Small Wonders
What Tri-Valley Girls Lack In Size They Make Up For In Speed, Unity of Purpose, Grit and Stifling Defense; Post Jakki Pugh Era Begins With Undefeated Tear As Lady Bears Hammer Fallsburg To Garner Fourth Straight League Win And Sixth Overall
Tri-Valley 64, Fallsburg 39
By RICHARD A. ROSS
Dawn of a new era in Tri-Valley basketball as the Lady Bears victimize yet another league rival to remain unbeaten (clockwise) Katelynn Greffrath squares up just inside the arc to swish in two of her ten points on the night. Freshman Caroline Martin asserts herself with a team-high 16 points and great defense. Fallsburg senior standout Sheryl Pinder looks to drive on Sabrena Smith. Pinder led her team with 16 points. Fellow Lady Comet Shanice Mack grabs a rebound and looks to turn upcourt. The Tri-Valley girls sport their 2012 practice shirts that state their guiding precept: "We're Not Just Defending A Chamipnship. We're Pursuing Another." Fallsburg's Kelsey Moody pulled down 21 rebounds. Here she is fouled trying to put one of them back in. Moody had 13 points in the game.
GRAHAMSVILLE, NY—“Good things come in small packages,” might well be one of many descriptions of the 2012 version of the Tri-Valley Lady Bears. For indeed height is not one of their assets.
While height often figures prominently in a team’s ability to rebound the basketball, it is only one dimension of measure. It is already quite apparent that this year’s team has both the defensive width to cover teams across the full span of the floor and the depth of talent to score enough to win armed with a bevy of able shooters who share the ball.
Add the dimensions of heart, cohesiveness and a tireless work ethic, stir vigorously with extremely demanding practice sessions and what emerges is a new winning formula with its own intoxicating and unique allure.
For Tri-Valley's Mareena DiMilia, moving to play point guard means new challenges but the gritty, tough-minded athlete brings a competitive fire to the mix that is second to none. When she's not breaking the school shot put record with her uncanny strength, she's muscling her way under the boards boxing out and getting rebounds from girls that dwarf her in size.
So far it’s proving to be a powerful elixir and the Lady Bears are feeling its effects, not just in terms of their wins, but by virtue of the chemistry that has led to their early season success.
As freshman Caroline Martin notes, “I love this team like a family and when I was gone I missed them a lot.”
(Martin was briefly in Monticello, but glad to be back).
“I love playing with these girls. We’re all so close. It feels really great to be playing with this team and my coach. This is a total team. We’re all in this together. That’s how it is,” she noted, anxious to hurry off and join her teammates for the post-game confab.
Martin who came up from J.V. for sectionals last year to give Coach John Tenbus an extra edge defensively, is symbolic of the change from last year to this.
On this night against rival Fallsburg she would lead her team with 16 points, while the Lady Bears would get 15 from Sabrena Smith and 10 from Katelynn Greffrath. Can you say balance?
Winning a Section Nine title last year was an amazing experience for Tenbus and his team. Without question that would not have taken place without the immeasurable contribution of Jakki Pugh who has now taken her heart, drive and uncanny basketball skills to the Post University Eagles of the Central Athletic Collegiate Conference.
For Pugh who still burns with “The Eternal Flame,” and her beloved team whom she left to carry on without her, this is a new era, one that looks bright indeed for Pugh who leaves in her wake an historic legacy at Tri-Valley and in Section Nine.
It’s new ground too for the the young Lady Bears who have quickly closed ranks to focus on a new agenda, namely winning another title.
With Pugh’s tearful exit near the end of the 64-40 Class C Regional Semifinals after going toe-to-toe with Fordham-bound Liz Miller, most onlookers felt they were witnessing the end of not just a remarkable season, but also an era.
After all, that season and the one before it had produced a 34-6 record and two consecutive trips to the Section Nine finals, with the second one under Tenbus’ first watch proving victorious.
But if this season’s early indications are what they appear to be, this is SO NOT OVER.
A mid-court kerfuffle unfolds as Tri-Valley's Keira McHugh and Nicole Bradley engage in a tug of war with Fallsburg's Kelsey Moody over a loose ball. Feisty and aggressive, Tri-Valley brings fervor to its game in all of its aspects.
As their warm up shirts so aptly decry, “We’re Not Defending A Championship, We’re Pursuing Another.”
With Pugh’s departure from Tri-Valley, many rival schools including Fallsburg licked their chops figuring the Bears were a one and done phenomena.
But while Pugh who ended her illustrious career with 1,182 points was responsible for approximately 22 points per game on the 2011 Lady Bears who averaged about 55 per night, her departure has resulted in a revamped Tri-Valley team which is arguably more balanced and cohesive than last year’s juggernaut.
With this past week’s stunning 40-32 road win over the Tuxedo Lady Tornadoes which completed the victorious Orange County trifecta of beating Chester and Seward, the Lady Bears brought their 5-0, 3-0 mark to their home court to take on neighboring Fallsburg, a team rife with experience, talent, size and hunger.
