Tough day for Section II A teams in Syracuse
Rams top Warriors in states for 4th straight season
The season ended at Onondaga Community College for both the Lansingburgh boys and Averill Park girls basketball teams in the NYSPHSAA Class A quarterfinals vs. Jamesville-DeWitt.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. >> The Averill Park girls basketball team was able to execute most of its game-plan against familiar foe Jamesville-DeWitt Saturday afternoon at Onondaga Community College in the New York State Public High School A regional. But the Warriors ride home afterwards may have been filled with thoughts of missed shots from close range, missed free throws and yet another loss to the Rams in the NYSPHAA regional.
Jamesville-Dewitt ended Averill Park’s post-season for the fourth straight year at this stage of the state tournament, 52-47.
“I’m proud of our kids, it was a really gutsy performance,” Averill Park coach Sean Organ said. “I think we were a little taken back in the first quarter, thinking about the game, I think we were taken back by their speed and their intensity, but by the time we started the second quarter our kids had adapted and made a little bit of a run, built momentum at the end of the second quarter with Stephanie’s shot.”
Stephanie Jankovic buried a three-pointer from the left side as time expired in the first half to pull the No. 12 state-ranked Warriors to within 26-20.
“Before I even through it up I was like ‘This is going in,’ I just kind of knew it was going in,” Jankovic said. “Then when it went in I literally surprised myself.
“I remember saying (at halftime) that this is not over, we are not quitting right now. We need to box out Meg (Hair) and everyone else on the team.”
Jankovic scored a gamehigh 25 points to lead the Warriors, establishing the fast, transition offense that was needed against the Rams.
“Transition was definitely a key for us, just pushing the ball and getting looks, drawing the foul and getting to the line definitely helped us out a lot,” Jankovic said. “We went over it in practice a lot that we needed to push the ball. They have bigs that we can beat down the court if we push it up.”
Averill Park also stuck to its plan in the first quarter to keep the ball close, work it inside, refusing to take an outside shot during the first eight minutes.
“We wanted to make a point to our kids not to settle and take quick shots or off-balanced shots,” Organ said. “We wanted to spend some time in our set. If we couldn’t get out in transition, we wanted to slow things up and force them to defend.
“They’re a momentum team, if you take quick shots and they rebound those, based on the game that we came out here to see against Whitesboro, quick shots are like turnovers.”
Jamesville-Dewitt managed a nine-point lead at the end of the first quarter, 18-9 and stretched it to as much as 11 points in the second as the Warriors could not get their shots to fall, close or mid-range.
“They’re bigs (Julia) Kellner, (Jamie) Boeheim and even (Meg) Hair, they’re going to rip and they’re going to run and you don’t want that,” Organ said. “We wanted to make a point of maybe trying to get them in foul trouble, maybe try to get one of those three great players off the floor for a little while. It did work in the second quarter, Meg Hair, got into a little bit of four trouble and that’s kind of when we started to right the ship a little bit there when she came off. I was a little disappointed we didn’t make a bigger run when she was off the floor, but it was enough to kind of keep us in the game.”
Jankovic scored from the top of the key with less than two minutes left in the half and then her heroic toss as the half expired that gave the Warriors a breath of life.
“Those kids are tough, they grinded and we had a feeling coming into this game it would be difficult to score in the half court, not that we couldn’t do it, but we didn’t think we were going to have tremendous success executing the half court because of their quickness, they’re athletic, they’re strong and they’re smart defensively,” Organ said. “Those were the things that we were concerning us.
“We felt that if we could rebound, which Mallory (Wood), Kesley (Wood), did a great job for us, Liv (Olivia Kelley) did a great job rebounding and getting out in transition, we could beat them down the floor a little bit and what started to happen.”
Averill Park was never able to pull closer than for points throughout the contest, utilizing its transition game effectively and out-rebounding the taller, longer, Rams.
“The game came down to the last three minutes, two and a-half minutes, down by four, we got three straight stops, three straight turnovers,” Organ said. “They (Jamesville-DeWitt) did a good job of pressuring the ball off of our rebounds and made it difficult to find an outlet, we turned the ball over and that was pretty much the difference in the game. They made a couple of free throws to finish us off.”
The loss had its own set of challenges, with 11 girls crying in a locker room after their season ended. Seniors, Lena Piche and Kat Stackrow, played their final high school game.
“I feel like we’re the two best teams in New York State. If they’re a No. 1, we’re a No. 2 and it’s difficult that we keep meeting each other in the regional, whether it’s the semifinal or the final,” Organ said. “I really feel like the way the game is played it’s ... two teams that are worthy of a New York State final championship game.”
Seeing the Rams for a fifth-time in six years was an accomplishment in itself.
“I don’t know how many teams in New York State can say they that they have a solid intrastate rivalry going on, but this is the fourth time in a row we’ve faced them, we’ve won one five,” Organ said. “Our kids are hungry, they wanted this game. We had a great walk through a couple of days ago, we had a good practice yesterday. As the season progressed, when you saw them the beginning of the year, we looked disinterested at times, didn’t look focused at times, we just didn’t defend the way we expected to defend.
“The last third, quarter of the season they finally grew into to team who we had expected, who we had thought, we anticipated and that’s about the time we said ‘Hey listen, we got to make sure that we take care of business, Hudson Falls, move on to Gloversville and finish off Amsterdam.”
The Warriors once again take home a regional participation plaque and a subregional championship title knowing that a majority of the squad have something to continue working towards next year.
“They wanted this game,” Organ said. “It’s not something that really spoke that much about, but they wanted it. Two great programs that meet each other in the region and someone has to advance and someone doesn’t.”