Dawg House Double Whammy
Sullivan West Girls And Boys Collect Wins Over Struggling Family; Franskevicz Hits Career-High Tally After Lady Bulldogs Savor A Rare Victory
Girls: Sullivan West 51, Family Foundation School 4
Boys: Sullivan West 70, Family Foundation School 33
By RICHARD A. ROSS
Scenes from SW's dual wins over Family (Clockwise): Mitch Paciga revs up the Dawg Pound crowd with is patented back flip. Patrick Pierce throws down a thunderous dunk. Stephanie Smith led the girls with 17 points. Family's Lucas Maas scores on a lay up. The Dunk follow through. E.J. Franskevicz records a career-high 21 points including a trio of treys.
LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY- “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” begins Charles Dickens’ classic novel “A Tale of Two Cities.” Indeed when it comes to basketball, there are inevitably sagas that reflect that timeless paradox of good fortune in stark contrast to catastrophic miasma.
A year ago the Family Foundation School’s boys team was seeded number two in the Class D sectionals and though they failed in their bid to advance past Livingston Manor, Coach Larry Patrisso’s Falcons had authored a season to be proud of.
Sullivan West senior point guard John Masten elevates for two of his 12 points on the night.
Given Family School’s transient population, coupled with the fact that basketball players do not enjoy the benefits of a summer program, nor do they have a junior varsity team, each year is a brand new sojourn and the current one is proving to be a rough road to be sure.
With last year’s team gone and a whole new cast featuring many inexperienced players, a good work ethic in and of itself is just not getting it done.
As would prove to be the case yet again on this night in Family’s 70-33 loss to upwardly mobile Sullivan West, wins are yet to come, though it’s not for a lack of effort.
“They play hard but lack experience,” notes Patrisso.
If these are some of the worst of times for the Family Falcons, consider the reversal of fortune for the Sullivan West Bulldogs coming off two consecutive one win seasons and now posting their eighth win of this year’s campaign against four losses.
With a feisty 49-45 home league win over O’Neill just two days prior which took some of the sting out of a stultifying 86-23 league loss on January 12 road win to the defending NYSPHSAA Class B Champion John S. Burke Catholic Eagles, the Bulldogs are literally enjoying the “best of times,” in recent memory.
Just one win shy of qualifying for this year’s Big Dance by virtue of at least a .500 mark overall, the Dawgs will look to secure the rite of passage into that unchartered territory when they host Tuxedo on January 27 in another non-league endeavor.
Open looks for Family were few and far between. Here Derek Mhich fires a bit off as he is challenged by Patrick Pierce.
This is Coach Bruce Nober’s first year at the helm and indeed, his approach has ushered in a new era in Bulldog basketball.
“We played good defense tonight and we’re trying to get better every day in practice. The O’Neill game was a big league win for us on our home court against a good team so we fed off of that.
We had a great practice yesterday and the guys are happy. They’re practicing hard and playing hard,” he noted.
Defensively Sullivan West is coming of age. “We apply good ball pressure and help side defense. We’re not going to give up many easy buckets. Our goal is to get into sectionals. We do competitive drills in practice and we expect to win every game when we get on the floor,” said Nober.
Dickens would approve of such “Great Expectations.” This writer certainly does.
“If you’re inspired, you aspire.” Dickens didn’t say that, I did.
In the great talent spectrum Sullivan West must face in the course of the season, their fate clearly lies in between the extremes of teams like Burke and Family. But once a team enters the unpredictable realm of sectional play, anything can happen and as this sportwriter’s more than a decade of vigilant courtside witness can attest, it often does.
But on this night there would be few surprises.
A sterling rendition of the National Anthem by SW hoopsta Shawn Bailey was well received. Bailey has become the darling of the rabid Dawg Pound who barked their delight with his back-to-back second quarter buckets.
On this night they’d have plenty to cheer about including Patrick Pierce’s demonstrative dunk and track star Mitch Paciga’s uplifting back flip, both of which set off a howl and a holler from the “Pounders” who are bringing back the spirit which was conspicuously missing these past few years from the SW gym which was once the epicenter of zealousness.
Lethal Weapon 23: Sullivan West's Matt Cardona soars over Family's Jon Izquierdo for two of his 11 points.
Sullivan West didn’t score the first bucket of the night, but Family’s pyrrhic victory marked by controlling the tip and its first bucket registered by Rodrick Oringer was short-lived indeed as the Bulldog defense harried the Falcons by dint of 16-6 first quarter Dawg bite.
For SW senior E.J. Franskevicz, the evening which would commence with two quick fouls was soon to take on a different aspect as he would post a career-high 21 points on the night that included a trio of swishing treys.
With fellow senior John Masten at the point directing the flow, the Bulldogs show great patience and ball rotation. They’ll dish it into a slashing cutter or kick it out to a long range threat. With Franskevicz, Pierce, Matt Cardona, Masten and Sawyer Erlwein traversing the perimeter, they possess the ability to wound teams with the three.
On this night they’d bury five long range missiles. In a captivating win over Monticello in December, they hit nine of them with five of those coming in the fourth quarter from Cardona. Read “Stun Gunners,” on this website if you somehow missed that dazzling performance.
A quick bucket by Erlwein and one by Franskevicz off a steal put the Dawgs on top for good. Masten accounted for seven of his team’s 16 first quarter points with a trey and an epic lay up which was captured in mid-air flight on this page.