Spending quite a bit of time at Fallsburg of late, I sensed a great deal of optimism and confidence from Coach Daniel Redmond and his players that with Pugh gone, this would be their time to overtake their neighbors. In Sheryl Pinder, Fallsburg has one of the premiere small school players in Section Nine and with bigs Kelsey Moody and Shanice Mack in the paint, a powerful interior presence that Fallsburg figured would give them the edge.
While they hoped to leave Tri-Valley for dead by night’s end, this Friday the 13th clash showed the Bears to be like Jason of the storied horror film, unfathomably immortal.
Fallsburg’s nightmare began with Tri-Valley’s 19-7 first quarter dominance, which without a late trey by Shanice Mack would have been a 15-point bulge instead of 12. Here’s how that first quarter shook out.
In competitive basketball, there are few uncontested shots. Here Fallsburg's Shanice Mack looks to put the ball up and she has plenty of company while she's doing so. Mack is potentially a prolific scorer but she was limited to a sparse five points in this game. T-V held Fallsburg to single digits for three of the four quarters.
Tri-Valley senior Erin Smith controlled the tip against Fallsburg tall tree Kelsey Moody. A pair of early T-V turnovers were part of an inauspicious start as were a spate of misses of shots and put backs.
Fallsburg had its turnover woes and missed chances as well as the teams failed to score until Mareena DiMilia put back an offensive rebound at 5:49.
Moody hit one of two free throws to put the Lady Comets on the board and a trey by Garcia gave Fallsburg a 4-2 lead.
The celebration of such would be short-lived indeed. Erin Smith tied the game and her free throw gave the Lady Bears the lead they would never relinquish at 4:46. A steal and a bucket by Martin made it 7-4.
Put backs by DiMilia and Martin poured it on as the Lady Bears continued to force turnovers by Fallsburg which was having its pocket picked often from behind and its passes snared triggering transition buckets.
Sabrena Smith canned one and then picked off the ball from behind. It was not the last time the Lady Comets would cough it up in the opening stanza. DiMilia scored her sixth point of the frame whiie Fallsburg continued to shoot blanks. Greffrath hit one with time expiring on the shot clock and the hit another for the 19-4 lead.
When the dust had settled after the opening period, DiMIlia had six, Martin and Greffrath had four apiece, Sabrena had two and Erin Smith had three.
The voracious Lady Bears would soon use a 14-9 second quarter to widen their lead to 33-16 by halftime. Martin opened the show with a nifty shot. Fallsburg threw away its inbounds pass and Greffrath quickly made them pay to make it 23-7. Moody hit one of two from the stripe. By night’s end the Lady Comets would be nine-for13 for an admirable 69% from the stripe but it was nowhere near enough to keep them in the game.
A very familiar sight: Sabrena Smith converts a steal into a layup. The diminutive dynamo scored 15 points in this outing.
Moody would post a game-high 21 rebounds on the night and contribute 13 points but she and Pinder who had a team-high 16 would account for nearly 75 percent of Fallsburg’s scoring.
Keira McHugh, another 2011 late season JV Sectional call up scored two from the corner. She’d net six on the night in what Tenbus described as her best effort to date. Greffrath added a bucket from the corner, a place she’s quite lethal from to make it 27-8. Moody made it 27-10. She accounted for seven of Fallsburg’s nine points in the stanza.
Tri-Valley’s 14 points in the second quarter came via four from Sabrena Smith,Greffrath and McHugh to go along with a bucket from Martin.
Tri-Valley’s imposing defense held Fallsburg to its third straight single digit quarter as the Lady Comets could only manage eight points in the third period. Pinder had six of those including one of her three treys on the night. Moody had two points from the line.
Tri-Valley doubled up Fallsburg with 16 in the period, once again showing its diverse arsenal led by six from Martin with a bucket apiece from Sabrena Smith, Greffrath who would soon exit the game for the rest of the night after banging her wrist, Amanda TerBush, Nicole Bradley and Maria TerBush.
By night’s end nine of the 11 Lady Bears had scored. Tri-Valley led 49-24 after three quarters. At this juncture citing details of how points were scored seems moot. Suffice it to say that the Lady Comets had their best showing in the fourth quarter as they mounted a 15-point outburst which equaled that put forth by the Lady Bears including their subs.
Two treys from Pinder were part of her eight point fourth quarter. Moody added three points and Mack netted two from the line.
Sabrena Smith used steals and lay ups to author her seven points in the final stanza. Martin added four. She scored in all four quarters on the night for her team-high 16 point output. McHugh and Amanda Terbush iced the cake with a bucket apiece.
Including last year's historic 18-2 run that included a Section NIne title in his first year, Tri-Valley coach John Tenbus has overseen his team to a 24-2 mark thus far. His girls revere him despite the fact that he works them to death. Time will tell whether he can marshal this year's team back to the mountaintop, but from early indications, things are heading in the right direction.
