Batavia’s big men pave way to 78-41 victory over Marmion at Ken Peddy Windmill City Classic

BATAVIA — It was just one of those days where everything went right for Batavia’s Jax Abalos.

With the clock winding down at the end of the second quarter, the Batavia senior forward found himself on the receiving end of an inbound pass and right near the 3-point line.

So he stepped behind the arc, jumped up, and let the ball fly as the clock neared 0.0.

The result? Nothing but net.

“Coach is always talking about how we don’t want to let the other team get a shot at the half,” said Abalos, a Cornell commit. “When we do it, it’s like a shot in the arm. You just get it to another level, and come into the third quarter boosted and ready to go.”

Abalos’s 3-pointer secured a double-double for the night, as he finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Bulldogs to a 78-41 victory over Marmion during Day 3 of the Ken Peddy Windmill City Classic.

The shot at the buzzer ended up putting the Bulldogs up 44-19, marking the end of a quarter where they went on a 22-5 run.

“There was just a lot of good things that went well for us,” Bulldogs coach Jim Nazos said. “Shooting well helps everything, but I think we were in the right spot defensively most of the time. Marmion got some good looks, but they were contested. But it’s a good win while we’re putting ourselves together here.”

Alongside Abalos, senior forward Payton Wolff set the pace for the Bulldogs in the first half, putting up 16 points in the game, all of them coming in the first half.

“Payton was kind of our secondary guy last year, who didn’t see the floor a lot because we had a lot of seniors,” Nazos said. “He’s worked extremely hard over the summer and the fall. And I think everybody knows about Abalos and how he makes a lot of plays for us. So I’m happy for those guys.”

Batavia (2-0) found a lot of success in their rebounding game both on offense and defense. The Bulldogs finished the night out-rebounding the Cadets 41-15.

“In practice, we really emphasize securing the rebounds, going to get the ball and playing hard every time,” Abalos said. “So getting and those second-chance points is definitely a huge game-changer for us.”

Marmion (2-1) suffered its first loss of the season. Marmion coach Joe Piekarz said that he felt that his young team was just outpaced for most of the night.

“The game was just going too fast for us tonight,” Piekarz said. “We have a lot of young guys out here who are getting their first varsity experience. This was our first real test against a quality program like Batavia, where we knew we were going to have to speed everything up, but it was just going way too fast for us.”

Piekarz said he saw some flashes of brilliance like from sophomore Dave Malley, who led the team with six points to go with two assists and three steals. Junior Ali Tharwani also had six points for the Cadets.

“That’s what’s going to happen with a team like this,” Piekarz said. “We’re going to have some good flashes, and we’re going to have some that aren’t. We just have to remind ourselves that it’s only Game 3 of 31.”