By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Caleb Brown and Russell Ellis Jr. combined for 40 points as host Greece Athena (11-5) shrugged off a halftime deficit and went on to defeat Batavia (9-6), 59-55, Wednesday night.
The duo scored eight straight during a 15-4 run to open the third quarter and give Athena a lead it did not surrender.
“We want to get the best sectional seeding we can,” said Ellis who finished the night with 19 points, eight assists and four steals. “To come out here and get that dub (win), it means a lot.”
Trailing 28-26 after two quarters of play, Colten Waterman scored Athena’s first four points of the third. Then Brown connected on a corner 3-pointer. Ellis followed with a triple of his own before setting up Brown along the baseline for a layup and a 38-32 Trojan lead.
“I’m a leader on this team and my job is to keep everybody poised,” said Ellis. “I got to trust in my teammates to knock down open shots, and when they swing the ball back I got to knock it down as well.”
The win came two days after Athena snapped the six-game winning streak of the UPrep Griffins, a team that hadn’t lost to a Section V opponent in more than a month.
“There’s an expression in coaching where it’s hard to coach your players after a good win rather than after a loss,” said Athena’s Mike Setzer. “It’s completely true. We had a really tough loss to Mendon, but we were focused at the next practice. That’s why we beat UPrep. Then we had a great win at UPrep, but I didn’t love our practice yesterday. It’s how it goes.”
Adding to Athena’s challenge Wednesday night was the task of having to face a Batavia squad coached by future hall-of-fame member Buddy Brasky.
“He’s one of the best to ever do it,” Setzer said of Brasky whose 515 career victories ranks sixth all-time in Section V history and is tops among active coaches. “We were fortunate to get the win. He had his guys ready. Buddy is an awesome coach. It’s hard to prepare for his teams.”
CJ Webb scored all nine of his points over the final four minutes of the third quarter. The junior guard connected on three 3-pointers including long-range strikes on consecutive possessions late in the frame to stake Athena to a 49-41 lead heading into the final eight minutes of action.
“I’m really happy for CJ,” Setzer said. “He didn’t play a minute in the first half. He’s a guy who hasn’t been playing much lately. He’s been struggling with his shot, but to his credit he’s coming in and practicing hard. We found something the other day. I talked to him at halftime and asked him ‘how are you feeling?’ He said ‘ready’. A lot of credit to him.”
Ellis grabbed a defensive rebound and went the length of the floor for a layup and a 54-44 Athena lead early in the fourth quarter.
Batavia’s Gavin White, who scored nine of his team-high 21 points in the final stanza, sparked an 8-0 run with his second of three treys in the fourth.
When Grady Hemer scored on a wing drive coming out of a timeout at the 4:17 mark, the Blue Devils had pulled within two at 54-52.
Ellis responded with his fourth triple of the night, and Xaviel Lewis converted a rebound and putback to seal the game.
“We persevered,” Setzer said. “The guys stepped up. I’m happy that we won.”
Prior to the game, Athena honored Ellis who scored his 1,000th career point in the win over UPrep. The junior guard joined Khorie Reaves, Zee Johnson, Zach DiSalvo, Anthony Lamb and Deion Hamilton as fellow Trojans who have recently reached the career milestone.
Athena, which is currently No. 4 in the unofficial standings for Class AA2, travels to face Canandaigua on Saturday. A noon tip-off is scheduled.
Batavia, No. 6 in Class A, hosts Greece Olympia for a 7:15 p.m. start on Friday.
BATAVIA (9-6)
Isaac Varland 2 0-2 4, Ty Gioia 2 0-0 6, Casey Mazur 5 0-0 14, Aiden Kopper 0 0-0 0, Aaden Calletto 0 0-0 0, Adrian Martinez 0 0-0 0, Grady Hemer 4 2-2 10, Gavin White 8 1-2 21. TOTALS 21 3-6 55
GREECE ATHENA (11-5)
Caleb Brown 8 0-0 21, Russell Ellis Jr. 7 1-2 19, Cole Poth 0 0-0 0, Colten Waterman 1 2-2 4, Xaviel Lewis 2 0-1 2, Aris Post 0 0-0 0, Ethan Gorham 0 0-0 0, Shabazz Barnes 1 0-0 2, CJ Webb 3 0-0 9 TOTALS 22 3-5 55
BATAVIA 12 16 12 14 — 55
ATHENA 17 9 23 10 — 59
3-point goals: BATAVIA 10 (Gioia 2, Mazur 4, White 4); ATHENA 12 (Brown 5, Ellis 4, Webb 3).
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