By STEVE BRICKLER
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Tournament MVP Cam Blankenberg and PJ Ostrowski combined for 35 points to lead No. 2 Wayne past top-seeded East High, 48-42 for the Section V Class A title at Blue Cross Arena on Saturday. Wayne’s most recent title came in 2021. The Eagles also won titles in 2017 and 2018.
The game was a defensive struggle throughout as Wayne’s length gave East problems, while East’s full court pressure disrupted Wayne’s offense.
Wayne Coach Bill Thomson talked about his team’s points of emphasis going into the game.
“Obviously, the tempo of the game, making sure that in our zone we used our length, we didn’t allow them to penetrate, getting back on defense was huge. We couldn’t allow them to get into a full court game, take care of the ball, our goal was to make sure that we didn’t get into a track meet and make sure that we didn’t have more than 15 turnovers.”
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Both teams struggled to establish an offense in the early going. East was able to get looks from beyond the arc but could not connect, while Wayne was able to get shots at the rim that would not fall. East eventually jumped out to an 8-2 lead thanks to four points apiece from Markell Kingston-Johnson and Zion Parson. Wayne’s Josh Warner, saddled with two fouls early on, finished the quarter with a quick turnaround shot off the glass to close the quarter with East holding an 8-4 advantage.
In the second quarter, Ostrowski was able to convert down low on shots that were falling off the rim in the first quarter. He started the quarter with an and one three-point play to pull Wayne within one. After a single East free throw, Ostrowski was able to convert again underneath to tie the game.
Parson answered back for East with a triple, when Wayne went on an 10-2 run to close the half. Ostrowski added four more points during this stretch while Blankenberg and Stephen Habecker added a pair each. Leading by three at the end of the half and playing for the last shot, Ostrowski was able to get off a quick shot at the death of the shot clock that glanced off the far side of the rim where Aidan Twist gathered the rebound and finished the putback at the halftime buzzer for a 19-14 Wayne halftime edge. Ostrowski finished with 11 of his 15 points at the break.
Wayne Coach Bill Thomson talked about Ostrowski’s first quarter struggles.
“He did not get off to a good start, he short-armed a few shots, but we knew we were getting what we wanted from him, he just wasn’t finishing early on.”
East started the second half by scoring the first six points to retake the lead, four by Parson and a pair by Zymier Jackson. However, Kingston-Johnson, East’s main rebounding force, picked up his third foul early in the quarter.
Blankenberg, who averages 23 points per game, started to get more looks in the third quarter after being held to two points at the half for Wayne. He was able to score six third quarter points, four from the line and two from the floor, as the game stayed within one possession including five lead changes. The last points in the quarter came when Blankenberg stole the ball in the Wayne defensive end and was intentionally fouled. His two free throws gave Wayne a 28-26 edge heading into the fourth quarter.
Wayne began the fourth with Blankenberg making a back door cut off of an inbounds play for a dunk. Parson was able to score a pair of his own for East to make the score 30-28. East the stole the ball at midcourt but missed an uncontested lay in that would have tied the game.
From there, Wayne embarked on an 8-2 run featured by a triple by guard Jonah Schichtel and four points by Ostrowski on back-to-back possessions, both in which he was fouled by Kingston-Johnson, disqualifying him from the game with five fouls with 3:33 to play.
Schichtel hit another key triple in the third quarter to help Wayne regain the lead.
“We knew our role players were going to have to step up,” said Thomson of Schichtel’s contributions.
Trailing 38-30, East made an 8-1 run to pull within a point at 39-38. East’s Jhayden Holmes scored the first three points on a single free throw and a finish at the rim. Following a single Wayne free throw by Twist, Johnson-Breedlove finished a plus one three point play. Frazzled by East’s full court pressure, Wayne threw the inbounds pass out of bounds with 1:38 to play. East missed the initial shot on the ensuing possession, but Jackson pulled the ball out of the hands of the Wayne defender who rebounded the miss and laid it in with 1:22 left in regulation.
“We called a timeout, we regrouped. We said we don’t want to get rattled to the point where it snowballs,” said Thomson.
Blankenberg then scored the next five points to give Wayne a six point lead, three of those from the line. Johnson-Breedlove halved the lead with a triple but Blankenberg went 4-4 from the line in the closing seconds to seal the title.
Blankenberg scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half as Wayne made a concerted effort to get him more looks at the basket.
“We tried to run him off of some ball screens, tried to put him in the high post , low post, put him into some isolations off of side outs, we just tried different things. On the perimeter, they made it very tough for him,” said Thomson.
Blankenberg went 12-14 from the line, all in the second half.
“Free throws won the game,” said Thomson.
Wayne (22-2) moves on to the Far West Regional next weekend to play either Williamsville South or Olean. Aside from Blankenberg and Ostrowski, Wayne got six points from Schichtel, three from Twist and two each from Warner and Habecker.
East finishes at 18-3 on the season. Parson led the Eagles with 13 points, followed by Johnson-Breedlove with 10. Jackson contributed seven points while Kingston-Johnson and Holmes contributed five each. Kesean Leonard added two points to round out the East scoring.
After East missed the layup from stealing Wayne’s ball, the entire East side went quiet, as if they were losing hope of winning with that bomb of a layup