Purple Eagles top Tigers for 5th straight win
Photos by Cheryl Wertman – Albion’s Luqman Cornick puts up a shot surrounded by a trio of Akron defenders including Donny Kreher (3), Brodie Hibbard (22) and Jack Fowler (12) during the Purple Eagles Senior Night win over the visiting Tigers this evening.
Streaking Albion made it five Niagara-Orleans league wins in a row by defeating visiting Akron 66-50 this evening on Senior Night.
Tyler Gibson scored 15 and Jahmeek Riley 14 to lead the attack for Albion which has come on strong after a slow 0-6 start to the N-O campaign. Shakarion Drisdom and Caleb Fox both added 9 for the Purple Eagles as Aquil Gaffney chipped in with 6, Luqman Cornick 5, Javon Jones 4 and Ozzie Matos and Dylan Narburgh 2 each.
Donny Kreher took game high honors with 18 and Andrew Romesser 15 on five threes to pace Akron which slips to 3-8 in N-O action.
Romesser hit three threes and Brodie Hibbard one to spark Akron out to a 16-11 first period lead.
However, Albion answered with a 16-9 second period scoring edge to take the lead for good by a narrow 27-25 margin at the half. Fox hit two threes and Gibson had a pair of baskets to lead the Purple Eagles during that stretch.
The Purple Eagles then put together a key 10-0 scoring burst to open the third quarter and extend the lead to 12, 37-25. Fox and Drisdom both had threes to highlight the uprising.
Akron did close back to within five, 41-36, late in the period as Kreher had a total of 10 in the stanza including four for four from the free throw line.
A late three by Riley though kept Albion up by six, 44-38, at the three-quarter mark.
Back-to-back baskets by Gaffney upped the Purple Eagles lead to 10, 48-38, at the outset of the final period and the Tigers could get no closer than seven after that.
Gaffney scored 6, Riley 5 and Jones 4 in the final period to keep Albion in control.
The Purple Eagles will close out the N-O season at front-running Roy-Hart on Thursday.
Ozzie Matos puts up a long range shot over Akron’s Brodie Hibbard.
