Putting it all together with a consistent, four quarter effort in front of their home fans Tuesday night, Wilmington High School boys basketball team defeated Batavia 59-34 in SBAAC American Division play.
The win snapped the Hurricane’s three-game losing skid (all road losses), as they improved to 8-11 on the season. Batavia won the first meeting between the two teams 61-47.
“Right now, there are two types of teams playing, those who are playing out the string and those who want to keep on playing. Tonight, we showed that we want to be the latter, the kind that will keep on playing,” said WHS head coach Mike Noszka. “Tonight the biggest difference is we were engaged and we must continue to play that way … and be engaged in our practices. We played consistent on both sides of the ball and it made quite a difference.”
Coming out of the gate strong, Wilmington jumped out to a 25-10 first quarter lead. Defensively, the Hurricane had a near shutout in the second period, until Ethan Berger hit a pair of free throws as the first half horn sounded. Wilmington took a commanding 37-12 advantage into the lockerroom at halftime.
The third quarter was a battle between the two teams, with Wilmington having a slight advantage, 11-8, making the score 47-20 after three quarters of play.
Many players contributed to the Hurricane success Tuesday night, with nine different players in the scorebook, and 18 points coming from non-starters.
Cam Coomer led the WHS scoring attack with 12 points, Sam Jacobyansky added 10.
Key contributors off the bench were Steven Sweeney with eight points, including a pair of three pointers, senior Matt Spears scored three field goals in the fourth quarter, while John Stewart and Brady Vilvens each added a basket for the Hurricane offense.
Batavia senior Nate Watson, who is battling cancer scored a three pointer for the Bulldogs in the final period. Wilmington’s Athletic Boosters had several gift raffles helping to raise money for the Watson family with their medical expenses. The 50-50 winner donated his portion of the winnings back to the Watson family.
Wilmington will host a game Friday night at Fred Summers Court in the Bud Phillips Scholarship game, against an opponent yet to be determined from the SBAAC National Division.
“Whoever we play we know it will be a good opponent, plus we have Aiken (upcoming tournament opponent) waiting in the wings. We want to give our seniors a proper sendoff with a victory.”
SUMMARY
February 12, 2019
@Fred Summers Court
Wilmington 59 Batavia 34
B 10.02.08.14…..34
W 25.11.11.12…..59
(34) BATAVIA (2fg-3fg-ft-tp) Richardson 0-0-0-0, Watson 0-1-0-3, Zenni 2-0-1-5,Griffin 2-0-0-4, Evans 2-0-0-4, Applegate 2-0-2-6, Wiscombe 2-0-0-4, Heckard 0-0-1-1, Berger 1-0-4-6,
Team Totals: 11-1-8-34.
(59) WILMINGTON (2fg-3fg-ft-tp) Morris 1-1-0-5, Coomer 2-2-2-12, Sweeney 0-2-2-8, Custis 2-0-1-5, Griffith 0-0-0-0, Spears 3-0-0-6, Jacobyansky 2-2-0-10, Jones 0-0-0-0, Glass 0-0-0-0, Vilvens 1-0-0-2, Butcher 4-0-1-9, Stewart 1-0-0-2. Team Totals: 16-7-6-59.
