By PAUL GOTHAM
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Zach Colvin scored six of his season-high 33 points during a 10-0 run late in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough as the Avon Braves fell to Salamanca, 61-59 in the 2022 New York State Class C Far West Regional championship.
Trailing 58-49 with 6 minutes and 6 seconds remaining in the contest, Andrew Rowland started the rally with a drive to the basket. One possession later, Colvin finished in the lane with an assist from Lee Hartke. Jack Browne followed with a bucket to make it a single-possession game at 58-55.
“We were just in desperation mode in the fourth quarter trying to catch up,” said head coach Rob Fries. “Trying to catch up that many points in that quick a time is tough.”
Colvin converted pairs of free throws on back-to-back trips down the floor. The second of which gave Avon its first lead since a 14-13 edge late in the first quarter.
“I give them a lot of credit,” Fries said of his team. “They kept playing and playing. They never got down. They just kept battling.”
Zach Colvin finishes. Andrew Rowland takes a charge. Jack Browne scores . 3-point game at 58-55 with 3:09 remaining. pic.twitter.com/iiyTMzcuDi
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) March 12, 2022
Salamanca’s Lucus Brown scored 24 of his team-high 30 points in the first half when Salamanca led by as many as eight points. The sophomore guard connected four times from behind the 3-point arc during the first 16 minutes of action, part of an overall effort that saw the Warriors find the measure seven times from distance before the break.
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Avon limited Brown to two field goals in the second half.
“We overplayed (Brown) for the whole second half,” Fries explained.”We tried to in the first half, but it didn’t work well for us.
“We started to press and deny him, make somebody else bring the ball up the floor. Honestly, I wish we had pressed earlier, but we didn’t want to make it a track meet with them. We knew in the open floor how quick they were. We wanted it to be more of half-court, pound-it-inside game. Early on, they made so many threes that it was like we were chasing them.”
Harley Hoag’s bucket to end the third quarter gave Salamanca a 54-41 lead heading into the final eight minutes of play.
Andrew Rowland took a pair of charges during the fourth quarter to lead an Avon defense which held Salamanca scoreless for more than five minutes until Jacob Herrick hit a 3-pointer late in the shot clock with 49.8 seconds remaining in the game for what proved to be the winning basket.
“That was kind of a back breaker right there,” Fries said. “We had a couple moments there where I wish we could have back. There were a lot of moments in the first half I wish we could have back. We did a nice job of getting the ball inside for the most part. They’re quick. They make it hard to do that.”
Hartke and Michael Rowland hit back-to-back treys to jump start the Braves’ offense early in the fourth.
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— Avon Central Schools (@avon_central) March 12, 2022
“I think if we had had four more minutes, we win the game,” Fries said. “But we didn’t.”
Andrew Rowland finished with nine points. Brown had seven. Michael Rowland scored six and Hartke had four points.
Herrick scored 15 for Salamanca. Hoag had and RJ McLarney had seven apiece. Cole Hedlund accounted for two points.
Salamanca plays the Stillwater (II) vs. Moriah (VII) winner in next weekend’s semi-final.
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