Tri-Valley 6-0 (4-0 OCIAA) was four-for-six from the line (66.6%). Fallsburg fell to 6-4 (1-3 OCIAA) with the loss.
Veteran DiMilia talked about this year’s squad in the post-Pugh era. “We are an extremely balanced team. We don’t have a lot of height but we do have strong girls who will get the rebounds. We are quick. We work very hard in practice and that helps us get a lot faster.”
Redmond said he was proud of how his team played to the last minute. “They all went in there to contribute what they can as we were up against a good team. Honestly Tri-Valley surprised me with how good they are,” he admitted. “Especially with how many weapons they’ve got. You’d figure that after losing a star like Jakki Pugh they’d be having a down year. They might even be better than last year. They seemed very balanced across the board. I was very impressed with them. They really outplayed us tonight but like I said, I’m proud of the way my girls stayed in there.”
Redmond touted the work of Moody on the boards and Shanice Mack’s ability to handle the ball which led to Fallsburg beating Tri-Valley’s press at times. I love my team to death,” he added also giving props to guard Celia Garcia and of course Pinder.
The good news for Fallsburg is that now they’ve got a better idea of what they’re contending with when they get Tri-Valley on their floor later this season. I’m seeing Tuxedo, I’ve already seen Chester. Eldred blindsided us in the Chester tourney but we’re anxious to see them again. Celia wasn’t in that game,” he noted.
“It wasn’t the best of our games tonight, but hopefully we’ll improve from here.”
Tenbus talked about the past, present and future:
“That win against Tuxedo the other night was big. Our girls know that Tuxedo is the big name and that they’re always competitive. Coach Powers does a great job setting up the program down there. We knew it was going to be a tough one.
But we have it in our mind that if we want to be one of the elite teams in the league we have to be able to beat the good ones. It was a battle and we played well and were able to pull out the win.”
Tenbus commented on Martin’s plays. “She’s growing. She’s a freshman and you live with the mistakes. She’s a little hesitant at times (not on this night) but she’s coming along.”
Speaking about his team’s mission to play tough defense, a hallmark of Tri-Valley basketball success, Tenbus noted, “You look down the scores and you see numbers in the 30’s. We have to exert a lot of pressure on defense because there are going to be nights when we don’t score a lot and we have to shut other teams down. That’s always a focus for us in practice,” he noted.
Tenbus felt it wise to keep Greffrath out for the rest of the game following her fall. “She’s a tough kid and a great outside shooter. You can’t leave that girl alone. We try to get penetration and the kick out.”
“We’re one of the smallest teams in the league but we battle. Boxing out is always a mainstay of our practice. It takes Mareena and Erin working very hard to try and compete. We try to keep the rebounding close and focus on other areas we have more control over. We’re scrappy. We’ve got to get points when we can. I don’t have the one dominant scorer. There’s no egos. Any win is a good win,” he added.
While the girls were aware that they scored approximately 33 points per game in addition to Pugh, Tenbus had to make them aware that they got a lot of those points because defenders were concentrating on her. “So now it’s an adjustment trying to score with defenders right on us.
Mareena has stepped up. She’s now the point guard and it’s a learning process in which there will be mistakes.
We have to be in top condition. We go hard in practice. Injuries happen. They all know they have to be ready to go in at any time and keep up the pace with everyone else.”
Tri-Valley will play at Livingston Manor and then host Roscoe. Games with Manor last year were the toughest tests of the regular season. “Kevin (Clifford) does a great job and they’re always tough. I think it will be close,” said Tenbus.
Tri-Valley has seen all of its league opponents except Eldred who they will play twice in the final week of the season. Chester will return to Tri-Valley on January 23rd. “They’re a great team. They have height. Mardelle Jean is playing really well,” he noted. “It’s going to be a battle.
Looking far down the road Tenbus knows that Coleman is waiting. The 2011 Class D champs were pushed up to Class C by Section Nine. Coleman is the odds-on favorite to be the number one seed going in and Tenbus has told his team that if they want to vie against Coleman they’ll have to be the two seed. That means winning out in Division V.
That’s a long way off as the Lady Bears have only traversed the first third of their regular season sojourn. But at this crossroads, Tenbus’s small wonders are wondrous to say the least.
Count on this writer/photographer to see much more of Class C Lady Basketball in the coming weeks. Harried and busy as I am, “Home is where the heart is,” and for me, that means courtside on the cutting edge of great hardwood encounters.
More to come.
For an album of photos, visit www.sportsinsights.smugmug.com
Last year’s momentous 18-2 run that reached its zenith with the 40-27 Section Nine Championship win over Millbrook was a storybook season.
For first year Coach John Tenbus, to have his team “Reach the Unreachable Star,” was a dream come true as it was for his standout senior Jakki Pugh, whose “Eternal Flame,” provided the heat and the light to guide her young teammates to the historic
