RED RAMS FAST START DOOMS WARRIORS
TROY, N. Y. » Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it. Ferris Bueller might as well have been describing the JamesvilleDeWitt Red Rams. In their 55- 41 regional victory over the Averill Park Warriors, they were pretty fast and didn’t miss all that often.
“We knew we would not be able to simulate their speed, their quickness,” Warriors head coach Sean Organ said. “They’re a deep team, they have multiple players, obviously as you saw in the game, that can knock down the outside shot, they’re quick off the ball to the paint.”
It was a tough task in keeping pace with a Red Rams squad which rolled with an efficient offensive onslaught in the first half.
“Idon’t knowwhat her percentage was, she hit a couple of big ones, a couple of momentum ones where we needed a bucket,” Red Rams head coach Rob Siechen said. “We let her shoot from anywhere. She’s a senior she’s been here many times so she knows she’s got to do that in certain situations.”
She of course being Meg Hair, who poured in 16 points, including three triples from beyond the arc.
All part of an afternoon attack which saw the Red Rams hit on 9- of- 23 from deep, closing out the first half on a 9- 0 run with three consecutive daggers from downtown.
“I think it was a tale of two halves. Overall we played really well I thought, especially in the first 16 minutes, the second 16 we knew Averill Park wasn’t going to go away, we expected them to come back and play like they did,” coach Siechen said. “We got a little tentative but I give them more credit than anything because they started pushing it, making us do things that we’re not comfortable doing.”
The Warriors did their best to slow down the tempo in the second half, attacking the rim and outscoring the Red Rams 29- 22. Yet, it’s hard to slow down when
you also need to catch up and the Red Rams seemingly had a answer for everything, even after a 7- 0 Averill Park run to close out the third quarter, cut the Jamesville-DeWitt advantage to 45-28.
“So you kind of cheat to take one thing away and they’re very quick to identify what’s being taken away, they’re really unselfish. Meg Hair just made big shots when they needed big shots,” coach Organ said. “We cannot turn the ball over the way we turned the ball over or take bad shots because with a good team they’re going to turn that into instant offense.”
Alas, it was a tough way to end another superb season.
“First off it’s an honor to even be in this game. People have to remember that most teams don’t get to play a team of this caliber. So, it was an honor to be here,” coach Organ said. “Our loss doesn’t take away from what we accomplished this year. This is our tenth section championship in 13 years. The kids battled as tough as they could in the second half. The loss doesn’t define us, the loss doesn’t define our program.”
The loss also marked the end for a quartet of seniors, Hannah Mazzeo, Lizzy Burridge, Mallory Wood and Stephanie Jankovic. A group which coach Organ couldn’t have been more proud of.
“As far as the four seniors go, Mallory and Stephanie are the two who seem to get the most notoriety and they worked hard to earn that but I got to give a big shout out to Hannah Mazzeo and Lizzy Burridge, because they did a lot of the work that just doesn’t get noticed when you’re out there on the floor. Their leadership, the way that they handled our younger players and helped them build confidence and teach them this year is a huge reason why our team was as successful as we were this year and I can’t emphasize that enough. They’re not flashy on the court but they work really, really hard. They’re not big offensive players, so they don’t get the headlines but I can tell you what they’ve done for our program is the reason why we’re here,” coach Organ said. “I had a preseason meeting with the seniors and it was evident at that moment, way back in early November before the season started that they were going to do the things that needed to be done to move us back to this game, to get back to this opportunity and they handled it, they set such a good example for our returning players. We’ll be with all four seniors forever grateful for their sacrifices and the things that they’ve done this year.”
The returning Warriors will undoubtedly look to learn from those lessons as they strive to return to this point for the sixth consecutive season next year.