The most intriguing matchup throughout the St. Joe’s/Timon game recently was that of centers, Reggie Agbeko and DeMilo Gibbs. While the highly touted Agbeko was once again the best player on the floor, Gibbs certainly more than held his own, superbly knowing, and playing to his strengths, while minimizing the impact of his weaknesses. What struck me most was the unwillingness of Agbeko to front Gibbs, or at the least, attempt to force him to catch the ball higher in the paint. Instead, Gibbs was routinely allowed to establish position on the low block with regularity; a position he will not be moved from once he is established.
Even though Gibbs was unable to convert late free throws or a layup that could’ve tied the game, he was extremely efficient, particularly in the first half converting close range efforts throughout the contest. The match up remained interesting through all four quarters, largely due to the varying styles employed by each big man.
Late in the fourth quarter and into overtime, Agebko began to drift farther out of the paint to receive the ball, allowing him to use his athleticism along with his length while driving to the hole. This was instrumental in Joe’s late fight back and eventual win in the extra frame.
High School Happenings: Reggie, West & Walsh – continue reading…
Canisius suffered tough losses last week to St. Joe’s and East (Rochester) that left them feeling rotten, not to mention out of the top spot in the large school poll rankings. Against another daunting foe in Bishop Timon, the fourth-ranked large school in Western New York, the Crusaders were in no mood to make it three defeats in six days.
Thanks to strong defense, second half coaching adjustments and fantastic free throw shooting, the Crusader moods got a little better.
Second-ranked Canisius shook off a terrible start, outscored Timon by 12 in the second half and beat the Tigers, 57-46 at the Bernard J. Kennedy Field House Thursday evening.
Canisius Gets Defensive On Timon – continue reading…
With season-altering victories over Aquinas and Canisius last week, St. Joe’s wrestled the top spot in this week’s large school high school boys’ basketball poll. If Monday night is any indication, they’ll be in for a dog fight to hold on to it.
Once you reach the top of the mountain everyone guns for you and Bishop Timon got the first crack at Western New York’s new number one. The Monsignor Martin Association foes battled for four quarters and when things still couldn’t get settled, battled in overtime before the Marauders escaped with a 57-54 in in front of a packed gym featuring boisterous fans from both sides.
Senior center Reggie Agbeko continues to emerge as the front runner for Player of the Year and was a pivotal reason the Tigers left Kenmore in an upset mood rather than upset victors. Agbeko scored 22 points, pulled down 19 rebounds and swatted four shots—all in the second half and overtime and his team essentially needed every mark he filled in the stat sheet to pull off the win.
St. Joe’s Tops Timon In OT Thriller (With Video) – continue reading…
“Just when you think you have all the answers— I change the questions.” – Roddy Piper.
That phrase best describes the topsy-turvy week in high school basketball across Western New York that just took place. If you thought for a split second you had a keen sense of the way things would play out, you may want to think again.
One of the more unpredictable and exciting seasons in recent memory got a lot more arbitrary over the past week.
Where do we even begin? Let’s start with St. Joe’s, who many wrote off for 2011-12 after blowing a big lead and falling short in last year’s Manhattan Cup final at Canisius College. There was good reason for tempered expectations this season. Last year’s team led by star forward Connor Rehbaum lost a lot of talent and senior leadership to graduation. Then Chad Kelly announced he wouldn’t be participating this year so he could focus on football. Yet, we’re near the end of January and the Marauders just concluded one of the biggest statement weeks they’ve had in years. Last Saturday they upset one of top teams in the state in Aquinas and Friday night in front of an electric home crowd, knocked off top-ranked large school Canisius.
Upsets, Statement Games Dominate High School Hoops – continue reading…
The sense all season long in boy’s high school basketball was it being merely a matter of time before St. Mary’s broke through with a influential, signature victory. The second-ranked small school in Western New York certainly has come close; taking powerhouse programs like Canisius, St. Joe’s and Olean to their limits before falling just short.
Tuesday evening, St. Mary’s finally broke down the underdog door. The Lancers initially were nearly run out of the gym in the first quarter, falling behind 11-2 to Bishop-Timon St. Jude less than three minutes in before regrouping, eventually seizing control and frantically holding on to upset the fourth-ranked large school Tigers, 73-71 in front of a stunned South Buffalo home crowd.
For St. Mary’s, it was all resiliency early that enabled them to withstand an opening Timon onslaught.
St. Mary’s Stuns Timon, 73-71 – continue reading…
Buffalo Sports Daily has learned that long time Bishop-Timon St. Jude head coach Jim Palano plans to retire at the end of the season, thus ending a career at Timon spanning almost 40 years.
