By VICTOR MENENDEZ
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — After 13 years, the Bishop Kearney Kings can finally call themselves sectional champions, again. A commanding 82-58 victory over the Canisteo-Greenwood Chargers in the Class B2 title game on Friday night at Blue Cross Arena gave BK its first sectional title since 2013.
After falling behind 46-45 halfway through the third quarter, BK went on a 13-2 run to close out the quarter, continuing that momentum into the fourth quarter, giving the Kings the win.
“It was me just buckling down and switching up on the defense,” Bishop Kearney head coach Willie Mason said. “I know that they don’t do good with pressure. We knew that coming in. Just focusing on Carson [Chaffee], we know he’s the best player on their team. We went to the 1-3-1 to make him think quicker with throwing blitzes and throwing help side defenses on him.
This is Mason’s first year as the head coach of Bishop Kearney after leading World of Inquiry to the Class B1 title last year.
“It’s still emotional, just thinking about where I came from last year with those guys and that program that I built a relationship with,” Mason said. “Walking away from them two weeks before the season started man, it’s overwhelming, but tonight showed me that I made the right choice.”
Bishop Kearney, who won 13 sectional titles in 20 years between 1994 and 2013, capping off that run with a NYS Class AA championship in 2013, hadn’t returned to a sectional final since that year. The Kings went 8-14 in the 2024-2025 season.
“The culture was already there,” Mason said. “Just them welcoming me with open arms when I first got there. It showed me that I had a group of guys in there that really wanted to win. And it was hard to come into a program where they had three different head coaches in the last three years. So I knew with me bringing my assistant over, just bringing the energy and the game that we know from World of Inquiry to Bishop Kearney, it worked out tonight.”
VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM JENNIFER LAEMLEIN.
The Kings opened the game hot, taking a 26-10 lead after eight minutes of play thanks to 10 points from Tournament MVP Maddox Volpe and eight points from Jayden Capers.
“I actually didn’t think I was gonna come out with it,” Volpe said. “Then I hear my name and I’m like ‘wow’ this is really crazy right now.”
Back-to-back buckets from Kevin Sirianni and Carson Chaffee cut the Kings lead to seven late in the second quarter, but a 3-pointer from Jacob Rybczynski brought the BK lead back to 10 as the first half ended.
Three consecutive baskets from James Smith to open the third quarter brought the Chargers within two points. A bucket from Chaffee and a 3-pointer from Jack Beers gave CG its first lead of the game 46-45 with 4:20 left in the quarter.
That lead was short-lived, however, as the Kings immediately went on a 9-0 run led by Capers, who scored eight points in the frame, ending the third quarter where BK started, up by 10.
“Basketball is a game of runs and we just kept letting them get comfortable, get buckets,” Capers said. “We told each other to lock in, play together, some of our players had their heads down but we put them right back up. That’s just what leaders do, what brothers do, and look at us now man, back on top.”
The Kings opened the final quarter with an and-1 from Jaiden Pascoe, who finished the game with 16 points, and never looked back from there. BK outscored the Chargers 24-10 in the final frame thanks to seven points from Pascoe and six from Capers.
Capers finished with a game-high 24 points. Volpe was right there as well with 22 points. Other scorers included Dalton Hamer (2), Colby Speight (4), Jacob Rybczynski (8), 7th grader Owen Gorham (3) and Angel Diaz (3).
Senior Carson Chaffee, the Chargers all-time leading scorer and back-to-back Steuben County League MVP finished with a team-high 23 points for Canisteo-Greenwood. James Smith also got into double figures for the Chargers with 18. Other scorers included Kevin Sirianni (8), 8th grader Jack Beers (7) and Gideon Stewart (2).
“Obviously not what we wanted at all, but these kids have done something that hasn’t been done in 22 years for our little village (reach a sectional final),” Canisteo-Greenwood head coach Brandon Beers said. “We had so many people show up and they are talking about basketball and love basketball because of the work that these guys have done. The whole village is so appreciative of these guys because they’ve changed our whole culture and our whole program.”
For Canisteo-Greenwood, they’ll be back next year still in search of their first sectional title since merging. For Bishop Kearney, they’ll face Le Roy in the Class B Far West Regional Qualifier on Monday, March 9.
Class B2 All-Tournament Team
Braelen Broome – Charles G Finney
Justice Allen – East Rochester
James Smith – Canisteo-Greenwood
Carson Chaffee – Canisteo-Greenwood
Jaiden Pascoe – Bishop Kearney
Jayden Capers – Bishop Kearney
MVP Maddox Volpe – Bishop Kearney
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