By ASHTON TOWNSEND
GATES, N.Y.—World of Inquiry topped Akron 58-46 in its first ever regional appearance. The Griffins now move onto the NYS Class B final four. World of Inquiry grabbed a 3-0 lead to start the game and did not trail the rest of the way.
But the Griffins outscored Akron 19-3 in the third quarter on the back of Devin Dillon’s six points in the quarter to secure the win.
“We listened to our coaches, we’re humble, didn’t rush and took our time,” Dillon said.
World of Inquiry led 31-26 coming out of halftime. Akron scored the first points of the quarter and then it was a 15-0 run for the Griffins with three threes in a row, including two from Dillon and one from Jaedon Adams-Griffin that caused a timeout.
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“My eighth grader (Devin Dillon) is my eighth grader man,” World of Inquiry head coach Willie Mason said. “He’s a gym rat, he loves getting better and he wants to get better and you can’t coach that. You can coach X’s and O’s, but a kid like Devin Dillon, you allow him to go on a court and go immediately.”
In the first quarter the Griffins got up early, Kanaz Linder had six of his 14 points in the frame and World of Inquiry led 20-11 heading into the second.
“We didn’t have dumb turnovers, we played smart and got back on defense,” Linder said.
In the first half, Akron was hot from three with 21 of their 26 first-half points coming from beyond-the-arc. It was the halftime adjustments from the Griffins squad that led to a big third quarter.
“We had to run them off the three-point line,” Mason said. “They didn’t do a lot of the post scoring so we had to stretch our man-to-man for more pressure on the three-point to make the shots not makeable.”
Also scoring for the Griffins was Curtis Bell with 11 points, Adams-Griffin ended with 10 points and Junayde Dunn-Richardson hit for eight points in the win.
Akron was led by Blake Gerstung with 12 points. Benjamin Gerstung (10), Derren Brooks (9), Syras Jonathan (7), Brayden Lamont (6) and Brodie Hill (2) also scored.
World of Inquiry is in its 12th season as a program and continues to make history this season.
“As a coach the feeling is unexplainable,” Mason said. “To see the work our guys put in all summer and get to watch them and watch it all come to fruition is amazing.”
The Griffins move onto face the winner of Marcellus (III) or Mechanicville (II) on March 22 at 11:45 a.m. at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton.
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