According to multiple sources, Palano will retire from coaching basketball and baseball as well as teaching at the end of the year. Palano has been the head coach of the basketball team since 1989 and prior to that was an assistant under his legendary father, Mel Palano since 1973.
Palano declined to comment about his retirement for this story.
During his 23-year stint as Timon’s head coach, Palano has accumulated 345 coaching victories; second-most in Monsignor Martin Association history, trailing only his father (544.) Palano recently passed former longtime Canisius coach Johnny Barnes.
Timon’s Palano To Retire After 39 Years – continue reading…
Poor Tyler Haden. The Bishop-Timon junior guard was the lone member of the Tigers’ 14-man roster who failed to break into the scoring column Thursday evening. The rest of his team had no problem decimating an overmatched Maritime squad, 84-28 in the first round of the fourth annual Mark F. Scarcello Memorial Basketball Classic in South Buffalo.
The third-ranked large school Tigers will face Iroquois in the championship game Friday night after the Chiefs routed Tapestry, 78-59 in the first match up.
Thirteen different Timon players scored as the Tigers raced out to a 20-point lead after the first quarter, led 48-16 at halftime and had the bench completely emptied out before the third quarter was half over.
Timon Destroys Maritime In Scarcello Classic – continue reading…
Bishop-Timon St. Jude has earned a reputation for having one of the most explosive high school basketball offenses in Western New York. It’s a good thing they decided to play some defense Monday night, because the offense positively left the gym after three quarters.
Timon opened a 47-35 lead over Williamsville South after three quarters before failing to connect on a single field goal attempt over the last eight minutes. Fortunately for them they were able to hit free throws down the stretch and hold off a pesky Billies squad to win their MMAA/ECIC match up at St. Mary’s of Lancaster.
Kyle Kobis led the Tigers with 17 points, including his last five from the charity stripe as Timon converted on seven free throws over the last 4:41 for their only points in the fourth quarter.
Timon Narrowly Escapes South In MMAA/ECIC Challenge – continue reading…
Chad Kelly will be playing football for Clemson University next year based largely on his ability to sling the football. However, it’s his legs that separate him from any other high school quarterback in Western New York.
Kelly ran for 140 yards, including 108 in the second half and had two rushing touchdowns to lead St. Joe’s to a 39-18 victory over Bishop-Timon St. Jude, giving the Marauders the regular season Monsignor Martin Association title for a second straight year.
Kelly hurt Timon plenty through the air as well; completing 17-of-29 passes for 285 yards and a pair of touchdown passes, and in the process surpassed Mike Radon’s (St. Francis) single-season MMA record of 2.408 passing yards set in 2001.
St. Joe’s Beats Timon, Earns Top Seed For MMA Playoffs – continue reading…
Several alumni from the Bishop Timon Class of 1971 were on hand in West Seneca Saturday afternoon to celebrate their 40th year reunion and root on the Tigers as they clashed with Monsignor Martin Association rival Canisius High School.
They witnessed quite a show.
Timon lost star running back Adam DiMillo late in the first quarter to a fractured forearm, but senior wide receiver Jordan Williams picked up the slack, catching a season-high nine passes for 148 yards, including the game-winning touchdown as the defense made several critical plays in the second half to help the Tigers erase a halftime deficit and defeat Canisius, 42-28.
It was the first time Timon defeated Canisius in over eight years.
Williams, Defense Finally Gets Timon Past Canisius – continue reading…
It was certainly not a good omen for St. Joe’s when on the game’s opening tip, center Reggie Agbeko came down on his ankle and crumpled to the floor in pain for several minutes. The Marauders biggest (literally) advantage was gone before their Manhattan Cup semifinal against Bishop Timon-St. Jude even started.
Fortunately for head coach Mark Simon, Chad Kelly will no longer be considered just a football star after tonight. Combined with Tom Escott, the Marauders front court production remained steady as ever as St. Joe’s advanced to Wednesday’s championship game with a resounding 73-58 victory over Timon.
With the win, St. Joe’s advances to their first Manhattan Cup final since defeating Nichols for the title in 2008.
Chad Kelly Leads St. Joe’s To Hoops Final – continue reading…
We’re down to the semifinals of the Manhattan Cup and come Saturday evening, only Timon and St. Mary’s stand in the way of what could be an epic third battle between St. Joe’s and Canisius, with the Catholic high school basketball championship on the line.
St. Joe’s is looking to reach the Manhattan Cup final for the first time since 2008, when they defeated Nichols to capture the trophy. Canisius lost to Nichols last year after winning in 2009 over the same opponent.
