New era

Monticello gains a split in Hawley tourney opener as Russo debuts as coach

By RICHARD A. ROSS

WALLENPAUPACK, PA — To temper steel, you have to subject it to intense heat. The creation of razor sharp swords also requires pounding and honing. Building great basketball teams is born of a similar process.

Basketball games are heated encounters that are both physically and mentally pounding. To prevail on the hardwood requires strength, will and resiliency and that takes preparation, sweat, determination and skilled guidance.

Consider adversity as an accelerant to mature this process, for it is in facing challenges that we are offered our greatest opportunity to strengthen ourselves while forging courage and fortitude to better face the coming trials.

For the young Monticello Panthers taking to the floor with their new head coach, Chris Russo, in his first game as head man in the post Dick O’Neill era, the season opener would be an early test of mettle. Though Monticello came up short in its 38-35 loss to Mid Valley at the 11th Annual Hawley Rotary Tip-Off Tournament opener on December 5, the young team, hampered by a spate of early-season injuries, nearly pulled this one out of the fire with a stunning fourth-quarter comeback.

Learning quickly to keep their heads up and work on some of their mistakes from the night before, the Monties went on to defeat Western Wayne 54-42 in the consolation game, paralleling their record in the tourney a year before when they lost in the championship game to Wallenpaupack. “We played a complete game all four quarters with added defense and energy,” said Russo following the win.

The saga of Monticello’s flashes of brilliance, interspersed with one quarter of lackluster play in the first game that put the Panthers in an 11-point hole from which they nearly emerged victorious, is spellbinding in its own right.

And even more so given the context of a new head coach and a team wracked by injuries.

Russo, who served as O’Neill’s assistant, was hand-picked by the Hall of Famer to be his replacement. After years of absorbing the wisdom and strategy from the coach who garnered 411 wins, it was now Russo’s turn to take over the historic Panther program.

Clearly the flagship sport at Monticello, hopes and expectations are always high. Year in and year out, even in the leanest times, you could always count on two things: Monticello teams would play a special brand of defense that really got after its opponents, and the Panthers would electrify onlookers with a fierce competitiveness that has yielded games that endure in memory.

This may be a new era, but those things haven’t changed a bit.

In the consolation round, the Panthers got a standout performance from junior guard Briar Patterson, who scored 23 points and had four assists. In addition, sophomore Shamell Moore had eight points, while fellow 10th grader Jesse Kapito had eight points and six rebounds.

In the first game, down by 11 points at the start of the fourth quarter, Russo’s team returned to the defensive intensity it had evinced in the first half, at the end of which it led 20-19. For the first seven-and-a-half minutes of the fourth quarter, Monticello held Mid-Valley to a mere four points and forced eight turnovers that brought the total to 19 for the game. With three pointers by Kapito and Frank Small, four points from Patterson and buckets from junior Demetre Elliot and sophomore Austin Billig, Monticello pulled within one with under a minute left to play. Moments earlier down by three, Billig fired up an open three that rimmed out but Russo applauded the effort. “I’m proud that he took that shot. A lot of kids would have shied away from that.”

Russo coached many of his current players at the junior varsity level. “I know what they can and cannot do,” he noted prior to the game. But the last thing he expected was to have to start three sophomores and two juniors in the season opener.

Pre-season injuries stripped the team of its three seniors. Devon Mathis is nursing an injured wrist, while Wesley Jones, one of the team’s only two big men, is out with an injured toe. Tyler Hutchens is sidelined with a high ankle sprain.

In addition, sophomore Juan Pena is out for the season with a torn ACL and freshman Justin Jenkins just had an appendectomy. You can understand why Russo refers to his team as “the walking wounded.”

But you have to go to war with what you’ve got, and though the seniors were consigned to the bench, they took up their role as enthusiastic and vocal supporters of the five that took the floor to start the game.

