In Search Of Oz
Tuxedo Overcomes Fallsburg’s Fiery Start To Down Lady Comets In A Division V Clash As Both Teams Look To Travel Far Down The Yellow Brick Road TowardsThe Coming Section Nine Class C Tournament; Lady Tornadoes’ Pressure And Depth Take Their Heavy Toll In Second And Third Quarters
Tuxedo 65, Fallsburg 54
By RICHARD A. ROSS
Photos at: www.sportsinsights.smugmug.com
Scenes from the clash between Fallsburg and Tuxedo (clockwise) Fallsburg's Kelsey Moody scores two of her 17 points. Tuxedo forward Alex Gunderman dwarves Fallsburg's Celia Garcia. Twice during the night she simply wrested the ball away from an unwitting Lady Comet. Tuxedo's Alex Nouri scores over Fallsburg's Kelsey Moody. Celia Garcia navigates her way through traffic. Tuxedo's Kayla Pinkey looks to pass as Shanice Mack guards her. Pinkney had 11 points in the game. Fallsburg's Samantha Rivera cans a shot in the early going. Fallsburg's Sheryl Pinder looks to drive on Tuxedo's Allison Toscano. Pinder had a game-high 19 points.
FALLSBURG, NY—There they were, the Lady Comets of Fallsburg skipping merrily along in the first quarter, prancing down The Yellow Brick Road on their way to the wonderful Land of Oz, happily pondering a wizard of a win over daunting Tuxedo, when all of a sudden they encountered a severe change of weather.
One moment Fallsburg was up 17-8 and then, in what seemed like a mere instant, they were upended, turning the ball over with startling regularity, failing to get the ball inbounds and missing lay ups and taking low percentage shots.
In the eye of the storm: Tuxedo Coach Dave Powers implores his team to swirl into action after a first quarter miasma. Powers is also at the center of the maelstrom about the question of whether private schools should be included in public school tournaments. His recent narrative calls for a balanced array of teams in the section. That balance as he sees it is currently tilted heavily in favor of private schools with their ability to draw players from a wider geographic area.
Swirled into action by the stormy words of their Coach Dave Powers, the Lady Tornadoes Twister Sisters had descended on Fallsburg with devastating force and pressure and with that updraft they succeeded in cutting a swath through Fallsburg’s previously calm territory.
Shaking off a lethargic start that Powers attributed to perhaps taking talented Fallsburg a bit too lightly, Tuxedo used an aggressive attack on offense and great pressure and quick reflexes on defense, thereby showing why the red storm is a serious threat in the coming Class C tournament.
The details of the climate change that unfolded on the Fallsburg floor are intriguing not just in terms of understanding the dynamics of this game, but also as a means to better fathom what may lie ahead for both squads as they seek to find a way over the rainbow towards a hoped-for Section Nine happy ending.
Truth be told, that journey is a virtual minefield, far more treacherous than the witches, talking trees and flying monkeys of the iconic story from which this piece is freely borrowing its metaphoric color.
It’s going to take more than a wave of Glinda’s magic wand and a pair of red slippers to carry a local team home to victory this season. Much more than it took Tuxedo to win in 2010 or Tri-Valley to sail aloft to glory a year ago.
Face it, considering the likes of John A. Coleman Catholic waiting at the end of the Class C yellow brick road, teams like Tuxedo, Tri-Valley, Fallsburg and Millbrook have to look at the geography and mutter, “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.” They’re right. For it will surely take more than a splash of basketball prowess to cause Coleman to melt away.
"You don't tug on Superman's cape; You don't spit into the wind.. You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and you don't mess around with Pin." Sheryl Pinder that is by leaving her this open for three pointers. Lines borrowed fro the Jim Croce Song "You Don't Mess Around With Jim."
The subject of whether private schools like John A. Coleman Catholic, John S. Burke Catholic, Chapel Field and Family School belong in public school tournaments like the Section Nine championships or the NYSPHSAA quests for glory is an ongoing conundrum.
