Geneseo emerges victorious in an intense season finale with Le Roy
- David Premyslovsky
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
David Premyslovsky/Staff Writer
LE ROY, N.Y. -- The Geneseo Blue Devils completed the season sweep of the Le Roy Oatkan Knights 63-56, in an intense, back-and-forth game Wednesday night that saw 12 lead changes. With the Livingston 2 Division title on the line, the play of senior guard Oren Rray, and brothers Avery and Shay Hepler propelled the Blue Devils to victory as they ended their season on a 12-game win streak.
In the first, sophomore Shay Hepler got the scoring started with a three-pointer before Le Roy went on a 10-2 run to take an early five-point lead. Geneseo answered back with a few timely baskets of their own, including another three from Hepler, to make the score 12-11 in favor of Le Roy at the end of the first.
The second quarter saw big man Aidan Weaver take over for the Oatkan Knights, scoring 10 of his game-high 23 points in the quarter as he found his stroke from the baseline. For the Blue Devils, it was senior Avery Hepler who got going with two three-pointers, while Oren Rey added a few critical buckets near the end of the quarter to give Geneseo a 29-28 lead at the break.
“We’re going to knock down shots. We’re too good of a team to not knock down shots. Keep taking good shots, don’t rush them, keep moving the ball and we’ll be fine,” said Geneseo head coach Gregg Hepler at the half on his team’s offensive play as they had to deal with Le Roy’s 2-3 zone for most of the night.
In the third quarter, the back-and-forth action continued as both the Hepler brothers were scoring from deep for the Blue Devils. For Le Roy, it was a balanced attack led by senior Grady Gilligan as seniors Matthew Hockey, Brayden Chase and Aidan Weaver scored some important buckets. For the Blue Devils, Oren Ray started to take over the game as he was scoring, facilitating and causing turnovers throughout the third. Both the Hepler brothers knocked down shots from behind the arc, Shay right out of the break and Avery towards the end of the quarter, to preserve a one-point lead for Geneseo, 47-46, heading into the fourth.
In the fourth, it was the Geneseo defense that came up clutch, holding the Otakan Knights without a field goal for the first 2:50 of the quarter and only giving up 10. Offensively, Avery Hepler got the scoring started for the Blue Devils with a three-pointer; Ray had six, and it was the layup by sophomore Nicholas Connor at the 2:39 mark which gave Geneseo a 56-55 lead they would not relinquish.
“In the first half, we came out slow, not shooting the ball well and then we figured it out. We locked in our defense and got in the right mindset,” said Ray on his team's overall performance.
“I got guys everywhere that can shoot the ball. Avery [Hepler] in the corner, Shay [Hepler] up top, Noah [Rice], we’re just going to hit shots. If they guard the perimeter, I’ll drive and hit the big guy,” added Ray on his individual play against Le Roy’s zone defense, along with spreading some praise to his teammates.
Oren Ray led the scoring for Geneseo with 19. Avery Hepler had 17, Shay Hepler scored 14, senior Cameron Caroccio finished with six, Nicholas Connor had six and Eric Hammond had one for the Blue Devils.
For the Oatkan Knights, it was Aidan Weaver leading the way with 23 points. Grady Gilligan had 14, Matthew Hockey scored six, Brayden Chase contributed five, senior Cole Tonzi had four, senior Jagger Smith and junior Jameson Zitz each added two for Le Roy.
With the win, the Blue Devils improve to 18-2 heading into sectionals. Their next game will be at home in the pre-quarterfinal round of sectionals, with their opponent TBA.
With the loss, the Oatkan Knights fall to 13-7. Despite this, they have already clinched the one-seed in the Class B1 playoffs. Their next game will be at home in the quarterfinal round of sectionals, with their opponent TBA.
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