earned top seeded Bennett a 68-55 win over visiting No. 8 Medina this afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Section VI Class B1 boys basketball playoffs.

Leading by a narrow 48-44 margin at the three-quarter mark, Bennett outscored Medina 20-11 in the decisive final stanza to advance to the B1 semifinals.

Brian Fry scored 20, Tyler Chinn 17, Joe Cecchini 11 and Jarin Rhim 6 for Medina which trailed by six, 30-24, at the half. Fry scored 9, Chinn 7 and Cecchini 6 over the first two periods.

Fredonia 85, Roy-Hart 43
Third seed Fredonia roared out to a 48-19 half-time advantage in route to posting an 85-43 Section VI Class B2 quarterfinal win over  visiting No. 11 Roy-Hart this afternoon.

Tom Ragonese scored 13 and Reed Albee 8 for Roy-Hart.

In other Class B2 quarterfinals, Newfane defeated WNY Maritime 67-61 and Wilson dropped a narrow 45-41 decision to top seeded Olmsted.

Section VI Girls Basketball Playoffs
Top seeded City Honors downed No. 8 Albion 58-26 and No. 5 Dunkirk defeated visiting No. 13 Medina 115-28 this afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Section VI Class B1 girls basketball playoffs.

Honesty Little scored 13 and Ryan Olles 8 for Albion which trailed 25-5 at the half after City Honors put together a 15-0 second quarter scoring surge.

Anya Bloom and Sarah Sones each scored 6 and Janiyah Holloway 5 for Medina which trailed by margins of 35-12 after one period, 70-20 at the half and 98-25 at the three-quarter mark.

In a Class B2 quarterfinal top seeded Wilson downed Niagara-Orleans League foe Akron 64-42.