Powers recently penned a plea for balance on the Basketball Coaches Association of NY website arguing convincingly that the privates enjoy an unfair advantage and calling for a re-examination of the issue. Powers references the way it’s handled in places like Section Six which has barred privates from its tourney, or the State of New Jersey which offers an alternative track for privates in tournament play.
Hailing from NYC where schools like Burke and Coleman play in the CHSAA (Catholic High School Athletic Association) or non-religious privates play in the IASAA (Independent Schools Athletic Association) both of which propel their winners to the Federation Championships and not the NYSPHSAA games, I have my own take on the matter.
Those sentiments have been made stronger yet by my annual attendance at the NYSPHSA Boys Basketball Championships at Glens Falls. Nowadays, privates and Charter Schools are prevalent there and often successful, calling into question the tournament’s very name itself..New York State PUBLIC High School Athletic Association Championships.
I could hold forth on this in greater detail and I will at some point in the future, understanding full well that I’m taking myself out of the safety zone of journalistic neutrality into the fire zone of controversy. Let the chips fall where they may. I make my livelihood as a photographer, not as a writer and unlike newspapers who have to safeguard their readership, I am free from such concerns or constraints.
Tornadoes' driving force: Alex Gunderman. She scored a team-high 16 points and marshaled four steals.
No doubt, the looming presence of Coleman is very much on the mind of Powers this year, now that his team is back in Class C from its one-year hiatus up in Class B and Coleman has been moved up to Class C by Section Nine.
Powers hopes to avoid the Lady Statesmen in the opening round by securing a high enough seed that will put his tean on the opposite side of the bracket. Undefeated Tri-Valley has the same idea in mind and when the two teams meet for their rematch slated for Grahamsville on February 9, they may well be still jockeying for the number two seed though T-V holds the edge with a better overall record and a win in hand over Tuxedo.
Two or three, it probably doesn’t matter. They’re apt to play each other first and only the winner will have to try and legislate a win over the Lady Statesmen. Fallsburg may not have that luxury.
Our story now returns to the present. Tuxedo came in with an 8-4 record and 5-1 in league play. Add another to both win columns with this victory. The Tornadoes already had a sectional berth clinched by dint of its league mark. Its losses were to Class AA Warwick and Middletown, a home league defeat to Tri-Valley and a surprising shortfall against Livingston Manor. A big win over Chester kept their league loss total to one and assured an early avoidance of Coleman.
At 9-5 prior to this loss, the Lady Comets also had already punched their ticket to the dance though. This loss made them 9-6 (3-5 OCIAA). As a likely #4 or #5 seed in the coming tourney, they could be up against Millbrook perhaps. Time will tell.
Fallsburg’s Shanice Mack controlled the opening tip versus Tuxedo’s Kayla Pinkney but the Comets proceeded to turn the ball over. Pinkney drew first blood with a shot from the wing but Pinder answered with two treys to author a 6-2 lead. Tuxedo countered with a basket by Alex Nouri. The Tornadoes began with a three-two zone defense which morphed to a box and one to better shield against Pinder on the perimenter.
Shanice Mack rises up for two of her ten points in the game.
A bucket by Fallsburg’s Samantha Rivera made it 8-4. The Comets would evince some of their best basketball as they put good pressure on the ball to run off a 9-4 run to close out the quarter. A dicey pass from Pinder to Mack across the lane would make it 16-6 enroute to the 17-8 Comets’ lead at the end of the frame.
Pinder accounted for eight of those points in the opening period. Mack had four, Rivera had two and Celia Garcia had three. Tuxedo got lone baskets from Alex Gunderman, Alex Nouri, Gabbe Nouri and Kayla Pinkney.
Late in the first quarter Powers platooned his team by pulling all five starters and sending in a second unit. He was looking for a spark and a chance to provide some rest for his squad which would have to make three long trips in four days including a next-night’s jaunt to Sullivan West and a trip to Tri-Valley two days after.
