Hot Off The Press
Monticello Picks Up Fourth Straight Win With Intensive Defensive Pressure Against Young And Inexperienced Sullivan West
Monticello 60, Sullivan West 14
By RICHARD A. ROSS
Scenes from Monticello's commanding 60-14 win over Sullivan West, the Lady Monties' fourth in a row (clockwise) Sullivan West's Sydney Sipple scores two of her team-leading six points. Monticello junior Yadira Montes drives to the rim for two. She had 12 points in the game. Monticello freshman guard Lena Episalla brings the ball up the floor. The young dynamo scored 12 points in the game. Sullivan West's Marianne Durkin looks to pass the ball as Lena Episalla guards her closely. Monticello junior Shamira Moore scores two of her game-high 19 points. The 2011-12 Sullivan West Lady Bulldogs.
LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY—“Baby it’s cold outside,” begin the lyrics of a Christmas song, but truth be told inside the Sullivan West gym it was mighty hot as the Lady Panthers turned up the defensive heat with their press to harry young Sullivan West in a non-league game on December 14.
Sullivan West's Stephanie Smith is surrounded by a trio of pressing Panthers in Arianna Decosta (4), Yadira Montes (13) and Lena Episalla (23).
As far as she can remember, Monticello Coach Karen Atack believes it’s been at least 15 years since one of her Lady Panthers teams began a season at 4-0 But thus far with a pair of wins over Family, a demolishing of short-handed Liberty and now this latest landslide against Sullivan West, things are looking all cheery and bright at least for the moment as the holidays draw near.
But Atack, ever the realist knows that her team which is quite young too with its three freshmen, three sophomores and five juniors to go along with just one senior is in for stormier weather against tougher opponents like Cornwall which visits Monticello on December 16. Sizing up the performance of this game she was still concerned about her team’s ability to take care of the ball. The Lady Monties had 21 turnovers, far fewer than the night before, but still way too many. Errant passes and a lack of focus can be disastrous against tougher opponents and Atack knows that all too well.
Sullivan West was looking for its first win of the season. Coach Pat Donovan had scouted the Lady Panthers game against Liberty the night before and had a good idea about what was coming in terms of pressure on the ball. It’s one thing to go over these things in practice, but it’s only trial by fire that brings the lessons home about rotating the ball quickly around the perimeter against the helping zone that Monticello was deploying.
In the rare instances when his team executed what he had taught them, they got the sought-after open look and scored. This happened a couple of times in the late going. By then it was too little and too late to undo the damage that had led to a 22-4 first quarter Monticello lead, one that burgeoned to 40-8 by the half. It was 50-12 by the end of the third and things didn’t improve with Monticello’s 10-2 outscoring of their beleaguered hosts in the fourth quarter that resulted in the final score of 60-14.
While I narrate every play of the game into my digital recorder to provide as accurate account of the game as possible, in games like this one it proves to be unnecessary. By halftime I had lost count of the turnovers which were occurring with alarming frequency and were it not for Atack’s accounting of her teams 21 cough ups, I wouldn’t know it without spending the time listening to my play-by-play.
I wouldn’t be amiss to reckon that Sullivan West’s turnovers were at least twice as many.
Bulldog spirit! Sullivan West's Cheerleaders get set to amp it up for the supportive home crowd.
Monticello’s Shamira Moore controlled the opening tip against Sullivan West’s Sydney Sipple and sent the ball ahead to a charging Yami Reyes as the freshman scored the game’s opener. The Monties immediately unveiled swarming pressure the likes of which Sullivan West had not seen in its prior losses against Eldred and Fallsburg.
That caused trouble in getting the ball up the floor or completing passes. Monticello grabbed a bevy of those passes which they converted into quick transition points. The score mounted quickly and despite a couple of time outs and reminders, The Lady Bulldogs continued to succumb to the pressure. On the defensive end of the floor, they had difficulty stopping points in the paint as the Lady Monties passed the ball to open shooters who slashed through the lane to score or draw fouls.
Shamira Moore had a game-high 19 points despite having to spend a good portion of the second quarter and part of the third on the bench by dint of the three quick fouls she picked up with her at times over-the-top enthusiasm. As Atack pointed out, you have to front the person in possession of the ball. It’s when you arrive late that fouls accrue. It’s a big lesson for the talented junior who is the team’s sparkplug. She can’t help them if she’s on the bench.
