Everybody in the Wolverena saw what Carlos Bradberry knew long before tip-off.
His kids were going to battle, they were going to play hard and they weren’t going to wilt in difficult moments. It’s the kind of attitude cultivated at Niagara Falls for decades.
The Wolverines came out fast and put Williamsville South on its heels, their defensive pressure causing havoc. But the Billies came back, trimming a double-digit second-half lead to one. But Niagara Falls didn’t crumble.
They responded.
The Wolverines found ways to keep their lead and closed out the win, beating Williamsville South 53-49 to win their season opener Friday in the Cataract Classic.
“I didn’t learn too much tonight because I know what I got,” Niagara Falls head coach Carlos Bradberry said. “I got a bunch of guys that are going to go out there and compete … when things are good and bad. So I didn’t really learn much about tonight but we will as we move forward.”
In a moment that could have changed the early part of the game, the Billies’ Nate Wilemski was sent to the line for two technical free throws after it was discovered that the Wolverines’ Louis Porter was written into the scorebook as wearing No. 13, but was actually wearing No. 12. However, after Wilemski hit both to bring their deficit closer at 11-7, the Wolverines were able to respond with a run to head into the second up 17-12.
The Wolverines lead stayed consistent through most of the second quarter as the hosts headed into the intermission up 35-23. During the second half, the Wolverines played with pace and speed and it appeared to be wearing on the Billies who were taking deep breaths every time they could.
“It gave us an advantage because you saw once the game slowed down they, I thought really beat up on us inside,” Bradberry said. “Physically, they were the bigger team, the stronger team. So we have to find out ways to box out better so we could get out in transition and use our speed a little bit better and set our press up. We couldn’t press in the second half because we just couldn’t school the ball.”
If that was the case, the Billies used the intermission to their advantage as they were able to bring their deficit to within single digits at 37-29. But one of the most important moments in the entire game to that point came when the Wolverines blocked a shot on one end and then hit a layup to push their lead out to 39-29 with 3:15 to go in the third quarter. But the Billies kept fighting and sent the game into the fourth quarter with the Wolverines holding onto a tight 40-38 lead.
“I think we were good,” Bradberry said. “We could have folded, the guys, they stuck together. They didn’t argue, they didn’t fight. They sort of knew if we stayed steady we would be ok. We just had to put a couple stops together.”
The Wolverines were hanging on to a 40-39 lead early in the fourth quarter when Dequarius Seaberry stopped the bleeding if only for a moment when he hit a 3-pointer to push the lead out to 43-39. The hosts followed that up with another 3 to push the lead out to 46-39, but they were facing an experienced Billies squad that would not quit and hung around for the rest of the game. But, the Wolverines did enough though and got one last steal in the dying seconds to hang on for the four-point win.
“(Seaberry) had two huge 3s within a matter of probably a minute, which I think basically won us that game,” Bradberry said. “Those two threes that he hit were huge.”
Catino Woods led the Falls with 16 points, while Tre Gayle added 12 and Jeremiah Shipp chipped in with 11. Evan Pauly led South with 12 points.
Falls hosts Nichols at 4 p.m. Saturday.