ECS Girls and Boys Varsity Hoops Teams
ECS Girls and Boys Varsity Hoops Teams
Both Squads Wicked Hot on the Stretch Run to the Playoffs; Top Their Respective Leagues
Pictured Top (L-R) Point guard Caedmon Wyatt and Point Guard Dalayala Alexander, Pictured Bottom (L-R) Senoir Center Ryan Quinn and Senior Center Gavin Dietrich
Heading into the final week of the high school basketball regular season, both the boys and girls programs in Ellicottville continue to lead their respective leagues and look to nail down home playoff games with a strong finish to the 2022-’23 season.
By virtue of an unfortunately lopsided, 55-19 victory over the visiting Forestville Lady Hornets Friday, Feb. 3, Ellicottville Basketball Coach Tracy Rozler’s Lady Eagles remain perfect in the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association (CCAA) East 2 division, and ranked 2nd in all of Section VI Class D with only three games remaining in the 2022-’23 regular season.
The Lady Eagles sport an 11-5 record overall and their 7-0 record against league competition evokes the image of Sherman’s historic “March To The Sea,” by the way the Ellicottville girls have flattened every team in their path over the past few weeks. Six of their seven league wins have come with double-digit margins of victory - in fact, the closest any opponent has gotten to the Lady Eagles on the scoreboard was Franklinville, which only lost by eight points, 54-46, at Ellicottville Central School at the end of January.
Despite the relative youth of the roster (Ellicottville will only graduate two seniors from the hoops team this year), the girls play well as a unit on the floor.
“The core of this team has been with me since I coached JV (four years ago),” Rozler said after the Forestville game. “They know each other well and though sometimes we can show it better, we realize we are a family and we work hard for each other.”
Rozler’s team plays an unyielding, tenacious style of defense, which often leaves opponents running in circles and all but defeated by the end of the first quarter in many of their games.
The Lady Eagles are led by senior forward Allison Rowland and junior guard Dalayala Alexander, who are tops on the team in all relevant statistical categories, as well as the leaders the other girls look to for strength and direction. Rowland has scored a little over a hundred points thus far and pulled down about the same number of rebounds, but reveals her strong competitive nature by admitting she is more proud of the rebound total.
“When I get the rebound, it means I’ve out-rebounded nine other people on the floor and I’m the one who gets the ball,” Rowland said. She then went on to explain where she thinks her competitive fire might have come from by adding, “Definitely growing up with a house full of brothers, I’m not going to let anyone push me around.”
Alexander is the Lady Eagles’ floor general and the Ellicottville offense flows through her hands on every trip up the court. The junior sharpshooter’s 152 points (including 24 three-point shots) lead all scorers, and her 27 assists trail only Rowland’s total of 30 on the team. Refusing to take any credit for herself, Alexander points to her teammates for the Lady Eagles’ success thus far this season. “We’ve all played together for so long, we run our offense pretty good,” she explained. “We move it around to all five (players) on the court and work so well as a team.”
A dominant defensive force in the middle of all of it, senior center Ryah Quinn leads the team with nine blocked shots and her tally of 104 rebounds trails only Rowland’s total of 109 for the team lead. “Now that the regular season is almost over, we’ve been working hard in practice to get stronger as a team,” Quinn said after the Forestville game. “We’re determined to get a big ‘W’ to end our season.”
Only three regular season contests remain for the Lady Eagles. They’ll play host to Catt.-LV Friday, Feb. 10 and travel to Franklinville Tuesday, Feb. 14 - both of these are CCAA East 2 contests. In their final tuneup before the really important games begin, the Lady Eagles will take on a very strong Clymer squad in a non-league showdown on Friday, Feb. 17 in The Ward at ECS.
Looking towards the postseason - from Coach Rozler to each of the team’s standout players and down - the Lady Eagles are determined to learn from last season’s early playoff departure at the hands of the Pine Valley Lady Panthers.
