BY PAUL GOTHAM
EAST ROCHESTER, N.Y. — It served the purpose of a consolation game, but the East Rochester boys’ basketball kept their season alive, Thursday night.
Clinging to the eighth and final seed in the upcoming Section V Class C1 tournament, the Bombers downed North Rose-Wolcott, 65-48 in the de facto third place game of the Wayne County Athletic Association championships.
Chuck Domm scored 10 of his team-high 22 points in the second quarter when East Rochester pulled away to defeat NR-W for the second time this season.
“We played really well against Lyons, and the kids had a lot of confidence,” East Rochester head coach Patrick Walsh said of the Bombers’ semi-final game. “We relied on what we knew they were going to do. The kids made the plays happen.”
Knotted at 13 after eight minutes of play, Domm connected three times from the floor including his only 3-pointer of the night. His brother, Russell Domm added seven in the quarter and TaJaye Nelson-Johnson accounted for five as the Bombers (6-6) took a 38-25 lead into half and did not allow NR-W (3-7) to cut the deficit to single digits for the remainder of the game.
“We knew they were going to run their 3-2 (zone defense),” Walsh explained. “You don’t see too many teams that run it. It’s just a different look when you just get a team that packs it in. We’ve had a few games this season where we haven’t shot really well. A lot of teams are now playing zone against us. We were ready for it. We did a lot of shooting last couple days.”
ER came out on top 67-54 when the league rivals met on February 22nd.
“We got down in both games early,” Walsh noted. “The first time we played them they were 8-of-12 for threes. Everybody was hitting.
“Our guys have been in that position where we’ve been down. We just say chip away, chip away, chip away. That’s what we look at. We played defense where we weren’t watching as much. We tried to make them take contested shots with everything they took.”
Russell Domm finished with 13 points. Manny Sepulveda added 12. Nelson-Johnson had seven. Ian Szemcsak accounted for five points.
Teddy Emmings and John McCoy scored three apiece.
NR-W’s Quintin Norris led all scorers with 27 points. Brendon Reed had 11 points for the Cougars. Evan Scarborough had seven.
The Section V Boys’ Class C1 tournament starts Tuesday.
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