Open Fire
Basketball Action Ignites At Chester’s Sixth Annual Hambletonian Classic and S.S. Seward’s Spartan Invitational Tournaments; Chester Girls and Fallsburg Boys Advance To Finals; Seward Downs Liberty In Consolation Game Of Spartan Tourney Won By Millbrook
Girls: Chester 42, Fallsburg 23; Eldred 32, Sullivan West 22; Liberty 28, S.S. Seward 23
Boys: Fallsburg 61, Chester 47; S.S. Seward 55, Liberty 39
By RICHARD A. ROSS
Scenes from a pair of vibrant tournament venues. Left side clockwise: Chester's Lawrence Young looks to dribble around Fallsburg's Rakkir Watson in the early going. Fallsburg's Michael Robinson sinks a free throw as part of his 15-point contribution to the Comets' win over Chester. Fallsburg players gather in a pre-game spirited ritual. Fallsburg's Paige Seletsky rises up for two points. Chester's Mardelle Jean dribbles as she is defended by Fallsburg's Celia Garcia. Right Side clockwise: Sewards Shawn Howells and Anthony Bailey receive the plaque for the Spartans' third place in the tournament. Liberty's Joe Franke rises to the rim. Seward guard Kevin Smith brings the ball up the floor. Smith led all players with 19 points in the win over Liberty. Liberty's Eddie Byrd soars aloft to receive a pass. Byrd was named to the All-Tournament team.
ORANGE COUNTY, NY—It’s only early December but the rock is already rolling as it did at a pair of basketball tournaments at Chester and S.S. Seward. These tourneys featured a number of area teams anxious to throw their hats in the ring as Section Nine contenders in the crowded and talented fields of Class B and Class C.
When it comes to hardwood encounters, it’s where you finish by the end of the season that matters. By that time, these early clashes will be a distant memory but that said, every game in an 18-game regular season schedule matters.
To some, the fiery March games of the Section Nine tournament may seem light years away but truth be told, the basketball season goes by in a New York minute and these early games while providing great game experience also count in teams’ records, especially for those who will need to rely on achieving at least a .500 record overall in order to qualify for sectionals.
Boys Action
Intensity was far from lacking in the Sixth Annual Chester Hambletonian Classic tournament which came right on the heels of the Walton Tournament that had featured the participation of both Fallsburg and Sullivan West. That first week encounter had yielded mixed results for the Class C Comets as well as for the Class B Bulldog boys. Fallsburg lost a 51-49 squeaker to Walton in the opening round of that tourney before edging Sullivan West 61-57 in the Consolation Game.
Sullivan West (0-2) had lost the opening game to Unatego by the score of 55-35 and was anxious to get its first win of the season at the Chester tourney as it got set to face Chapel Field early on December 3. The Bulldogs prevailed against the Lions 50-34 to match their win total from the 2010-11 campaign. They were paced by 12 points from E.J. Franskevicz. They move on to face Fallsburg (2-1) in the tournament title game next weekend in a rematch of their encounter at the Walton Tourney.
Fallsburg returns its entire team minus Russell Corley who is sidelined due to a late season football injury. A year ago Corley suffered a fracture to a bone in his face at this very same tournament so once again, the Comets will have to be without him for an indeterminate amount of time.
The Comets jumped on Chester from the get go as they went on to an impressive 61-37 win over one of their Division V rivals. Braiden DeGraw led all scorers with 27 points and Michael Robinson had 15. Chester’s Lawrence Young had 12 points for the (0-1) Hambletonians who will host Chapel Field in the Consolation Game next weekend.
Robinson had poured in 30 against Sullivan West at Walton to go along with 12 rebounds. In that win he was assisted by guard Rakkir Watson who had 12.
Leaving the Hambletonian Tournament after watching the entire game between the Chester and Fallsburg girls and the first quarter of the boys set-to (More on the girls game shortly), I hastened to Seward to watch the second half of the Consolation match up of the Spartan Invitational Tournament between host Seward and visiting Liberty.
Seward lost its opener to O’Neill 55-54 despite having a late four point lead and with standout Andrew Bailey at the line. A pair of missed free throws, an O’Neill rebound, basket and foul cut the lead to one. The Raiders won the game on a final shot by Jordan Baskerville with 4.5 seconds remaining.
In the other tourney opener, Millbrook downed Liberty 58-31 in a game that first year Liberty Coach Mike Salvia would like to soon forget. The Indians vowed to play better in the consolation match versus Seward and they did, but it was just not good enough as the Spartans prevailed 55-39 led by guard Kevin Smith’s 19 and Bailey’s 18.
Liberty standout Eddie Byrd was relatively quiet with 14 points. He had posted 19 against the Blazers in the tourney opener. Byrd was named to the All-Tournament team along with Bailey. They were joined by O’Neill’s D.J. Dalition and Jimmy Ripa and Millbrook’s Daniel Blayney and MVP Tyler Dahlin. Seward (1-1) will travel to Warwick for its next early season challenge. Liberty has a two-week respite before its next game to work on its offensive struggles.