The Dawgs also got four points from Erlwein, coupled with a bucket apiece from Franskevicz and Pierce was seasoned by a free throw from Cardona to comprise the first quarter appetizer. Family got buckets from Bryan Lehrman, Roger Maivre and Oringer in the opening stanza.
They mustered 11 in the second quarter as Lehrman canned a trey and Lucas Maas added five points to go along with a bucket from Connor Cochran and a free throw from Maivre.
Who let the Dawgs out?
Nober did. He sent his hounds a-running on their way to 20 points in the frame to build a 36-17 lead at the half. That compelling second act show began with Bailey’s aforementioned heroics. Franksevicz registered his first trey as part of a five point contribution. Pierce headed up the floor alone for a lay up. The crowd wanted a jam instead. A turnaround shot by Drew Parsons revved them up.
When Pierce did jam it home, the gym erupted with a mighty roar.
Six Dawgs scored in the second quarter as Pierce, Cardona and Bailey had four points, Franskevicz had five, Parsons netted two and Masten had one.
Cheerz! SW cheerleadears rev up the fervor as they ready for their upcoming debut at Minisink Valley's cheerleading competition.
The Cheerleaders showed their lively spirit during timeouts and the half as they continue to work towards their upcoming competition debut at Minisink Valley, a preview of their showing at the OCIAA championships in February at Kingston High School.
Another 20 point outburst in the third quarter equaled the outpouring the prior frame as Franskevicz recorded seven points including his second from beyond the arc. Six points from Cardona included two-for-two from the stripe. By night’s end the Bulldogs were a lukewarm nine-for 16 from the line for 56%. Cardona was five for six so we can’t lay this at his doorstep.
Erlwein had a trey in the frame to help the Canines to a 56-25 lead by the end of the third quarter as Cardona scored at the buzzer to add a punctuation mark.
Family was relatively quiet in the third period with four points from Mass and a bucket apiece from Oringer and Maivre.
The Bulldogs (8-4) outscored Family 14-8 in the final stanza to ice the 70-33 win. As noted Franskevicz led all scorers with 21. Masten posted 12, Cardona 11, Pierce 8, Parsons and Erlwein had seven.
Maas had nine for the 0-8 Falcons, while Oringer, Lehrman and Maivre registered seven each. Family was five-for-12 from the stripe (41.6%).
Patrisso noted “We go over it all in practice and they seem to be getting it against a weaker defense but when they get out on the court in games they race and forget.” With no JV and no summer league Patrisso noted, “If I have real good talent like I did last year and can put it together from November, then we can have good success like we did when we beat Chapel Field during the season when they were ranked 14th in the state. We beat them by 24. They came back and beat us by the same margin.”
Asked how he felt about the Sullivan West team, he remarked on their improvement since he saw them lose to Fallsburg earlier this season. “They played a lot better tonight. They’ve gotten a lot better. They beat Monticello and O’Neill.”
Family goes to Livingston Manor on January 23 and then they host Chapel Field. Hoping to get a 3-3 league record with wins over LM, Chapel Field and Roscoe, the Falcons can still make it to the playoffs.
Ladies First: Sullivan West Girls Pick Up Second Win Of The Season Holding Family To A Mere Four Points
Katie Taylor is still wearing the protective face mask to shield her from harm incurred during the much-publicized blow she sustained during soccer season. Undaunted, she rises up here between Family's Ahna LaFranchi and Laura Hasaj to score to of her nine points in the win.
For Sullivan West Coach Pat Donovan and his young Lady Bulldogs, this season is a learning curve as they take to the floor minus the cadre of seniors who graduated in June. What players remain from last year’s squad saw precious little time on the floor and literally to echo the refrain from the show “Annie” .. “It’s Been A Hard Knock Life.”
Speaking of quotes, in terms of the one from Dickens that began this piece, one might say these are far more akin to the “worst of times,” rather than the best of times for the Lady Westies. But for this night at least, the scales tipped the other way as the Lady Bulldogs garnered their second win of the season to go along with the one they registered against Port Jervis.
As bad as things have been for the Lady Westies, they’ve been far worse for the winless Lady Falcons whose genuine “worst of times” troubles have registered single digit tallies on several occasions this season. After avoiding a shut out against Roscoe by dint of a lone trey, they managed only a quartet of points against the Dawgettes as they were shell-shocked 51-4 in this outing.
SW’s Samantha Smith led the onslaught with 17 points. She was abetted by nine each from Jordan Parsons and Katie Taylor. The Bulldog shut out Family 14-0 in the opening stanza. Smith was quiet early with a mere two points. The major noise came from who netted seven in the opening frame including a trey. Parsons had four and Marianne Durkin hit one of two from the stripe.
The Lady Bulldogs continued the shut out by taking a 31-0 lead into the half. In the second quarter eight SW players scored as Donovan got everyone into the act. Smith led the parade with five points to go along with two points apiece from Parsons, Stephanie Hauschild, Carly Grishaber, Durkin, a trey from Krysten Herbert and a free throw from Hayley Puerschner.
Family finally scored as Ahna LaFranchi scored with 2:18 to go in the third quarter. The Bulldogs led 47-2 at the end of the third quarter with six more from Smith, three from Parsons and Sydney Sipple, to go along with buckets from Herbert and Taylor.
Family got its only other basket of the night in the final period as Laura Hasaj scored in the quiet fourth chapter. Smith scored the only Bulldog points in the period.
Sullivan West travels to Monticello on January 23 for a rematch with the Lady Panthers, a team that hammered them to the tune of 60-14 back in December.
For an album of photos, visit www.sportsinsights.smugmug.com
