Boys’ basketball

Counterpunch: Bulldogs deliver a haymaker to Burke

‘Dawgs’ ride senior night mania to repay Burke with division-tying win

By RICHARD A. ROSS

LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — Much like the historic heavyweight bouts between Mohammad Ali and Joe Frazier, Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard, or Joe Louis and Max Schmelling, the battle for basketball supremacy between Sullivan West and John S. Burke Catholic has become a suspenseful contest marked by great reversals of fortune.

The struggle for the right to be named Section 9 Class B boys’ basketball champion has the trappings of a championship title fight played out in rounds with surprisingly different outcomes. The two teams have met twice this season, with each team winning on its own floor, and now, the prospect of a deciding sectional final bout offers basketball fans a potential title fight that could be talked about for years to come.

Those legendary boxing title bouts were staged in packed arenas crackling with immeasurably electric atmospheres, and each was marked by periods of dominance by one fighter over his seemingly defeated opponent. These battles are deemed classics because the one-sided momentum of given rounds was supplanted by miraculous comebacks.

In all three iconic clashes, a battered competitor got up off the mat to fight back with fury and passion. Louis did it in the rematch, destroying Schmelling in just over two minutes in the 1938 battle at Yankee Stadium, which took place after Schmelling humiliated him in an earlier fray. The other two fights went the distance with rounds of punishing punch and counterpunch before the referee ultimately raised one boxer’s hand to declare the winner.

Fast forward to the current local hardwood scene and you can be sure that before it’s all over between the Bulldogs and the Eagles, both teams will know they’ve been in a fight to the death.

With the ascension of last year’s dominating champ, Red Hook, to Class A, the Class B crown is up for grabs and the race is shaping up as a battle of epic proportions between the two schools. Lurking in the wings is Highland, a powerful dark horse that hopes to steal the mantle from both of its more acknowledged rivals. But for now, the focus remains on Burke (14-6, 5-1 OCIAA) and Sullivan West (16-3, 5-1 OCIAA).

Round one went to Burke at home on January 10 with the Eagles humbling Sullivan West 67-51. In the February 11 rematch held at Sullivan West, the Bulldogs came out fighting and KO’d the Eagles, in similar fashion, 56-43.

Both teams’ double-digit wins were fed by home-crowd energy and featured suffocating help defense that hampered opponents’ effectiveness. In addition, each team demonstrated its ability to run in the open floor and capitalize on an up-tempo pace to fuel red-hot shooters who produced points in dizzying flurries.

After suffering the humiliating defeat down at the Eagles’ aerie in Goshen, the senior-led Bulldogs worked hard to deny Burke a season-sweeping win in Lake Huntington and earn the bragging rights that would have gone with wresting the Division IV title away from Sullivan West.

“This game was special to us,” said senior Joe Meyer, the game’s leading scorer. “I don’t think they thought we’d come out with fire, but we did.”

‘Bring ‘em out, bring ‘em out’

As the Bulldogs warmed up to the tumultuous cheers of the packed crowd in Lake Huntington, reverberating echoes of rap lyrics repeated the mantra, “bring ‘em out, bring ‘em out.” At the opposite end of the floor the Eagles did the same amid the din. With chest-banging enthusiasm Brett Youmans introduced the five starting Bulldogs and incited the players, who seemed to need only a tiny spark to get things going. The crowd’s enthusiasm would certainly fan the flames, but few could have imagined that in the course of the first 16 minutes that a spark would become a welder’s torch in the hands of Meyer and teammate Sean Semenetz.

Following Burke’s control of the tip and a quick basket by Andrew Jackson, Meyer answered right back with a basket and one. The fiery senior stole the ball on Burke’s next trip up the floor and feathered it home, and the Bulldogs began to smolder at 5-2.

But Burke came with its own flamethrowers. Jason Green made a pair of free throws and Jackson hit another shot, giving Burke a 6-5 lead. As Meyer’s three-pointer rattled out, Semenetz grabbed the rebound, bolted out beyond the arc and swished his first three-pointer to stoke the fire back up to an 8-6 simmer. Burke met fire with fire as Jackson’s strong move to the rim tied the game at eight, and point guard Johnny LaFrance floated one in from the top of the key to put Burke on top again at 10-8. But it was the last lead the Eagles would see. Suddenly mired and unable to soar, the Eagles began to plummet to earth, powerless to escape the coming inferno.

