HS BOYS BASKETBALL: CANDOR PULLS AWAY FROM A-P FOR CHOP OUT HUNGER TOURNEY WIN (December 29, 2025)

By TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
ATHENS — Candor erupted for 23 fourth-quarter points to pull away from Avoca-Prattsburgh for a 59-37 victory in the opening round of the 2025 CHOP Out Hunger Holiday Basketball Tournament here Monday.

The Coyotes’ win may have looked good on the scoreboard, but coach Nate Thomas was less than pleased with the overall performance.

“Credit to them,” he said. “They were without their best player and if he was here we would’ve lost.”

He was referring to junior guard Jaeden Crowder, who recently surpassed the 1,000-point mark. He was a member of the 2022 state championship and 2023 state semifinalist teams.

“Sometimes our guys think that we can just show up and the other team's just going to bow down because we're supposed to be good or something, and we haven't proved anything to anybody yet,” Thomas said. “We haven't won anything. There's no reason for us to walk into a gym thinking that we're going to just win the game because of the name on the front of our jersey. We have to work for every single thing that we ever have and that can't change.”

The Candor defense stifled the Titans in the first quarter as Jakobe Foster and Kellen Williamson scored five points apiece to give the Coyotes a 14-5 advantage.

Candor would build leads of 16 points in the second quarter on a Donald Makie 3-pointer, and baskets by Teagan Kwiatkowski and Jakobe Foster, but A-P started to chip away and trailed 28-17 at the half via an 8-3 run.

The Titans continued to chew into the lead in the second half, trimming it to two points, before a foul, technical foul and a 3-pointer thwarted the comeback.

Candor would score just eight points in the third period, taking a 36-31 lead into the fourth quarter. “Avoca came here and they played like they weren't going to lose. They played physical, they went after the ball, they beat us to every single 50-50 ball, they beat us to rebounds, they beat us basically on every other aspect of the game except for the final score — and our guys should be disappointed with that.

“It's my fault for not getting them to the point where they come in with a killer mindset ready to go every single game, so we will correct that and we will be better tomorrow. Whatever team we play tomorrow, if we play like we did today, we'll lose and we will be ready to go, and that's on me and it won't happen again, that's for sure.”

Foster would score 12 of his game-high 22 points in the final frame, Makie would knock down a pair of treys and Matt Smith added a three ball and a basket. Meanwhile, the defense tightened its grip, holding A-P to six points.

Makie finished with three 3-pointers, giving him 15 points. Williamson added 10 points and two treys, and Smith had six points and one trey. Kwiatkowski, Ryan Huizinga and Kyle Jants contributed one basket each.

Austen Swift and Landon White led A-P with 10 and nine points, respectively.

The Coyotes (3-1) will face Athens in the championship game Tuesday at 8 p.m.

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PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.

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