The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Oneida, VVS battle on hardwood
The last four times the Oneida and VVS basketball teams tangled, VVS walked away with wins over their arch rival.
Tuesday night, Jeff Didio’s Oneida side ended that four game losing skid with a 55-36 victory.
Jacob Vaccaro knocked down a trio of 3-pointers en route to a game-high 17 points. Teammate BenWright was right behind him with 16 points, eight of which came from the foul line.
“Two of their better games on the inside and in the paint. I thought they both rebounded extremely well,” Didio said of his bigs. “It seemed like when we needed a big hoop, Ben or Jacob were right there for us.”
Sam Donnelly led VVS in scoring with nine points on his own trio of shots from beyond the arc.
Playing without big manBailey Janowski, the Red Devils struggled to score against an Oneida defense that forced 14 turnovers and drew praise from Didio.
“I am proud of my kids defensively. That’s two straight games we have played very well defensively,” Didio said. “That is what we are really trying to preach this year. A nice win on the defensive end.”
Oneida’s size in the front court did not go unnoticed by VVS head coach Andy Cossette.
“I wasn’t dissapointed in our effort because we played hard. They were just bigger than us. Graduated two kids 6’5” last year. My biggest player sprained his ankle in the first game of the year, so we were definitely undersized,” Cossette said. “Oneida did a great job of getting the ball inside. We just couldn’t stop them down low. You cannot play 6’ against 6’5”. It doesn’t work. The kids played hard. I am happy with that.”
With the contest tied at 7-7 midway through the first, Oneida went on a 12-3 run to get some separation from the hosts.
Vaccaro fed Will Merrell for a fast break score to open the run, followed by an offensive rebound and two made foul shots by Ben. Then, Vinny Leibl found Vaccaro for a 3-pointer to push the lead to 14-7. Moments later, Leibl found John Hawthorne for a corner 3 and a 10 point lead, prompting a VVS timeout. Out of the stoppage, Phoenix Weydig splashed home a shot from beyond the arc to interrupt the Oneida run, but Vaccaro picked off a pass and took it to the hoop on VVS’ next posses-
sion to bring the visitor lead to 19-10 to close the quarter.
Neither team was able to generate much offense in the second frame of action, and Oneida carried a 27-18 advantage into the intermission.
Oneida came out firing in the second half.
Leibl fed Wright in the paint for a gimme. On the visitors’ next trip down the floor, Leibl found Ty D’Arcangelis for a 3-pointer.
A Wright offensive rebound and put-back on Oneida’s next score ballooned the visitor lead to 34-18 before Andrew Fox split a pair of free throw attempts to end the Oneida spurt at the 4:42 mark in the third quarter.
The two rivals traded baskets to close out the third quarter of action. Oneida answered a Phoenix Weydig score with a Leibl 3-ball off a D’Arcangelis assist, but Weydig answered right back with a make frombeyond the arc. Jordan Clarke found the bottom of the net for Oneida on a baseline drive, but Fox had the answer for VVSwith an offensive rebound and putback. Vaccaro found room in the paint for Oneida’s next score, but VVS had the last word in the quarter when Donnelly buried a 3-pointer.
At the end of three, Oneida held a 41-29 edge.
Hunter West opened the fourth with a bucket in the paint off an inbounds play to push the Oneida lead to 14 at 43-29 before VVS made its move to get back in the contest.
Donnelly followed a Fox hoop with another shot from downtown to cut the visitor lead to 43-34. After an Oneida travel, Bryce Palmer Eurostepped his way through the defense for another VVS score to pull within seven points, but it was as close as the hosts would get as the Oneida defense did not allow a point for the final five minutes of the contest.
“Doesn’t matter what sport it is, it gets emotional,” Didio said of taking on VVS in Verona. “VVS made a great run there at the end of the game to cut it to seven. I thought we executed a couple of set plays that built that lead back up.
Out of a VVS timeout, Leibl drew a foul in the bonus and knocked down both ends of the 1-and-1. Vaccaro knocked down a 3-pointer on Oneida’s next scoring possession to push Oneida’s lead back to double digits at 48-36 to prompt another Red Devil timeoutwith 2:32 left in the tilt. When play resumed, Wright converted an and-1 play and then added two more points off a Leibl assist the next time down the floor for a 53-36 visitor lead.
“Senior leadership,” Didio said of Leibl’s passing from the point guard position. “I thought he made some great decisions at the end of the game.”
With less than a minute to go, Vaccaro brought the Oneida crowd to its feet with a two-handed slam to put the exclamation point on a 55-36 win.
Oneida returns to action against a tough Rome Free Academy side on Friday, Dec. 7.
VVS will look to bounce back against Jordan-Elbridge on Wednesday, Dec. 6.
“We are young an inexperienced. Lost six players from last year’s team that played all the time,” Cossette said. “Now, I have two players that played a little bit, and the rest of themare all brand new. We’ll be better as the year goes on.”