Blake Beckerink and the Clymer Pirates will take on Andover-Whitesville in the NYSPHSAA Class D Far West Regional tonight at the Buffalo State Sports Arena. Photo courtesy of Steve Garvey

BUFFALO — The last time the Clymer boys basketball team captured the Section VI championship the Pirates did not advance to the Class D Far West Regionals as their season ended in their own gym due to COVID-19.

However, tonight after capturing the 11th Section VI title in program history last week, the Pirates will take on Section V champion Andover-Whitesville (21-2) at the Buffalo State Sports Arena for a spot in the state final four at 8 p.m.

“We’re excited for the opportunity,” Clymer head coach Irv King said Thursday evening. “The Clymer boys have never been to the final four of the state so we’re excited that we’ve got a shot to go play … better than not getting that chance.”

Since announcing his retirement after 33 years as the head coach of Clymer (16-6), King is looking for the perfect sendoff. He already mirrored his first year with the team in 1993 by defeating rival Sherman for the Section VI championship.

King and company would like to take things further than the 1993 team that made it to the Far West Regionals, falling to eventual state champion Clyde/Savannah 64-58. Again in 2006, Clymer fell to the eventual state champion C.G. Finney 61-34 in the Far West Regional.

“The 05-06 season was 20 years ago,” King said about the last state quarterfinal. “That year we ran into that C.G. Finney team that in 05-06 and 06-07 went through and easily won the state title both years, they were loaded.”

“We were undermanned in comparison to that group, but this year it looks like we match up really good,” King added. “I expect a really good game out there (tonight). I feel like our odds this time are much better.”

Clymer entered the Section VI tournament as the top seed and lived up to it with a pair of wins, including a dominant performance in the final. After upending Panama in the semifinals 53-46, the Pirates put on a defensive clinic against Sherman with a 41-29 win.

“The first game against Panama was honestly pretty scary,” King said about the playoff run. “We had a 17-day layoff from our last game of the year and it’s hard to feel like you’re rolling and still going. We were happy that to get through, we felt like we got our feet under us that night. Sherman I felt like we were much sharper and back into that game speed that we need going forward.”

After dispatching a pair of familiar rivals, Clymer takes on an unfamiliar opponent and that brings a unique challenge.

“(Tonight) will be a whole different thing,” King stated. “Panama, Sherman, we know each other so well. (Tonight) is a little walking into the unknown, we’ve seen them and we’ve watched a lot of game tape. It’s still different from playing them two to three times every year and seeing them in summer.”

With plenty of height down low the Pirates don’t give any easy baskets at the rim. Junior Roman Wassink measures at 6-foot-6, while both junior Elijah Mitchell and senior Carson White are 6-4.

“For years we have really been a zone team and taken pride in that,” King said about his defense. “This group with the size and length we have can make it difficult because we can step a little wider on the perimeter to guard some of those outside shooters. With the size inside we don’t give them quite as much protection some years. They challenge a lot of what comes in, so it is a very good group. All five guys are very mobile, when we’re working together and playing hard for 32 minutes we can be very tough.”

Not only does Clymer have a great defense, but the offense does not rely on just one player with several threats to put points on the board. White leads the team in scoring with 14.7 points per game, while Wassink averages 11.9, Blake Beckerink scores 9.3 and Mitchell provides another 7.1.

“You look at that as a big plus,” King said about having scoring depth. “If you want to key down to stop one, they’re all very capable of scoring. I’d say the other night against Sherman, Eli had a tough game inside but the other four guys scored and had a good night. I would expect tomorrow night to find that Eli has a big game stepping up.”

The Clymer defense will have its hands full going against an Andover-Whitesville squad that has scored over 80 points 11 times and even broke 100 points in a game earlier this season.

“We knew we’ve got to defend well and hard,” King stated. “They’ve got three guys that shoot the 3 very well and of course they have a (6-5) of their own inside to clean up around the rim on misses, to dump to when you spread. I think they have been able to all year dump down in. But we match well with them.”

The Panthers have considerable height with 6-foot-5 James Miller-Young, who averages 11 points per game, but the real stars of the show are the high-scoring junior Brody Vance, who averages a whopping 29.2 points, then junior Vince Joyce providing another 14.8 points and senior Colton Calladine with 13.5 points.

“We’re going to stand pretty even across the board, we just play very different styles,” King added about the matchup. “We want to control tempo and make people play in a half-court set. They want to run, they push 32 minutes of the game. It will be a battle of wills, who can play the tempo they want.”

Clymer will have to bring its ‘A’ game at the Buffalo State Sports Arena tonight if it hopes to slow down Andover-Whitesville for a spot in the state semifinals next weekend.

“I think our biggest strategy is just to get back and not allow easy buckets,” King said about the key to success. “We want to make them work constantly for what they score. We’ve been working on shot goes up a couple guys are retreating, not going to sniff the offensive boards for a couple of them. We just know we’ve got to play 32 minutes of no let up, but ultimately they say we want to play another week, practice another week. They’re hoping to do something that no team here has been able to do.”