Blazers buried in Fed finale
Champs upstaged upstate
ALBANY — Ed Grezinsky was faced with what most would call an impossible task — stopping Breanna Stewart.
Grezinsky had done it before, when his Bergtraum team beat Stewart and Cicero-north Syracuse in the Federation tournament last season.
But now, Stewart is a year older and even better than she was then. The top college recruit in the nation, Stewart was also coming off a dominant performance against supposed tournament favorite Nazareth in the semifinals.
“There isn’t really a good strategy (to stop Stewart),” Cicero-north teammate Sarah Bowles said.
Still, Grezinsky tried, and to a certain degree, he succeeded. Stewart, a 6-4 Uconn-bound senior, scored a relatively tame total of 22 points against a defense that constantly double-teamed her, and sometimes included a third defender on her side. But Cicero-north still won, beating the PSAL’S 14-time defending champion, 60-28, at the Times Union Center.
In order for Bergtraum’s defensive strategy against Stewart to have been most effective, the Blazers’ offense needed to work, too, and the rest of the Northstars’ shooters would have to be off. But none of that happened, and Cicero-north became the first non-city team to win a girls Class AA Federation title since 2001.
Bergtraum became the second straight city team to be dominated by Stewart, who had 42 points, 23 rebounds and six blocks in a semifinal win over Nazareth on Saturday.
“Defensively, I thought we did a pretty good job,” Grezinsky said. “We gave up 60 points. If I knew before the game, I’d have taken that.”
Cicero-north hurt the Blazers with its ability to strike quickly, something that Grezinsky said took his team “out of our rhythm.” The Lady Blazers made just 13% of their shots, including only two of 18 threepoint attempts.
In addition to her 22 points, Stewart had 15 rebounds and seven blocks. She did not miss a free throw for the entire tournament.
But Cicero-north’s balance made things tough on the Blazers, too. The performance of shooters like Bowles and Brittany Paul allowed the Northstars to keep its offense rolling even when Stewart was swamped by defenders.
When the ball was kicked out to the Northstars’ supporting cast, Grezinsky repeatedly told his girls to stick with Stewart and not allow the ball to be thrown back down to her.
“Don't help!” Grezinsky often yelled, allowing the outside shooters to take their shots.
Unfortunately for Bergtraum, Cicero North made more than enough uncontested buckets.
“Everyone on our team can knock down shots,” Stewart said.
Bowles came through with two big buckets at the end of the second quarter and finished with 14 points. Brittany Paul added 13 points.
Should the Lady Blazers make it back to Albany next season, at least they won’t have to worry about Stewart, whose 7-foot wingspan will now be a problem for Big East teams to deal with.