‘Come on baby light my fire, try to set the night on fire.’ —The Doors

Semenetz hit a three-point shot from the left corner. Burke couldn’t convert and on the next trip up, Meyer dropped in a back underhanded scoop. After Green traveled, Meyer hit a three. Jackson’s shot rimmed in and out and Meyer hit another trey as Sullivan West led 19-10. The fighters headed to their corners at the end of the first quarter to slake their thirst from the torrid pace.

The buzzer sounded the opening of the second frame and the conflagration spread even further. Meyer hit his third trey. Semenetz delivered a perfect feed to Derek Hahn and when the smoke cleared, the Bulldogs led 24-10.

And then just like that someone turned off the jets.

For a period of nearly four minutes the Bulldogs went ice-cold and the Eagles turned toasty warm. Mike Murtagh iced a three and LaFrance went two-for-two from the line. Sullivan West fired blanks and then Green’s three pushed the score to 24-18.

Sullivan West called a time-out, and after the breather the Bulldogs turned up the defensive pressure and the Eagles turned it over on two straight trips.

Semenetz hit his third three and Hahn added to the scoring. With the Bulldog lead back up to 10 at 31-21, the teams retired to their locker rooms and the crowd cooled down to watch the cheerleaders perform their scintillating routine.

The third quarter began with a nice cut to the basket by Jackson on a feed from LaFrance, but for the duration of the period, the Eagles would only score seven more points to the Bulldogs’ 15.

The time for hesitation’s through;

No time to wallow in the mire,

Come on baby light my fire.

Sullivan West’s semi-auto Semenetz found Hahn for two just before Meyer hit his fourth three of the night. Hahn scored and got the free throw to go down. Kelly hit a free throw and later bounced a great pass to Hahn across the lane for two more, and just like that, it was 46-30 after three quarters.

But you know Burke has a run in them.

Bingo. Burke was back up and fighting. Here they came to douse their opponents’ flames for another lengthy stretch.

Mark Behan hit an arcing shot for three, and on Burke’s next trip he scored again. Jackson nailed two from the charity stripe and the lead was down to nine. But for Burke the clock had become the enemy. Forced to foul, the Eagles put Kelly and Meyer on the line and the rest is history.

“They did a great job of getting back defensively,” said Burke coach Chris Neidig. “We didn’t ratchet up our defense enough in the first half. They went nearly four minutes without scoring but we didn’t get buckets on some of our trips. They obviously fed off of the fact that it was senior night. They did a much better job in transition than they did down in our place. This was a lot of fun. We’ll see them again,” Neidig said.

Ellison and his assistants had seen the film of the first encounter with Burke ad nauseum. “Our help defense was non-existent down at Burke,” Ellison said. “This time out we wanted to slow them down so they couldn’t just get that quick outlet. LaFrance is very good at that. Burke is an extremely athletic team and we know that meeting them again is going to be a battle.”

Meyer said, “This could have been our last game on this floor and it makes it special that we won.” Teammate Joe Winksi added, “It feels great leaving your home court with a big win, but there’s lots more work to do. It was a win but not as big as the one they put up against us so we’ve got to work harder.”

Asked about how the victory would affect the team’s psyche, Winski said, “We know we can beat them.” Ellison noted that his seniors are loaded with experience and a number of them have played in upwards of 60 varsity games.

Meyer led all scorers with 22 points. Hahn had 17. Jackson posted 13 for the Eagles and Green had 12. As of this writing a decision about whether the two teams would play off for the Division IV title or simply share it had not been rendered. Both coaches expressed the desire to defer the final battle until the sectionals. After Highland’s loss to Pine Plains on February 11, Sullivan West would likely be the number one seed, Burke the number two and Highland the number three. Of added interest is the fact that this year’s Class B Section 9 winner will get a bye in the first round of regional play and will need only one win to advance to the semi-finals at Glens Falls.