by TYLER HATHAWAY
CANANDAIGUA, N.Y– After trailing by a point through three quarters of play, Lyons (No. 4 NYSSWA Class C) opened the fourth quarter on a 13-0 run and never looked back, winning 70-56 over Honeoye (No. 2 NYSSWA Class C) in the Section V Class C Regional Qualifier at Finger Lakes Community College on Wednesday night.
“It took effort, it took hard work, and it took dedication,” said forward Stephen LeBrecht. ”It was blood sweat and tears, everybody working together, passing the ball, knowing our mission, and executing our plays. That’s what’s made us put up buckets on the scoreboard.”
The Lions (23-2) held Honeoye to just one made field goal in the first six minutes in the fourth quarter to help pull away.
“Our offense kind of ebbs and flows,” said Lyons head coach Zac Young. “But defensively, we had a couple stretches where I thought we really impacted the game. The Washburn brothers are very good. We tried to throw a couple different looks at them and slow them down. Our defense was what won us the game. We felt if we could hold Honeoye under 55, we’d be in pretty good shape, and they got 56.”
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Honeoye led 47-46 entering the fourth quarter. Honeoye forward Landon Washburn scored 15 points in the third quarter including a three-pointer near the buzzer to help the Bulldogs erase a 27-22 halftime deficit.
“Coach just said we have to just calm down, and just go play our game,” said center JJ Johnson. “Slow them down, tire them out on defense and we’d get the job done.”
“We’re in a one point game,” Young said to his team before the fourth. “We’ve gotta get stops. We get stops, we can win. Because in the third quarter there for about four minutes we were just trading blows.”
“Coach was us telling us that we gotta get back on defense,” said LeBrecht. “Defense is what we’re best at, and we can’t go out like this because this might be our last game. We didn’t want this to be our last game, so we worked hard.”
Lyons opened the quarter with a layup and then a steal that resulted in another layup in the first 45 seconds. After a Honeoye timeout, more stops led to the Lions getting out in transition and knocking down open shots. The main defensive key for Lyons was slowing down Washburn, who scored Honeoye’s only four points in the first six minutes of the quarter as Lyons sprinted to a 68-51 lead.
“I really think our offense was better because of how our defense impacted the game,” said Young. “There sometimes we were just shadowing him (Washburn) and kind of on his own. There were other times we were guarding him more straight. A couple times we tried to run somebody at him. So just kind of switching it up, giving them different looks. We executed a couple good things in the half court, too.”
Stavell LeBrecht scored all nine of his points in the fourth quarter, knocking down a jumper and a three-pointer on back-to-back possessions during the run while also sinking some free-throws to help close the game.
“Stavell made some huge plays for us,” said Young. “He had a really big fourth quarter.”
Lyons fell behind early, with Honeoye running out to a 19-11 lead after the first quarter. However, the Lions dominated the second quarter, outscoring the Bulldogs 16-3 in the frame. Johnson powered the first-half scoring with 17 points.
“I told my team, we just got to go out there and play our game, we’re going to come out with a win,” said Johnson. “Honeoye came out with energy in the first quarter, and I told the guys that we got energy. Now let’s bring it back, let’s get back to the game and let’s win it.”
He finished with a team-high 27 points, 15 rebounds, and three blocked shots, including one off of the backboard right before the end of the first half to help Lyons preserve momentum heading into the locker room.
“I got to be a leader for my team,” said Johnson. I gotta have the energy, because if I don’t have energy then my team won’t have energy. With the block being a big play, I was saying to them, ‘Guys, let’s go. They can’t mess with us, you know? Let’s get this W.'”
Contrell Parker Jr. scored seven of the first nine points for Lyons in the second quarter to help the Lions get back in the game, and finished with 15 points, five rebounds, and four assists.
“He’s really worked on his outside shot, and he’s an incredible athlete,” Young said of his point guard. ”He’s handling the ball well. He’s not shy in a big moment. He made a couple big plays for us as well. That second quarter just helped calm us down.”
The win was the second for Lyons against Honeoye this season, as the two squads met in January on the same court.
Stephen LeBrecht finished with 11 points, 11 rebounds, and five steals. Jah Jah Smith scored six points. Ben Bookmiller added two points.
Landon Washburn finished with a game-high 30 points for Honeoye (22-3), and scored 22 of their 34 second-half points.
“He’s the real deal,” Young said of Washburn. “I told him in the line, I can’t wait to watch him play somewhere at the next level, and to make sure he gets me a ticket. “But he’s just an incredible player, and Robb Delisanti is an incredible coach.”
Dylan Washburn and Braiden Schneider each added nine points for the Bulldogs. Garrett Goethals had six points. Kyle Schmitt had two points.
Lyons advances to face Global Concepts (VI) this Saturday at Buffalo State in the Far West Regional.
“I hope our fans show up like they did tonight,” said Young. “I know it’s a long ride. But we’ve been in some battles, and I’m sure that it’s gonna be a battle on Saturday.”
“Let’s go to Buffalo and get the W,” said Johnson.
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