SECTION IV BOYS BASKETBALL: EARLY SCORING SURGES SET STAGE FOR CANDOR PLAYOFF VICTORY (February 25, 2026)
By TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
CANDOR — The Candor boys basketball team took advantage of a trio of scoring bursts to defeat a scrappy group from Groton, 58-44, in the first round of the Section IV Class C playoffs here Wednesday evening.
With the Red Hawks leading, 3-2, Matthew Smith gave Candor the lead for good with a 3-pointer and ignited a seven-point run. Donald Makie followed with back-to-back baskets, the latter on a fast break pass from Jakobe Foster to make it 9-3.
Groton’s Lane Darling broke up the run with a bucket, but Foster drained a pair of free throws, Ryan Huizinga scored off a feed from Foster and Makie canned a trey during an 8-0 run that pushed the Coyotes’ advantage to 16-5 midway through the first quarter.
The Red Hawks copied Candor and responded with an 8-0 run of their own, narrowing the gap to 16-13.
“We knew they were going to come at us,” coach Nate Thomas said. “They played us tough when we were at their place. They got one of their starters back, who's been missing all season, who's an impact player, the Brockway kid, so we knew they were going to bring it a little bit more than they brought it at their place.
“Mike (Holl) did a good job of getting his kids ready to play. Our guys were ready to play as well, though. We came out early and we did the things that we wanted to do, and then we missed a few assignments, and they scored the ball as they should, as scorers do.
“We just have to realize, moving forward, we can't miss assignments. We have to pay attention to those small details, and it's got to be for 32 straight minutes and I told the guys in the locker room, I said, ‘it's never a bad thing to win a sectional game. Anytime that you win and you move on, it's a good thing.’ So, we beat a good team tonight, and we get to go play (Union) Springs on Saturday.”
Foster and Groton’s Kameron McClain swapped buckets, then the Coyotes closed out the period with another 8-0 run.
It started with a Makie free throw, followed by a Foster free throw, a Ben Sheridan 3-pointer and capped by Makie’s conventional 3-point play.
The scoring surge continued in the second quarter with a Teagan Kwiatkowski steal and basket, and a Foster field goal to double up the score, 30-15. Another Foster basket made it 32-15, but the Red Hawks scored eight of the next 10 points, to trim the lead to 34-23.
Foster hit one from beyond the arc with 46 seconds remaining in the half to give Candor a 37-23 lead at the break.
The Coyotes extended their lead to 43-25 on a pair of Foster free throws, and consecutive baskets by Makie and Smith, but six points from McClain helped Groton cut the Candor advantage back to 43-29.
Back-to-back buckets from Foster followed by a Makie free throw stretched the lead to 48-29. Makie slipped a fast break basket between five Groton points to bring the score to 50-34 heading into the final frame.
The Red Hawks never got closer than 14 in the fourth quarter, trailing 50-36, 52-38, 56-40 and 58-44 while the Coyotes led by as much as 18 at 56-38 with 5:34 on the clock.
Foster finished with a double-double, scoring 22 points and pulling down 14 rebounds. He went 5-for-6 at the free throw line, dished out eight assists and snagged a pair of steals. Makie hit for 20 points, and added two assists, a steal and a rebound.
Smith had five points, three boards, a steal and an assist; Huizinga added four points, eight boards, two blocks and an assist; Kwiatkowski chipped in with four points, four rebounds, two steals and one assist; Sheridan added a 3-pointer and three rebounds; and Kyle Jantz tacked on two rebounds, two assists and a steal.
McClain paced Groton with 19 points, including two threes and a 5-for-5 effort at the charity stripe. Darling and Colin Brockway added nine and eight points, respectively.
The Candor at Union Springs quarterfinal clash should be a thriller. The Coyotes won the regular season battle, but the Wolves took the rematch in the IAC Small School championship game last week.
As for the league championship game, “Some of that was Springs and what they did to us, and they had a really good game,” Thomas said. “We won parts of the game, but you can't win parts of the game. It's thirty-two minutes.
“We know it's going to be a dogfight. We beat them in triple overtime at our place and then lost to them by 11. We’ve got to go to their place. It's going to be a tough place to play, but it'll be exciting. It's something that we've worked for. Our guys are going to be prepared, and hopefully, we come out with an intensity that we had for the last three quarters the last time we played them.”
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IN PHOTO 1: Ryan Huizinga. IN TOP PHOTO: Donald Makie (1) and Jakobe Foster. … PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
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