Avella enjoying best boys basketball season in 15 years
AVELLA – After the Avella boys basketball team finished off a 69-50 win Tuesday night against Aquinas Academy on Senior Night, the people in attendance filed out of the packed grandstands and onto the gym floor.
Some took pictures, others shot some hoops, and some just stood around and chatted, while Alabama’s Dixieland Delight played over the loudspeakers on repeat.
It’s almost like nobody wanted to leave. They all were soaking up as much of the joy that they could.
One can hardly blame them.
It’s the best Avella boys basketball season in 15 years.
“We’ve been working hard and practicing all year for these moments,” Avella junior center Cam Ullom said.
The Eagles are 16-4 overall and 7-2 in Class A Section 1 play entering tonight’s finale at Beaver County Christian and still have a shot to win the program’s first section title since 2011.
If Neighborhood Academy loses to Aquinas Academy tonight or Summit Academy on Saturday and the Eagles take care of their own business, then they’ll be section champs.
“I point up to that banner every day and tell them we need to get a 2026 up there,” Avella coach Mike Macik said about the boys basketball section title banner that hangs above the entrance to the home locker room. “When they get older, they can bring their kids here and tell them that was their team.”
Avella hasn’t had a winning season since that 2011 section title and have only reached 10 wins twice since the last section title.
One of those was last year when they went 10-12, which provided the foundation for this season.
Having the experience of eight seniors is certainly a plus.
The eight seniors are Bryce Wright, Alex Brandenburg, Cody Clegg, Nate Cilia, Brayden Fuller, Cody Day, Rylan Bell and Brayden Davis.
Wright surpassed 1,000 points this year and is a three-sport standout. He’s headed to Bethany to play college baseball. Wright had 14 points and 10 rebounds in the win over Aquinas Academy. Fuller scored 12 points and Bell had 11. Ullom scored 13.
Fuller achieved a triple-double with 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds in a win against Cornell last week.
Add in Ullom, who Macik joked is an “honorary senior”, because he’s played with the others so long and it’s a group that has come together very well.
“I had these guys for the first time in sixth grade and I knew this year was coming,” Macik said. “I didn’t know we’d be 16-4 and have a chance to win a section, but I’ll take it.”
Fuller knew a long time ago that this team had a chance to do something special.
“In second grade we all started playing together for the first time and we all realized we were good,” Fuller said. “We said ‘Wait until our senior year.’ We set some big goals and we want that section championship. We know we have something special.”
The Eagles showed mettle in putting Tuesday’s game away. It was a six-point game entering the fourth quarter, but Avella went on an 18-0 run. Even when Aquinas Academy called timeout to try and slow the momentum, the Eagles kept pouring it on.
“At the end of the third quarter Coach (Macik) told us not to let off the gas,” Fuller said. “There’s been moments where we have let off the gas, but this time we kept going and went on that run.”
Another streak the Eagles are hoping to break is a playoff drought that goes back to 2007. Their last win was a 44-41 overtime triumph over Duquesne. It was the last boys high school basketball game in Duquesne history. Duquesne closed at the end of the school year and became part of the West Mifflin Area School District.
But these Eagles are hoping for more than just one playoff win. They have set lofty goals and it’s hard to blame them with how well things have gone to this point.
“We want to go to the “Pete” (Petersen Events Center for the WPIAL finals) and then we’re going to states and we want to make as long of a run as we can,” Wright said.