Fallsburg with its thin bench mostly populated with vastly inexperienced players had no such luxury. The disparity in depth would manifest itself strongly in the third quarter.
Tuxedo amassed four fouls in the quarter, while Fallsburg committed none. That was part of Powers’ time-out concerns as he implored his team to take a much more aggressive stance for the coming second quarter.
Coming out in full court pressure exposed Fallsburg’s Achille’s heal. Having turned the ball over only thre times in the opening quarter to Tuxedo’s five, the polarity was about to shift radically. In the second quarter, Tuxedo outscored Fallsburg 18-8 to marshal a 26-all tie at the break.
Tuxedo inbounded to start the second quarter as Pinder fouled Gunderman who canned the first two Tuxedo free throws. Allison Toscano scored and drew a foul from Moody as she hit one from the stripe. Fallsburg’s lead was melting quickly.
Two early Fallsburg turnovers were made worse by a failure to execute offensive sets. Trying to drive through traffic and forcing up shots doesn’t get it done. Fallsburg couldn’t get the inbounds pass, a preview of a repetitive fault line that Tuxedo proceeded to exploit as the Comets committed three consecutive turnovers sandwiched around a missed lay up.
Pinder picked up her second foul trying to navigate yet another nearly muffed inbounds pass. With 5:30 to go Pinkney gave Tuxedo its first lead but Pinder got it right back as the Lady Comets led 19-18. Fallsburg was deploying a full court press against Tuxedo but Powers’ well-schooled team passed easily over the top affording them numbers at the other end. Only rarely did the press succeed in disrupting Tuxedo’s flow.
Tuxedo's Kayla Pinkey fires in the first two points of the game. She ended up with 11 on the night.
Pinder made it through traffic to score for the 21-18 lead but Tuxedo would close the quarter with an 8-5 advantage to knot the game at 26-apiece by halftime. An unnecessary foul by Mack with five seconds left allowed Gunderman to score the tying points. In that second quarter Fallsburg committed11 turnovers to Tuxedo’s four.
The Comets’ nine points in the stanza came via four from Pinder, two from Kelsey Moody and three of four free throws from Garcia. Ten of Tuxedo’s 18 in the frame came Gunderman. That included six-of-eight from the line. Allison Toscano scored three points in the quarter, while Pinkney and Erin Murphy had two points apiece. Alex Nouri added one from the stripe.
The tie was short lived as the third quarter got underway. Tuxedo morphed again into a one-three-one defense constantly giving Fallsburg different looks.
Gunderman gave Tuxedo the lead. Tuxedo continued to press Fallsburg from the inbounds line which forced yet another turnover. Mack hit one from the corner to help the Comets pull within one and a give and go from Garcia to Moody put Fallsburg briefly back on top 30-29 at the early juncture. But from here on out havoc was the word as Tuxedo authored a 19-3 run to close the quarter up 48-33. Tuxedo had outscored Fallsburg 22-7 in the lethal third stanza. Fallsburg had committed another six turnovers to Tuxedo’s two.
In that third quarter, five of Fallsburg’s seven points came from Moody and two came from Mack. Tuxedo got six from Pinkney, five from Alexandria Sabarese, three from Murphy, two from Alex Nouri, Gunderman, and Cori DiLisi.
Part of Tuxedo’s scoring landslide featured back door cutters who slashed to easy buckets with no weak side help. Missed passes led to steals and layups including one from Murphy. A trey from Pinkney widened the gap to eight at 38-30. Fatique caused Fallsburg to close late and commit fouls sending Tuxedo to the line for eight attempts in the quarter, of which they only made four. Pinkney, to her credit canned three-of-four. By night’s end Tuxedo was 13-for-23, a rather lackluster 56% from the stripe.
Fallsburg would net 14-of-22 for a better showing at 63.6% by night’s end.
Fallsburg regained its initiative in the fourth quarter as it scored 22 though it was Toscano who got the first bucket. Moody answered back as the Comets trailed 50-35. That lead would soon diminish and get as narrow as seven when Fallsburg committed a backcourt violation off an inbounds pass that would provide the final dagger. The unfortunate play was a product of inexperience with the wrong player taking the ball of the inbounds pass.
