Speed Kills
Liberty Unveils Awesome Speed And Stifling Defense In Dominating Non-League Win Over Chester; Eddie Byrd Leads All Scorers With 18 As Talented Guard Evolves As A Total Player
Liberty 66, Chester 38
By RICHARD A. ROSS
Scenes from the Tribe's massacre of Chester (clockwise) Chester sophomore Lawrence Young scores the first points of the game. He'd add a three pointer in the first quarter and ended up with a team-high 11 on the night. Liberty's Eddie Byrd drives and scores over Chester's Justin Delgado. Byrd led all scorers with 18. Chester senior Zach Larkin looks to drive, pass or shoot. All three options were trying given Liberty's defensive intensity. Liberty's Yovanni Fields fires up one of a pair of consecutive treys he authored. Eddie Byrd gets a steal and races ahead to score. Liberty's Taylor Vankeuren hits the first of a trio of third quarter treys.
LIBERTY, NY—Night and day.
That’s the difference between the seemingly hapless Liberty squad I watched suffer a miasma of a game against S.S. Seward on December 10 after being ambushed by Millbrook in the Spartan Tourney opener and the contentious Tribe I watched dismantle Chester on January 6.
First year Coach Mike Salvia was not a happy camper the night that I interviewed him after the loss to Seward. He vowed that the coming two weeks with no games scheduled would be put to good use to sharpen up things at both ends of the floor.
Liberty Coach Mike Salvia replaces Jason Semo who has moved on to become the A.D. at South Colonie High School. But Semo's precepts about speed and defense, as well as the deportment of excellent character live on in Salvia who was his assistant. Those earmarks are showing up now in Liberty's style of play and its attitude.
Salvia is a disciple of Jason Semo having worked as his assistant and you can see the imprint of his mentor on this year’s Tribe which is starting to show why Liberty has to be taken seriously in Division IV. Semo has moved on to assume the Athletic Directorship at South Colonie High School in the Capital District, but his precepts for the development of great team play and impeccable character live on in Salvia.
Liberty has to play in one of the toughest divisions in Section Nine and given its struggle over the past few years, coupled with the departure of Semo, many might have assumed the Tribe would be struggling.
Guess again.
Everyone has already canonized Burke, the defending state champs as a shoe-in for the Section Nine Class B title but those of us who have been around the game of basketball for more decades than I care to disclose here know that on any given night anything can happen.
The division is rife with talent and bereft of any doormats. The coming fray against 5-3 Sullivan West in Indian Country on January 10 will be the first league tilt for both squads. Needless to say the after-effects of their football rivalry won in OT by Sullivan West will still hang in the air over this one and as league wins are extremely precious, expect this to be a war.
The same can be said about tilts with talented O’Neill.
But back to the present.
The mark of a leader: Chester's Anthony Ognibene knows what it takes to win. He steered Chester all the way to state title game in football. Now it's the hardwood that becomes a new forum for challenge. He's tough, quick and talented and Chester hopes to marshal some of its success from the fall and have it carry over this winter.
Imagine my surprise to watch Liberty come out and devastate a talented Chester team with a combination of uncanny speed, suffocating defense and just for spice, nine treys. What was most impressive was the cohesive play and the involvement of all five players on the floor.
Needless to say when you bring up the subject of Liberty basketball, the first name on anyone’s lips is Eddie Byrd. Byrd has always been a prolific scorer. He’s quick off the dribble, a lethal slasher to the rim and a great long range threat.
But Salvia, who was coaching out of the state last year, notes that this past summer he witnessed a big change in Byrd who understands that Liberty’s success mandates the involvement of the entire team. Naturally teams will key in on him and if he is the only cog in the machine that is working well….I give you the Millbrook and Seward games as examples of the resulting breakdowns that could result.
Byrd is a senior as are the most of the rest of Liberty’s starting five in Travis Beaupierre, Joe Franke and Marshon Williams. Ryan Henry is a junior. After the disappointment of not making the playoffs in football, Liberty is bent on making it to sectionals and doing some damage therein.
Byrd is certainly the nexus of the squad and his game-high 18 points on the night would attest to that. But the fact that the Indians had three more players in double figures attests to his distribution of the ball. By night’s end Henry had 11 points, Yovanni Fields had ten as did Aitmar McCree, while Taylor Vankeuren poured in a trio of treys make his presence felt. If Liberty is able to deploy its total arsenal of talent, it’s going to be tough to reckon with.
And no one knows that better than the Byrd Man of Al-Pizzazz.
“We’ve started to play as one..working together as a whole. I find a way to trust my teammates more now. We’re all getting more shots and we’re getting better.
