BUFFALO — It is not every day that a team that is a No. 7 seed in their sectional tournament makes the championship game.
In fact, out of eight boys basketball sectional tournaments this year only one No. 7 seed is heading to the championship game. That is until No. 7-seeded North Tonawanda had something to say about it.
North Tonawanda joins Olean as the only No. 7 seeds to make the championship game this year.
It’s also North Tonawanda’s first trip to the sectional championship game in six years.
Their journey there was a difficult one. They were going to need to win three games in six days to get there. They were going to have to pull off an upset over the No. 2-seeded Sweet Home in their gym.
They did just that to get to Buffalo State University.
But a loss in the semifinals at Buffalo State and the season is over and their wait for another sectional title game appearance lives on.
However, this year’s North Tonawanda team had other ideas. They wanted to go play for a sectional title. But first they had to get through McKinley in what was virtually a home game for the Macks.
The North Tonawanda Lumberjacks booked their spot in the Section VI AA championship with a 66-49 win over No. 6-seeded McKinley, Sunday, at Buffalo State University’s Sports Arena.
The win sends them to their first Section VI title game since 2020 where they beat West Seneca West 64-56 in the championship game.
“It means a lot. My third year with the program. We went 6-14 the first year, 11-10 last year and now, a lot of these guys like Giancola, Suitor, DeVantier were up on that 6-14 team,” North Tonawanda head coach Chris Juergens said. “So they’ve had to weather the storm of when we were a little young and a little bit down … (I) know how important this is to our community to be in this situation, especially with our girls making it as well.”
The road to get to the matchup with Orchard Park was an up and down one for the Lumberjacks.
The first quarter saw North Tonawanda go through long stretches without scoring. They took an early 6-4 lead before giving up a run to go down 10-6. Once they did end the Macks run it took them more time to fight as the game headed into the second quarter with McKinley up 14-10.
The second quarter appeared to be all McKinley in the early going as they took a 19-12 lead but then the Lumberjacks’ leading scorer Jack Giancola showed up and hit a layup to trim the deficit to 19-14. That started a run for the Lumberjacks to take a 28-26 lead into the intermission.
In the opening half, Giancola was held to six points but he would not be held down for long. In the third quarter, the senior hit a 3-pointer to tie the game up at 37 and then he scored again to tie it up at 39. That is when Giancola put the team on his back,scoring to give his team a 42-41 lead which they would never relinquish.
The fourth quarter was all Lumberjacks as they outscored McKinley 22-8 to get the 17-point win.
Giancola finished the game scoring 22 points to lead all scorers.
“He was huge. We don’t win the game without his second half,” Juergens said. “Obviously, the other guys gave him the ball and our collective effort defensively. But offensively he was huge in the second half.”
North Tonawanda had to fight through foul trouble in this one with four players having at least two fouls. That group includes two players with four fouls, Blake Suitor and Ethan DeVantier.
“It changed my game plan immensely,” Juergens said. “We have about eight guys that typically play in a game, main six-man rotation and we even went to a JV call-up who has been playing a little bit for us, number 12, Preston Loncar, who came in and gave us quality minutes. So yeah just having to adjust with the guys we had out there, just weathering the storm with the foul trouble.”
The win sends them to a date with Orchard Park at 8 p.m. on Thursday at Buffalo State.