Girls basketball

Division-leading Dawgs dominate O’Neill

Fanning’s fiery first quarter helps repel Raiders

By RICHARD A. ROSS

LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — A top-flight basketball team is like a finely tuned racecar. When its engine is purring and all of its components are clicking perfectly, it’s a thing to behold as it powers its way around curves and straight-aways.

But racecars need to be run regularly and require constant adjustments to operate in peak condition. So, too, do superior basketball teams. Layoffs and lack of practice are not conducive to efficient execution. So, it was with some trepidation that Sullivan West’s coach Ron Bernhardt looked forward to his team’s Division IV match up with James I. O’Neill on January 19.

It had been eight days since his team had last played, garnering their biggest win of the season by defeating John S. Burke Catholic in Goshen on January 11. Sensing the need to get right back to work and not linger in the limbo of reminiscing, Bernhardt was anxious to get his team ready.

But wily winter weather caused the cancellation of two consecutive days of practice prior to the impending Raiders’ invasion, and concerns that his team might have lost their edge led to some fitful nights of tossing and turning.

Bernhardt knew that O’Neill saw Burke’s defeat as a way to get into a three-way tie for the division lead. Sometimes a team will come out flat after a big win like that, and O’Neill’s coach Tom Mracek was hoping the Bulldogs would do just that. All Mracek needed was for his girls to come out clicking, and win. Then, the Raiders would be right in the mix. Mracek, however, also expressed pre-game concerns about his team’s lost practices. Coming in at 7-4 (1-1 OCIAA), the Raiders had been up and down thus far this season.

Both coaches looked forward to the opening minutes to see how their teams would handle the layoff and the intensity.

Bernhardt need not have worried.

Thus far in big games this season, his team has played with deliberate purpose, remarkably unaffected by the pressure. On this night that trend continued.

The Dawgs came out firing on offense and stifling O’Neill’s shooters on defense. Using a tight-man defense with ample help on the ball, Sullivan West forced turnovers aplenty and drove O’Neill’s Elizabeth Cannon to the perimeter. O’Neill looked tentative and slow, as if the layoff had really affected them. Their lack of fluidity, however, was more likely a product of the Bulldogs’ daunting defense.

Sullivan West’s Kate Fanning came out on fire, scoring 13 points in the first quarter to propel her team to an early 20-5 lead. Included in that were a pair of threes, one of which was from near NBA range. The Bulldogs never looked back, nor did they take their feet off the pedal. Using efficient passing to cutters inside, Fanning and Sarah Lander got the ball to open shooters, including April Ackermann, Rachel Houghtaling and Jen Pitz. Houghtaling showed her ability to garner assists as well. Lander got her shots, too, as the Bulldogs got good ball movement. Erin Bernhardt hit a three-pointer and the Dawgs built a 37-10 lead by halftime, and extended it to 51-17 by the end of the third quarter.

O’Neill found it difficult to get good looks at the basket, and when they did get openings, they missed shots even in close proximity to the basket. One bright spot was freshman guard Tiana Taylor, who led the Raiders with nine points off a trio of treys. Quick and athletic, she also got to the ball with great defensive alacrity and blocked shots from girls who had significant size advantage over her.

Cannon was held to four points, all scored on free throws. Neither team spent much time at the line. Sullivan West was three-for-five, while O’Neill was five-for-seven from the stripe.

The one-sided nature of this game doesn’t lend itself to a blow-by-blow description, but suffice it to say that Sullivan West got every player into the mix and nearly all of them scored in the process. This included Jess Pitz, who came on to score and handle the point late in the game; Patti Knack, who got a nice shot to go down in traffic; and Stephanie Meyer, who hit the last shot of the game from the corner.

O’Neill never got into the flow, and a number of its players seemed reluctant to shoot the ball, choosing to defer to Taylor, Cannon and Meghan Mumford, who added four points to the Raiders’ scant scoring.

Fanning led Sullivan West with 15 points, including a duo of three-pointers. Ackermann had 10; Erin Bernhardt had seven, including a three-pointer. Donna Kelly had a good game and scored six. Lander notched six points and had a number of nice assists. Jen Pitz had four.

Last year, the Bulldogs swept O’Neill, but had a tougher time in Highland Falls. The Raiders are tough in their own gym, so expect that rematch score to be a lot closer.

In the interim, the Bulldogs have only a brief respite before the rematch with Burke. Following a game against Fallsburg on January 23, the Lady Dawgs will have another hiatus during Regents week before the Eagles descend on January 31.

Mracek summed things up this way. “We have girls who are very good on offense, who don’t really play defense and vice versa. We have girls who are good defenders, who don’t really want to shoot the ball. [Sullivan West’s] defense shut us down and we didn’t do what we practiced. We didn’t really get any motion going until the middle of the third quarter. Hopefully, things will be better when we play them at home,” he said.

Bernhardt was pleased with the effort. “After Kate got us off to that great start and Lander got her early points, we got everyone into the mix tonight,” he said. Bernhardt hopes to get his girls together between exams, and travel to Minisink Valley for a scrimmage next week to keep his team sharp for the upcoming fray against Burke. Sullivan West improved to 8-2 (3-0 OCIAA), while O’Neill fell to 7-5 (1-2 OCIAA).