For that to happen, both favored teams and in particular St. Joe’s have risky business to take care of. The Marauders take on the Tigers in the second game of a doubleheader that begins at 6pm and while St. Joe’s owns a pair of victories over Timon this year, neither has been a cakewalk.
Manhattan Cup Semi-Finals Preview – continue reading…
Following a string of close yet extremely disappointing losses to quality opponents near the end of the regular season, Bishop Timon limped into the Manhattan Cup playoffs perceived as being ripe for an upset by a St. Francis team they already handled twice this year. A sluggish start to their quarterfinal matchup Tuesday night did nothing to silence the critics as the Tigers only managed 12 points in the game’s first eight minutes.
But Timon got hot in the second quarter after finally got back to their trademark up-tempo style, and would explode in the third quarter en route to taking down the Red Raiders, 58-43.
The Tigers advance to Saturday’s semifinal with St. Joe’s at Canisius College.
Manhattan Cup Playoffs: Timon Too Much For St. Francis – continue reading…
Doubleheader action tonight in the Manhattan Cup high school quarterfinals as St. Joe’s takes on Niagara Catholic (6pm) followed by Bishop Timon vs. rival St. Francis (7:45pm). Keep it here for live updates and statistics throughout the night as we move one step closer towards crowing a new Catholic school champion.
With his team essentially sleepwalking through a first quarter that saw Bishop Timon-St. Jude vault to a 18-8 lead, St. Joe’s head coach Mark Simon gathered his troops before the second to preach the basic fundamentals that got them where they are.
“We pride ourselves on defense and rebounding and we did neither of those in the first quarter,” Simon said. “We knew were playing a tough game against some really good shooters and we had to take control of things and play to our strengths to keep things going for us.”
That’s exactly what they did. The supporting cast did their thing but it was the pair of star players that swung the momentum. Senior Connor Rehbaum finished with a game-high 19 points while junior center Reggie Agbeko owned the paint with 14 points and 15 rebounds as fourth-ranked large school St. Joes (18-4) dominated the final three quarters en route to a lopsided home court win over eight-ranked Timon, 65-45.
Rehbaum, Agbeko Star in Big St. Joe’s Win – continue reading…
One of the more heated rivalries in high school basketball resumes this evening in Kenmore when red-hot St. Joe’s plays host to Bishop-Timon St. Jude in a meaningful Monsignor Martin Association rematch from last month.
Both teams are ranked in the top 10 among Western New York large schools. St. Joe’s is currently ranked fourth while Timon is ranked eighth.
St. Joe’s won the first matchup on January 14, coming back in the fourth quarter to tie the game just before the buzzer and winning in overtime, 68-62. It was Timon’s first loss of the season.
The Marauders are on a massive hot streak of late, winning their last 10 games to propel them to the top of the Catholic division. For the season Joe’s is 17-4 and a perfect 9-0 in league play. They can all-but-wrap up the regular season title and the top seed of the Manhattan Cup tournament with a win tonight over Timon. Winning the regular season title carries significant importance as it almost certainly avoids having to play Timon or Canisius in the semi-finals.
Timon vs St. Joe’s Preview: The Rematch – continue reading…
A literal last minute flurry by McKinley high school led to one of the most exciting finishes on the Western New York basketball scene this season. Trailing by a half dozen points with under a minute left to play, McKinley scored five points in the final 10 seconds to tie Riverside and eventually defeated them in overtime, 88-85 in front of a frenzied home crowd.
Riverside maintained a 78-73 lead and appeared to be well on their way to the win before Dennis James hit a three-pointer for McKinley with nine seconds left to cut the lead to two. Then, Dajuan Rutledge stole the Riverside inbounds pass and scored with two seconds left to send things to extra time.
There McKinley outscored what was clearly a demoralized Riverside team, 10-7 to earn the three point win.
Miracle Comeback For McKinley In Yale Cup Win – continue reading…
In high school basketball circles I’ve heard plenty of chatter about Jamestown forward Jaysean Paige being the front runner to win Western New York Player of the Year when the season is over. I do think a Jamestown player will warrant serious consideration, but feel a lot of the media has the wrong player. Darin Butts has been playing amazing basketball lately and in my mind, he’s the favorite.
Butts had 28 points in consecutive games this week in tough road wins over Frontier and Lancaster. Besides the scoring, Butts is the definition of a stat-filler. The senior is a lock to get at least five rebounds, steals and assists almost every time he takes the court.
“He does everything for us we could ever ask of him,” Jamestown coach Ben Drake said this week. “He started the season a little slow for us but over the past few weeks he’s been playing great. He’s a three-year starter for us and one of the leaders of our team. How far we go in the playoffs comes down in large part to him.”
