Saturday afternoon's clash between KSU Tusc and visiting Niagara County CC had all the hallmarks of a postseason tournament game. In the end, the Golden Eagles came up 109-93 victory despite role playing a vintage LIFE cereal commercial for over half of the game.
The Golden Eagles scored the first five points of the game on a Kameron Shockley three-ball and steal and dunk to take a 5-0 lead. Not long after, the Thunder Wolves struck back with five of their own to knot the game at 5-5 as the teams sparred through four "I'm not going to try it, you try it" ties and two leads changes thru the first six minutes of the game.
With the contest 17-17 four free throws allowed the Eagles to inch ahead 21-17. Five straight points however, thrust the visitors from NCCC into a short-lived lead that was stolen away by a Javier Ward triple at the 10:27 mark. The Wolves answered with a three of their own to grab the lead back and two more long distance calls allowed them to construct a nine-point, 41-32, advantage with 6:08 left.
A mini 6-0 Tusc run that featured a Kameron Shockley turnaround jumper in the paint, two free throws by Mekhi Johnson and a Ward baseline jumper trimmed the deficit to 41-38 with 4:58 left. But NCCC brought the thunder back with an And One to increase the margin to six (44-38) before another Ward trey, followed by a backdoor bucket and pair of throws by Shockley brought them within a single point (46-45) with 2:30 on the clock.
Neither team seemed very committed to possess the cereal, uh, lead in the opening half, as they traded advantages down the stretch with a guaranteed 20-game win season on the line for the winners.
Behind 49-45 with just :45 seconds left in the half, Ward struck gold again from deep and a Kameron Shockley steal and basket with :05 left put the Eagles up 50-49 at the buzzer.
Early in the final 20 minutes the Thunder Wolves broke out on a 9-0 run to seize a 58-51 advantage. Not to be outdone however, the Eagles got triples from Kyle Shockley, Ward and Braden Rostad as they zoomed off on a 14-0 spurt to take a seven-point lead of their own at 65-58. Ward's triple gave the navy and gold the lead for good at 60-58 even though things did get a little dicey near the end.
With 10:43 left in the game a Kyle Shockley turnaround jumper spotted KSU Tusc to a 77-67 lead. The Wolves responded with a 9-2 surge slicing the Eagles lead to 79-76 and with 7:13 showing they turned a KSU turnover into a basket to draw to within 81-80. Thankfully, it was as close as they would get.
Tired of sparring over the sweet treat of winning a big game, Mikey, in this case Kyle Shockley, gave the Eagles a little taste of victory by singlehandedly outscoring NCCC 8-2 and putting the lead in much safer territory at 89-82 with five minutes left.
After Kyle's last bucket in the string, big brother Kameron stole the ensuing Thunder Wolves inbounds pass that turned into another Ward three-spot as the lead raised to 92-82. That margin increased exponentially to 102-85 behind the inspired play of Johnson who scored four baskets, the prettiest coming on a cross court bounce pass from Josiah Brown for a lay up.
A Kameron Shockley three-ball at the shot clock buzzer with 2:30 left broke the bank and the lead increased to 20 points (107-87) on a thunderous Johnson dunk as the Eagles found out the reason "Mikey likes it"----because building a solid tournament resume by winning big games is sweet!
For the Golden Eagles now 20-9, Kameron Shockley lit up the scoreboard for 38 points to lead all scorers and also hauled in 17 rebounds, made six steals and had five assists. Kyle Shockley scored 24 points---19 coming in the final half---while dishing out eight assists, Ward rained in five triples on 5/7 shooting from behind the arc and tallied 22 points, Rostad canned four triples for 12 and Johnson added 10---eight of those during an important 13-4 run when he was 4/7 from the floor.
On Saturday, the Eagles host Miami Hamilton on senior day at 3pm. It's the last regular season game of the season.
Kyle Shockley gets a handle on a loose ball and scored 19 second half points against NCCC.
Braden Rostad added 12 points with four three-balls.
Javier had a collegiate career high 22 points and sank five three-balls.
Kameron Shockley rises above the rim for a slam after making a steal.
(Photos by Patty Tolloti)