“It’s early in the season,” said Salvia. “Hopefully we can get back to work and back to basics. We didn’t have much time to prepare,” he said following the pair of losses to two really good teams. “Millbrook came in and jumped us and Seward wore us down the whole way,” he added. “We have Port Jervis on the 17th so we have time to regroup. Our zone offense and our rebounding are what needs the most work. We’re not rebounding the basketball well. It seems like we’re not hungry for the ball,” he averred. “That’s something we’ve got to fix.”
Seward Coach Rob Gravelle said “I thought in the O’Neill game we played really well. We didn’t convert our free throws at the end. We were two-for-eight in the last four minutes. We got a good look to win the game but it didn’t go down. O’Neill is bringing back some good players. I was upset for my kids because they didn’t get a win and I thought they deserved it but I was proud of what they showed in that opener.”
Gravelle gave credit to Jordan Baskerville for making O’Neill’s winning shot.” Seward lost two standout players in David Oliver and Scott Glowaczewski from his team that lost a heartbreaker to Pine Plains in last year’s Class C Sectional final.
But with Bailey and Shawn Howells returning, as well as Isaac and Isiah Rodriguez, to go along with the immensely talented Kevin Smith, Seward looks to be competitive among the “Rough C’s.” “We lost a lot as everyone knows. Anthony Bailey is a great player and there is no kid I would rather go to battle with than Kevin Smith. He’s a gritty, tough and talented player.”
I give credit to my assistants Sal Mineo and Bill Steele. While I’m coaching Little League in the spring they’ve got our kids in AAU tournaments getting them extra games for getting them playing time together.” Seward faces a big challenge as it heads to Warwick on December 6. “You want to build your team and playing these kind of games is how you do it,”said Gravelle who led the Spartans to a state championship title win over Moriah in 2003.
By Gravelle’s estimation, “Fallsburg is the clear-cut favorite this year in Class C. They return their whole team and they beat my team last year which was a very good team. They were all juniors and we were all seniors,” he noted in response to the reminder that Seward beat Fallsburg twice including in the sectionals. “They’ve had a lot of time to play together and I had a chance to coach Michael Robinson in the summer and he’s just a quality kid with a motor that never stops. He’s a great leader for that team. I have the utmost respect for them and they are the favorite,” said Gravelle who realizes that Class C will be a dog fight again. “It always is,” he added looking forward to the Comets’ visit just after New Year’s. “That game is on my birthday,” said Gravelle smiling.
Chester Girls Garner A League Win With A Commanding Dominance Of Fallsburg
In order for Fallsburg to run on all cylinders, it needs its spark plug Sheryl Pinder to be firing smoothly. Pinder had 32 points in the consolation game 53-33 win over Downsville at the Walton Tournament that included eight three pointers. The 1-1 Lady Comets looked to carry that success forward as they faced Chester in what would be their first league encounter. Since Chapel Field is not fielding a girls team this season, Fallsburg coach Daniel Redmond agreed to have this game serve as Chester’s home outing of their regular season two-game league series.
After watching his star emerge with a mere seven points in the lackluster Fallsburg showing that resulted in a 42-23 Chester win, Redmond was sorry he had agreed to the arrangement. Chester jumped out to a 15-1 first quarter lead early on led by Mardelle Jean who would go on to post 11 points, five steals and five rebounds.
Fallsburg outscored Chester in the second quarter as they made it closer at 30-17 but they managed to score only two points in the third quarter to trail 38-19 heading into the final frame. Ashley Georges had 10 points and seven assists and Amanda Shembri had 10 points for Chester (1-0, 1-0 OCIAA) which will face Eldred at 3:00 pm on December 10 in the tournament championship game. Eldred (1-0) bested Sullivan West 32-22 in the first semifinal of the day. Fallsburg (1-2, 0-1 OCIAA) will play Sullivan West (0-1) in the consolation game at 10:00am on December 10.
Chester Coach Peter Rickard was proud of his team’s first outing. Even without his point guard Leanne Jankelunas who is sidelined for a couple of more games, he felt his team played well. “I’m looking forward to playing Eldred in the championship game. They played well,” he noted referencing one of his team’s Division V rivals. Since the game with Eldred will not be a division game, Chester and Eldred will end up playing each other three times in the regular season and could conceivably meet again in sectionals if both teams make it and depending on seedings at that time.
Liberty defeated S.S. Seward 28-23 in the opening round of the Spartan Invitational Tourney behind Olivia Baum’s ten point contribution. The Lady Indians will square off against Goshen in the title game on December 5. Goshen defeated James I. O’Neill 41-22 in the other semifinal.
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