Williamsville South overcomes rival Amherst to reclaim sectional crown, Olean wins Class A2

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — “It’s a great day to be a Bille,” coach Mike Trzybinski exclaimed with a mix of joy, appreciation, relief and affirmed belief Friday night after his Williamsville South boys basketball came back to beat Amherst in the Section VI Class A1 final at Buffalo State Sports Arena.

Having lost the past seven matchups with their Main Street rivals, including last year’s A2 final by one basket, the Billies broke through with an inspiring rally in the middle quarters and excellent execution down the stretch to win 76-71 and secure the school’s first sectional title since 2016.

“We had this dream the whole season,” said sophomore guard Nate Wilemski, who scored 20 of his career-high 25 points in the second half. “At the beginning of the season, we had these cards we wrote down our goals. This was the main one. We made it happen, and it’s a great feeling.”

Wilemski made a single free throw in the regular season meeting Amherst won 65-56. In the playoff rematch, the slinky guard sank six down the stretch as the Billies went 16 for 16 from the line ward off a late charge from the defending champions.

“It shows how much we’ve grown as a team and as individual players,” Wilemski said. “It was hard. It wasn’t easy. But it was expected.”

Trzybinski, in his sixth season on the Billies bench, was proudly amazed by his team’s perfect foul shooting in a pressure-packed atmosphere.

“To step up in the pinnacle, the Madison Square Garden of Western New York basketball, I can’t say enough,” Trzybinski said. “It’s the clutch gene.”

Wilemski scored 12 of his points during a third quarter when Williamsville South flipped 36-31 deficit into a 52-47 advantage when Wilemski fed Carter Lampke for a long 3-pointer at the third quarter horn.

“He’s such a goofy kid,” the coach said about Wilemski. “But he’s a killer. He loves to play.”

Olean uses strength of second half to win Class A2 title

After a back-and-forth first half, the Olean Huskies used key baskets in the second half to take down Depew 72-59 in the Class A2 title game on Saturday afternoon.

Olean led by just one in the closing seconds of the first half, but the momentum began to go in favor of the Huskies with three off the hands of Caedyn Tingley with two seconds on the clock extended the lead from one to four at the break.

It was more of that in the third quarter, with the Olean defense holding Depew to just three points in the first six-plus minutes of the third to extend the lead to as many as 12. Depew did score seven of the final 10 points of the third quarter, but another three from Tingley that beat the buzzer made the lead eight at the end of the stanza.

“What happened was that they hit some big shots that we matched, and I thought that was huge,” Olean coach Tim Kolasinski said. “To see my guys and to see how far we’ve come this season, to not get down when something goes against us or somebody else hits a big shot, just to have the confidence to come back down and hit a shot themselves.”

Sophomore Mykel Rivera was the one who hit those big shots the most often for the Huskies. Rivera finished with a game-high 25 points and hit four three-pointers along the way.

“We’ve had these types of games before, as in, teams cut it short and we end up letting up,” Rivera said. “Coach was telling us we’ve been here before. This is a big thing for us in the playoffs because we’ve gone through this before, so I’d say we just stuck to it.”

Tingley finished the afternoon with 18 points. Depew was led by 15 points from Tyler Pagano, all of them coming from behind the three-point arc.

It hands Olean its second sectional title in three years, and it also became the final game for Depew head coach Larry Jones, who announced his retirement after more than 40 years with the Depew basketball program, including the past 22 as head coach.

“You’re fortunate when in a career you find a place that you can call home for that long,” Jones said. “I found a place where they accepted me, I love the kids, I was fortunate. I was in the elementary building, so I met every one of these kids when they were 5. So the relationships are so good.”

Williamsville South and Olean will now face-off in the Class A cross-over game on Tuesday at Buffalo State for a bid to the state tournament.

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Jonah Bronstein joined the WIVB squad in 2022 as a digital sports reporter. The Buffalonian has covered the Bills, Sabres, Bandits, Bisons, colleges, high schools and other notable sporting events in Western New York since 2005, for publications including The Associated Press, The Buffalo News, and Niagara Gazette. Read more of his work here .

Aidan Joly joined the News 4 staff in 2022. He is a graduate of Canisius College. You can see more of his work here .