Pioneers hold off Avella for season-opening win
ROGERSVILLE – Lane Allison stepped into the forefront as West Greene’s top player as a sophomore a year ago.
Allison picked up right where he left off when the Pioneers’ 2023-24 season began on Dec. 5.
Now a junior, Allison scored a game-high 20 points, including two key free throws in the final seconds, to help West Greene hold off visiting Avella, 55-52.
“Lane is one of the best players that I’ve ever coached,” veteran Pioneers coach Jim Romanus said. “He can shoot the three, he can drive, he can do lots of things. He’s a fabulous player.”
Junior Parker Burns followed Allison with 14 points for West Greene and sophomore Matt Wassil had 13 points.
The youthful Pioneers were playing without injured junior Patrick Durbin as sophomores Darren Wright and Will Shipman filled out the starting five.
“We did what we had to do to win,” Romanus said. “All of our starters did something. We had six guys that played but one was a freshman who got in for 30 seconds. So that was the iron five in there, three sophomores and two juniors.
“I’m really proud of them. Our effort was there and we beat a good team. Avella’s got some talent. I think their coach (Miike Macik) is working them good.”
West Greene used its defense to hang on after taking a 42-34 lead into the final quarter.
Avella whittled the margin down to one with less than a minute to play and then Westley Burchianti came up with a steal for the Eagles. Avella missed three shots in the closing seconds before the Pioneers forced a turnover that wound up in the hands of Allison, who was fouled and made both shots to put the lead at three with five seconds left. The Eagles’ Bryce Wright missed a long 3-pointer at the buzzer.
“It was good that we made a stop at the end, plus Lane got the ball,” Romanus said. “It’s no secret No. 1 Wright and No. 3 Burchianti are the keys to them. When we started picking them up a little higher up, that disrupted their offense just a little bit.
“If we were going to get beat it had to be their second-tier kids, which can happen. As a coach what you try to do is take away the best players. We cheated our zone out to Wright and Burchianti. They ended up getting some shots but they weren’t wide-open looks. So we were fortunate.”
Burchianti led Avella with 17 points and Wright added 13 points with each making three 3-pointers.
The Eagles led 16-15 after the first quarter but the Pioneers surged to a 29-24 halftime advantage before pushing the gap up to eight after three quarters.
Knight scored five points and Shipman added three as both hit a 3-pointer in rounding out the scoring for West Greene.
Nate Cilia contributed seven points for Avella.