Senior Zequia Revell also had two early fouls but she was able to tone things down and stay out of serious foul trouble.
Monticello got balanced scoring to accrue its 22 first quarter points. Freshman standout Lena Episalla led the way with eight points. Her sister plays for Burke and she’ll be guarding her when the Lady Panthers encounter the Lady Eagles on February 3. Moore had six points in the stanza, while Yami Reyes and junior Arianna Decosta each posted four. Sullivan West’s four points came via a bucket from Sydney Sipple and a pair of made free throws from Katie Taylor.
The Lady Monties continued to pour it on in the second quarter with a flurry of 18 points, nine of which came from junior Yadira Montes including a swishing trey. Decosta provide her team’s only other three-pointer and Episalla had four more. Speaking of four, that’s how many points Sullivan West could manage again as Sipple and Krysten Herbert each scored a bucket.
Monticello freshman Yamilersy (Yami) Reyes scores two of her six points on the night.
It was four again in the third quarter with baskets by Sipple and Taylor, hardly enough to compensate for the huge Monticello margin which only got larger in the third frame as Moore returned to the floor to net five of her team’s ten points in the quarter to go along with three from Montes and two from Quasia Walker.
Moore saved her best for last though as she poured in eight in the final period. Junior Amber Grobusch scored her first bucket of the season and in fact her career as the newbie got in some valuable minutes in the fourth quarter.
Moore was three-for six from the line, far better than the night before, though the team as a whole still needs work from the stripe. They were a combined six-for15 for 40percent. Sullivan West was two-for-six for 33.3%.
Monticello (4-0) hosts Cornwall on December 16, while Sullivan West (0-3) takes its show on the road to Port Jervis on December 20 in search of its first win. Donovan will scout Port Jervis at Liberty’s home opener on December 15.
In addition to Moore’s 19, Monticello got 12 points from Episalla and Montes.
Atack summed things up thusly: “We’ve been working very, very hard on our press and it’s come a long way. Our passing is becoming better but still we have Cornwall on Friday and they just spanked Burke,” she noted, referencing the fact that her team is in for a far more significant challenge.
“Tonight everybody had an opportunity to play. We’re starting to see some good things and executing to get the ball inside,” she added. Asked about the early foul trouble for Moore, Atack responded, “She is a small center. She has to learn to defend from the front and not try to come from behind.” Asked about Episalla’s fine play which followed a great performance the night before, Atack said, “She’s a freshman but doesn’t play like one.”
Yadira Montes had missed the first couple of games but as Atack noted, she’s made some drastic improvement. “I’m happy with tonight but I still realize we haven’t played a strong team yet. My goal is to shock some people. We have to learn to take better care of the ball. We’re still a very young team.”
For Sullivan West's young team, it's all about learning amidst the crucible of tough games like this. Here Hayley Puerscher brings the ball up the floor as part of that process.
Youth is the byword when it comes to Sullivan West as well as Donovan is quick to note. “We try to do what we can in practice. We knew what they were going to throw at us but it hasn’t transferred over yet,” he observed. That said, the Lady Bulldogs never gave up trying.
“Our kids never stopped showing great hustle. They were out there going at it for the full 32 minutes. We’re young. This is a long term process. There are five sophomores and one freshman with four returners who never saw much time last year. It’s a new process for all ten players,” he added.
Donovan knows that the kind of pressure exerted by Monticello is a foreshadowing of what to expect from league rivals like Burke and O’Neill. “That’s just the nature of the beast.” Donovan credited his girls for their relentless hustle as they continued to dive for loose balls etc. “They’re not basketball players yet. They’re still learning how to play the game. We’re teaching them things that are brand new to them. It was great to see tonight that we had a couple of kids boxing out.
The game’s outcome was in stark contrast to bygone years when Sullivan West dominated Monticello. That’s the way it is. As is noted in Ecclesiastes, “To everything there is a season.” Monticello players and their coach hope that this will be their season to shine, while Sullivan West hopes it will be there’s to learn and get better so that their time will come sooner rather than later.
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