By PAUL GOTHAM
GATES, N.Y. — Coming out of a fourth-quarter timeout trailing by six points, the No. 3 Wayne Eagles (19-3) closed on an 18-5 run to clinch a spot in the Section V Class A final with a 52-45 victory over No. 2 Geneva (19-3), Wednesday night at Gates Chili High School.
Richie Miles sparked the decisive run with his second 3-pointer of the night.
“We ran a set play with a stagger screen, a high, ball screen,” said Wayne head coach Bill Thomson. “He came off the stagger and let it fly. He’s been doing that all year.”
Four trips down the floor later, MJ Marvin converted a traditional 3-point play, and the Eagles had a lead they did not surrender at 45-43.
“We started to rebound finally,” Thomson said of the rally. “We weren’t rebounding earlier in the game. We just played with more grit.”
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Jack Miles hit a pair of pull-up jumpers in the lane. The second extended the Eagles’ lead to four at 47-43.
“We took him out of the game,” Thomson said of moments earlier in the contest. “He was emotionally distraught because he wasn’t playing well. We wanted him to settle down. We wanted him to gather himself and talk to the assistants to gear him up for the run because we knew we were going to need him.”
Aidan Twist converted on pairs of free throws to seal the win.
The Finger Lakes East rivals split a pair of regular season meetings with Geneva taking a 55-41 decision on December 16th. That was part of a stretch when the Eagles dropped three of four including a pair to out-of-state opponents during a tournament in Florida. Their record stood at 3-3.
“The first time we played them we were trying to figure out who we were,” Thomson said. “We didn’t do a good job of handling some of their pressure. We weren’t together yet as a group as far as our chemistry. We had to build on that all year long.”
Wednesday’s win was the 16th straight for the Eagles.
“Credit to them,” Thomson said of his team. “They came every day to work. They believed in each other. They believed in me. They believed in our assistant coach. That’s how you win.”
Twist and Jack Miles scored 13 apiece in the win. Marvin added 12. Richie Miles scored eight. Malachi Kuhn rounded out the scoring for Wayne with six points.
Jahzire White led Geneva with 13 points. White’s trey from the wing gave the Panthers a 43-37 with less than five minutes remaining in the game.
Andrew Green added 12. Kaden Larsen had 11.
Wayne will face No. 4 Monroe in Saturday’s Class A final. A 3 p.m. tipoff is scheduled at the Blue Cross Arena.
Wayne has won two straight Class A championships and five sectional titles since 2018.
WAYNE (19-3) 52
Aidan Twist 4 4-5 13, Brody Newmyer 0 0-0 0, Malachi Kuhn 2 0-0 6, Jack Miles 6 0-3 13, MJ Marvin 5 2-4 12 Richie Miles 3 0-0 8 TOTALS 20 6-12 — 52
GENEVA (19-3) 45
Jahzire White 4 3-4 13, Prodigy Irvin 0 0-0 0, Erick Figueroa 0 0-0 0, Andrew Green 4 2-5 12, Kaden Larsen 4 3-4 11, Jacob Irland 1 0-0 2, Travis Tolbert 0 0-0 0, Jon Anderson 2 0-0 4, Jason Turner 1 0-0 3 TOTALS 15 8-13 — 45
WAYNE 10 13 11 18 — 52
GENEVA 17 5 14 9 — 45
3-point goals: WAYNE 6 (Twist 1, Kuhn 2, Jack Miles 1, Richie Miles 2); GENEVA 4 (White 2, Green 2).
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