“We learned that we have to come out strong and play as a team,” Rozler reflected. “We got a lot of fouls early and when our starters fouled out later in the game, that really hurt us.”
During the regular season for high school hoops, public high schools from Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties compete in the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association (CCAA) East and West, with schools located mainly in Chautauqua County in the West division and schools located in Cattaraugus County in the East.
In an effort to keep competition fair and travel distances minimal, the CCAA also separates schools with more athletes enrolled in a sport from schools with smaller numbers participating. For instance, the CCAA East or West 1 division includes bigger schools and the CCAA East or West 2 division would be for smaller schools. Ellicottville is considered to be in the smallest class of schools and therefore competes in the CCAA East 2 league/division.
Just when you feel like you’re getting a handle on which schools compete in the various leagues of the CCAA, it’s time to realize that all of those schools belong to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA), which is the organization that conducts the state playoff system for all sports. Come playoff time, Ellicottville is a member of Class D (smallest schools) and Section VI (Western New York region).
As for the boys, Athletic Director and Head Basketball Coach Dave McCann’s squad (9-6 overall, 7-0 league) is riding high after winning seven of their last eight games, including seven-straight league victories.
In a stunning reversal of fortune for the Eagles, the team used the Christmas recess to shake free of a dismal 2-6 start to the season, including four-straight losses going into the holiday break. McCann attributed the Eagles’ turnaround to hard work in practice and the team coming together in the face of adversity to be a stronger unit, instead of letting the losses keep them down.
“The way we were losing (by two points to Westfield), it felt like we were going to break through,” McCann said. “[The players] knew they were close. They showed flashes of what they were capable of and it encouraged them to get stronger.”
Senior center Gavin Dietrich’s 156 points (9.8 points per game average) are both tops on the team, as the Eagles’ big man continues to combine the strength and power required to play the game effectively in the paint with the sweet outside shot of a point guard.
This time a year ago, Dietrich’s season was cut short after an accident left his right foot in a cast and him watching his team play from a seat on the bench. “It feels good to be playing again,” Dietrich said of his return to the court this season. “It was a long journey back for me. I learned some valuable life lessons.” Also a defensive standout for the Eagles, the 6’-5” Dietrich leads the team in rebounds (98) and blocked shots (14).
Forward Owen Chudy has proven to be a formidable force on both sides of the ball this season. The 6-2” junior ranks second on the team in the categories of points scored (149), points per game (9.5), rebounds (84), steals (24) and blocked shots (10). The only reason Chudy is not at the top of more stats categories, is because they don’t have more stats categories than that!
Meanwhile, coach McCann’s backcourt tandem of guards, Caedon and Braylon Wyatt, is having a season reminiscent of the Old Testament - offensively, the twin brothers giveth (they have combined for 74 assists - that’s more than the next four Eagles assist totals combined) and as defenders, the seniors aggressively taketh away, with Braylon swiping the ball 22 times, and brother Caedon - sporting the hands of a close-up magician - taking the ball from opponents a jaw-dropping 47 times!
In what will likely be their final season as teammates in organized sports, the Wyatts reflected on the connection they shared, where with one look, they each knew what the other was thinking and likely to do next. “It’s been cool as friends to have the chance to play together for our senior year,” Caedon said after a recent game. Brother Braylon concurred but added, “It’ll be kinda sentimental for us at the end, though.”
As of the time this paper went to press, Ellicottville had yet to play the Eagles of North Collins in the biggest game of the regular season. Heading into their Monday, Feb. 7 showdown, Ellicottville was the No. 1-ranked team in the CCAA East 2 and winners of seven straight league games, including a 22-point torching of the No. 2-ranked Eagles of North Collins. As both teams will make the playoffs, the big takeaway for the winner of this game would probably mean a higher seed and a home playoff game.
Following the North Collins contest, Ellicottville will have three games remaining in the regular season - all of which will take place on their home hardwood, and culminating with a Feb. 16 tilt versus Class C rival, Portville, in a non-league game. Playoffs will follow soon after.