By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Tournament MVP Josh Shadders led three in double figures, and top-seeded Pittsford Mendon led wire-to-wire in a 64-63 victory over No. 3 Greece Athena in the Section V Class AA2 championship, Saturday on Les Harrison Court at Blue Cross Arena.
Five different players contributed as the Vikings jumped out to a 15-5 lead less than four minutes into the game.
“We knew we had to come out on fire,” Shadders said. “That’s a great Greece Athena team. Any lead we can get will help, and with that comeback at the end of the game that early lead helped.”
Carmen Esposito opened the scoring with a 3-pointer on the game’s first possession. Trevor Nally converted a pair of free throws, and Jack Nally added a triple of his own for an 8-2 lead.
“You’re always hoping for that, but you never expect to start with a hot run like that against a team as good as Athena,” Mendon head coach Bob Nally said. “We were patiently aggressive. We attacked early when we saw open lanes. We moved the ball side to side and made them guard the whole half court.”
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Shadders scored on a second-chance opportunity. Then Amari Coleman and Max Liberatos followed with back-to-back threes to give Mendon its largest lead at 38-22 midway through the second quarter.
“We were just making great reads,” Bob Nally said. “When you move the ball, the ball tends to go in the basket.”
Athena did not go away. The reigning champs cut the deficit to 10 heading into the fourth quarter.
Back-to-back triples from Caleb Brown made it a one-possession game at 57-54 with 4:35 left in regulation.
“I’m so proud of them,” Athena head coach Mike Setzer said of his team. “A lot of people didn’t think we’d be back after we had so many graduate from last year’s team. These boys never gave up. They never stopped believing.”
Brown finished with a game-high 19 points. Russell Ellis Jr. had 18. Cole Poth scored 11.
Shadders finished with 15 points. Esposito had 16. Trevor Nally scored 14.
The sectional title was the fourth for Mendon with Nally as head coach.
The Vikings advance and will play Penfield in the Class AA regional qualifier.
Esposito and Trevor Nally joined Shadders on the All-Tournament team. Brown and Ellis represented Athena along with Joey Vigerzi (Gates Chili) and Jackson Birch (Pittsford Sutherland).
A big congratulations Bob on a great win!!