Tonawanda trims Holley in tourney semi

Photos by Cheryl Wertman
Holley’s Dylan Hillabush grabs off a rebound ahead of Tonawanda’s Tyler Stapf during the Hawks narrow loss to the Warriors this evening in the semifinals of the Roy-Hart Tip-Off Tournament.

A late 7-2 scoring burst earned Tonawanda a narrow 42-39 win over Holley this evening in the semifinals of the Roy-Hart Tip-Off Tournament.

Trailing 37-35, Tonawanda rallied into a 39-37 lead on a three by Justin Holevinski and a free throw by Tyler Stapf.

Holley briefly retied the contest at 39-39 on a basket by Chris Balys but the Hawks could not regain the lead.

Tonawanda regained the lead for good and locked up the win on two free throws by Holevinski and one by Cody Diaz.

Holevinski finished with 12 points, Diaz 11, Tyler Stapf 9 and Zach Stapf 8.

Holley’s Dylan Hillabush took game high scoring honors with 20 points as Nick Passarell netted 8, Isiah Flow 5, Balys 4 and Ryan Moseman 2.

Holley’s Nick Passarell puts up a shot over Tonawanda defender Tyler Stapf.

Trailing 8-4 early in the second period Holley rattled off 10 straight points on threes by Passarell and Isiah Flow along with baskets by Hillabush and Moseman to rally into a 14-8 lead.

However, Tonawanda closed the period with a 9-2 run, including two baskets by Zach Stapf, to rally into a 17-16 lead.

Hillabush then erupted for 10 points on five buckets in the third period to rally the Hawks into a 29-26 advantage at the three-quarter mark.

Back-to-back jumpers by Balys and Flow kept Holley up 35-31 two and a half minutes into the final period.

The Hawks last lead was at 37-35 after two free throws by Passarell.

Holley now faces Lyndonville in the tournament’s consolation game at 3 p.m. Saturday while Tonawanda will take on host Roy-Hart in the championship game at 5 p.m. Roy-Hart downed Lyndonville 71-58 in the other semifinal.