New P.O.Y. Candidate & Other Observations – continue reading…
Bishop Timon-St. Jude was an angry team coming into Lancaster Tuesday night to face St. Mary’s High School. Dropping three close games late over the past couple of weeks put the Tigers in a sour mood and out to prove a point.
Speaking of sour moods, St. Mary’s coach Dan Gill was certainly in one by the end of the first quarter.
The Tigers blew off the doors in the opening moments as they jumped to a 12 point lead at the end of the first quarter and spent the rest of the way on cruise control for the 54-34 victory.
Timon exploded early, getting up 15-4 on the strength of eight points from Jordan Williams in the game’s first five minutes, including a pair of three pointers as Kyle Kobis hit a third to send Gill into a frenzy during a time out.
Williams Bombs Away at St. Mary’s in Easy Timon Win – continue reading…
Timon traveled down to Batavia Thursday evening and gave the highly touted Blue Devils all they could handle, but fell short as Batavia survived a tough test with a 67-61 victory.
The game was tight all the way with Batavia leading by five after one, four after two and just three points after three. But every time Timon came close to grabbing the lead, a big play by Batavia kept them on top.
As is usually the case with the Section V powerhouse, Andrew Hoy was the difference. The school’s all-time leading scorer dropped a game-high 28 points, including five three-pointers and dished out six assists. Justin Washington added 16 points to go with eight rebounds.
Timon Falls Short at Batavia, 67-61 – continue reading…
There’s few tasks more daunting in all of Western New York high school sports than walking into Bishop Timon-St. Jude’s gym on McKinley Parkway in South Buffalo and leaving with a victory during a winning Tigers season. Catholic rival St. Joes flirted big-time with being Timon’s latest victim, but a last second bucket followed by a dominant overtime sent the Timon fans home in a sour mood.
Junior center Reggie Agbeko put in a loose ball after teammate Steve Moser’s shot was blocked right before the final buzzer sounded to send the game to overtime. There, St. Joes outscored Timon in extra time 9-3 and forced six Tigers turnovers along the way as the Marauders ended Timon’s undefeated season, 68-62.
As expected the game was a wild affair in front of a boisterous crowd that saw several lead changes and neither team get up by more than seven at any part of the game. St. Joes led at the end of the first quarter, 11-9 and clung to a 27-25 halftime lead.
St. Joes Hands Timon First Loss in OT Thriller – continue reading…
Anyone who covers sporting contests for a media outlet, whether you do it for a living or merely as hobby, knows there’s only one advantage of witnessing one-sided affairs—- the ability to get a jump start on your story long before the game is over.
When it comes to the Timon Tigers and their boy’s basketball team thus far in 2010-11, I’ve gotten plenty of practice at penning stories in the third quarter and simply filling in the blanks when the final buzzer sounds. Timon has played nine games so far this season and none have been decided by single digits. Their lowest margin of victory this year has been 11 points last month at Nichols; which perhaps was Timon’s worst game of the season.
The lack of late-game drama is expected to change Thursday night in South Buffalo when Timon (9-0) plays host to Monsignor Martin Association rival St. Joes (9-4) at 7:30pm. Both teams are ranked in the top 10 among large schools.
Showdown Looms for St. Joes, Timon – continue reading…
Bishop Timon St. Jude was expected to receive its first real test of the season Tuesday evening when the undefeated Tigers traveled to Williamsville East. The Flames came into the game with a record of 7-1, including an upset win over Clarence in the Amherst Tournament last month.
For the Tigers, considered this test aced.
Junior guard Kyle Kobis was outstanding, nearly single-handedly carrying the Timon offense in the first half as they overcame a sluggish start on both ends of the floor to rout Williamsville East in their own gym, 72-43.
Kobis scored 19 points and had six rebounds, including five on the offensive end… all before the teams went into the locker room for halftime.
Kobis, Rehbaum Big Nights Highlight H.S. Hoops Action – continue reading…
Bishop Timon St. Jude remained undefeated in boys high school basketball Tuesday evening, easily defeating Iroquois, 69-41 to win the third annual Mark F. Scarcello Memorial Classic in front of their home South Buffalo crowd.
Timon improved to 7-0 on the season and outscored Iroquois and Buffalo Science Academy over the past two nights by a combined 151-67. While skeptics will point, quite accurately to their lack of quality opponents on the early portion of the schedule, there’s no denying the Tigers are one of the area’s most explosive teams.
Timon roared to a commanding early lead as Junior Jordan Williams matched the point output of the entire Iroquois team in the first quarter (nine).
H.S. Hoops Holiday Tourney Round-Up – continue reading…
Week three of the Western New York high school football season is officially in the books, and there’s plenty of interesting storylines to come from it.