Dorothy dreams of traveling "Over the Rainbow." No doubt, Tuxedo and Fallsburg dream of doing the same by reaching the nirvana of a Section Nine title. Though many believe that is impossible with the likes of Coleman waiting, the mantra is in the song, "If birds fly over the rainbow, why then oh why can't I?"
Technical fouls were assessed against both teams causing a momentary lull in the action while players went to the line. Fallsburg ended the sequence by inbounding the ball trailing 59-44 with 3:14 to go. A Garcia steal and bucket, and a Pinder to Moody assist made it 59-50 with 2:25 to go. Fallsburg needed a stop but Sabarese got an easy lay up to make it 61-50. Moody made two from the stripe to make it 61-52.
After a Tuxedo miss Pinder hit two from the stripe to make it 61-54. Gunderman committed a foul that gave the Comets the ball but freshman Diana Presti dribbled it into the backcourt. Tuxedo scored the final four points for the 65-54 victory.
To their credit, Fallsburg had committed only three turnovers in the final quarter, bringing their nightly total to 21. Tuxedo had three in the stanza for a total of 14 on the night.
Gunderman led Tuxedo with 16 points. Toscano had 13 and Pinkney scored 11.
Pinder had 19 for Fallsburg and Moody had 17.
Alex Nouri led Tuxedo (9-4, 6-1 OCIAA) with four rebounds, seven steals and four assists. Gunderman had four rebounds and three steals. Toscano had four steals. Pinkney had seven assists.
Moody had 14 rebounds for Fallsburg 9-6 (3-5 OCIAA); Mack had 11. Garcia had eight steals and Pinder had seven.
Powers shared is observations thusly: “We sometimes start slow. I don’t know if we didn’t take Fallsburg seriously because in the past they haven’t been as good as they are now. They’re a nice team. This is the first time we’ve played them this year. I don’t know if it’s the fact that it’s the Monday after the Super Bowl but I went to my bench early and they gave us a spark,” he noted.
“We knew we had to press and to keep Sheryl Pinder in front of us. I thought Allison Toscano and Cori DiLisi did a great job in that respect,” he averred. Powers talked about the need to platoon his players to get valuable minutes for his kids off the bench. “We’re pretty athletic and I think we wear down teams like this,” he observed.
“I think they only played seven and in that third quarter that’s when it really took its toll. Powers commended the play of his entire team, citing Gunderman, Pinkney, Alex Nouri and Toscano specifically.
Using his bench players was an attempt to keep what he called, “a semblance of fresh legs,” for the key match up with Tri-Valley on February 10.
“We’ll look to take care of business in league games. We’ll see Fallsburg at home and also play Florida he noted, in addition to the coming clash with the Lady Bears. It was Tri-Valley that Tuxedo vanquished in the 2010 Section Nine finals at Mount St. Mary College. Last year, T-V beat Millbrook for the honors.
Fallsburg Coach Daniel Redmond knew what the trouble was in this one. “We couldn’t handle the press. We fell apart at times with the press..terrible turnovers. But if you take away those turnovers we’re right in the game. Depth wore us down tonight. I keep my same four out there and sub in a different fifth person,” he offered. Fallsburg just acquired a big weapon in Nyasia Blakney who transferred in from Monticello. “I’m hoping with Nyasia in there we’ll have more experience out there. We had a nice run going in the fourth quarter with a solid man defense,” he said.
Referencing that final miscue, Redmond said, “I wanted the ball in Sheryl’s hands then. Usually when she has it she can make good things happen. She’s the leader of our team. I’m happy given the fact that when I started coaching four years ago, Tuxedo beat us 62-7.”
Times have changed. Fallsburg is no longer a group of Munchkins. Both teams are looking to sing “Ding Dong, the witch is dead,” in the coming Sectionals, but which witch is which? That we’ll have to wait to find out?
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