Prior to the game Chester Coach John Marsilio seemed confident. “We need this win,” he averred. By night’s end he knew his team had been totally outplayed. “They are very quick. It’s a fast defense. They’re all over the place,” he noted as he would go on to enumerate the problems his team faced in trying to get on track against the triumphant Tribe. More on that a bit later as well as Salvia’s take on what’s beginning to fall into place.
Chester’s Andrew Lakis controlled the opening tip against Beaupierre. Chester sophomore Lawrence Young scored the game’s first bucket and a Liberty turnover seemed to indicate a faulty start but the Indians forced a shot clock violation on the Hambletonian’s next possession as Chester couldn’t get a sniff of a decent look.
Another Liberty turnover led to a transition bucket by Young for the 4-0 lead. Liberty’s defense tightened and Chester’s offense began to dwindle as they would score only four more points in the first quarter.
Liberty's Aitmar McCree scores two of his ten points in the paint, six of which came in the fourth quarter.
In stark contrast, Liberty poured in 19. It all began with a bucket by Beaupierre at 4:42 and continued with a pair of treys from Fields, six points from Byrd including a free throw, four from Henry and one from the stripe from Williams.
Chester got five from Young, two from Marley Vil and a free throw from Anthony Ognibene. Chester’s woes continued in the second stanza as they were only able to muster five points with two each from Lakis and Vil. Lakis hit one of two from the line.
Liberty countered with 12 points in the second quarter to take a 31-14 lead into the half. Byrd had a trey and a free throw to go along with four points from Fields, two from Henry and Beaupierre.
Chester couldn’t get the ball inside or attack on the wing as Liberty’s defense was omnipresent.
The die had already been cast on this game and the third quarter added to the Indians’ favorable roll with a game high 23 points in the frame to which Chester was able to counter with only 11. The result, Liberty led 54-24 after three.
Chester got four points from big man Justin Delgado and Vil, two from Lakis and one from Young. For its part Liberty profited from Vankeuren’s trio of treys that had the crowd in a tizzy, as well as treys from Byrd and Henry who scored five and four points respectively. McCree came alive with four in the paint to punctuate the damage. He’d add six more in the final frame as Liberty scored 12 more points to reach its total of 66. Byrd had three points in the quarter and Williams added a bucket for good measure.
The fourth quarter was Chester’s most productive outing, staged against many of Liberty subs who got valuable minutes of experience. Seven of those points came from the stripe as Young hit four and Lakis canned three. Senior Zach Larkin scored four points and Zach Krawczyk added a trey as Chester (3-3) finished up with three points on the night. Young led the Hambos with 11.
Liberty improved to 3-3 with the win.
Liberty pride and spirit is second to none as evinced by Indian cheerleaders, an integral part of the atmosphere and tradition.
Marsilio summed it up: “They couldn’t miss tonight. They had guys hitting threes I haven’t seen take any. Trying to defend these guys man to man is very difficult and going zone if they’re going to hit those shots they’re going to kill you,” he averred.
“They pressure the ball very well. We couldn’t get our pick and roll going. We struggled trying to go through our offense as we often had one or two players out of position. We missed wide open looks on the low block because we couldn’t get the ball in. Our vision wasn’t there in the first half,” he added.
“We started off with a three-two zone but they were getting to the baseline and getting to the corner pretty easy on us. We had to extend out to get that.”
Chester will have Seward at home on Monday as the league season gets underway. “That’s a big game for us,” said Marsilio.
Salvia described the change in his team from its early season struggles. “The last couple of weeks the kids have really bought into what we’re trying to do and we’ve had some great practices along the way.
I coached under Jason and his principles are what’s driving me right now. You can’t win basketball games unless you play defense. Now the kids are enjoying playing defense and that’s what’s going to make us successful the rest of the year.”
Burt Lancaster was the Bird Man of Alcatraz; Eddie Byrd is the Byrd Man of Al-Pizzazz. Here the Byrd Man displays a familiar sight, namely going airborne and scoring. It's a thrilling image for Liberty fans but a nightmare vision for foes.
As to Byrd, Salvia observed the following: “I wasn’t here last year but this summer I’ve seen a 180 degree turn in his attitude. He’s sharing the ball and getting everybody excited to play basketball with him. Going into games other teams will key him. Other kids are understanding that and embracing their job as role players and really having fun just playing basketball.”
“It’s no secret that our strength is our speed and our defense. We’re going to try and get and run to ge easy baskets. Our primary offense is the fast break.” Salvia was shocked that his team netted nine treys but noted “we’ve been doing a lot of shooting in practice. Early in the season our problems were the reluctance to take open shots. Kids were looking for the perfect shot and not taking the open one. Now we’re just getting the ball in rhythm and letting shooters fire.”
With the coming home league game vs. Sullivan West and the away game at O’Neill this coming week, Liberty hopes to make its presence felt in the hard-nosed hardwood world of Division IV.
Is that a war whoop I hear? I do believe it is.
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