Elliot controlled the tip but the Monties couldn’t capitalize on their first look. Mid-Valley scored first with a bucket and one from Dominick Leonardo. Patterson answered with a drive down the lane for two. Both teams struggled on offense and shots were missed with the kind of regularity often seen in season openers.

Mid Valley got on top 6-2 with a bucket and free throw from Michael Cravath. A pair of Monticello steals were the product of intense helping defense, but yielded no points as the Monties were having control issues of their own. In the first quarter, Mid Valley turned it over seven times, but the Panthers coughed it up six times. That total would burgeon to 11 by game’s end.

In Pennsylvania, there is no shot clock, a fact that drastically alters the character of the game. Used to having to defend for a maximum of 35 seconds, Monticello practices to quickly get into its offensive sets and is unprepared to defend against a team that can play keep-away ad-infinitum.

The Panthers trailed 10-6 at the end of the first quarter. While its defense was getting the job done, Monticello rushed its shots and went one and out on a number of possessions.

Between quarters, Russo told his team, “Keep playing aggressive defense. Only two more fouls by them and we shoot free throws,” he said.

Mid Valley extended its lead with an opening bucket by Briton Hendricks, but Patterson dished to Elliot to make it 12-8. A free throw by Small led to a game-tying three from Billig at 5:44. The teams exchanged baskets as Strong tied it up at 14 with a put back. Strong gave the Panthers their first lead at 2:53. He’d score six points in the frame as the Monties outscored their opponents 14-9 to take a 20-19 lead into halftime. With the shot clock winding down, Moore fired up a shot from just inside the half court line and was slapped on the arm by a defender. No call was made and the teams headed into the locker room.

With Monticello set to inbound in the third quarter, the chance to set the tone was quickly lost as Moore missed a lay-up and M-V got on the board with a quick bucket followed by a three by Frank Feola, who was left alone in the left-hand corner.

Mid Valley profited by Monticello’s poor shot selections that led to one-and-done trips up the floor. Deploying a 9-0 run, Mid Valley outscored Monticello 13-1 in the third quarter. A five-and-a-half-minute Panther drought was broken by a free throw by Elliot.

By the end of the third quarter, Mid Valley was playing keep-away as they passed the ball around the perimeter to shave off valuable seconds from the clock. They led 32-21 as the fourth quarter began.

The Monticello comeback did not begin in earnest until the second half of the frame. Prior to that, buckets by Elliot and Patterson had kept the margin from being extended, but key misses on a free throw rebound from a Patterson miss and some shots close in weren’t helping the cause.

Amping up the defense, Monticello roared back following a bucket by Patterson as the scoreboard read 36-27. Each team turned it over before Kapito nailed a three to make it 36-30 at 239. Another Mid Valley turnover set up a three by Small to make it 36-33. Billig missed an open three to tie it, but Demetre Elliot’s bucket got the Panthers within one with 24.3 seconds remaining. Taking too long to foul, the Panthers let valuable seconds run off the clock. Jason Esperance was fouled and sunk both to make it 38-35. Monticello had a timeout and 18 seconds left. Russo called for a “through” play that would have yielded a pick by Kapito and a pop by Patterson, but the Panthers got away from that plan and Russo waited a bit too long to call his final time out. With only three seconds, left the Spartans sagged on inbounder Jesse Levine and the ball went out of bounds as time expired.

Russo was impressed by his team’s late grit. “You’re playing a lot of kids without a lot of experience. It was a tight game with a lot of adversity. I thought our kids handled it well. We had a chance to win it and that’s all you can ask for. Maybe next time in a situation like that, we knock down a shot and walk off happy,” he said.

“We went two-for-nine from the free throw line and it a close game that really hurts, but we got a lot of positives from a lot of kids who played some good minutes,” he added. “The bench was extremely supportive, so it was a good way to start the season in terms of our effort and enthusiasm.”

Mid-Valley was 11-for-17 from the stripe.

Billig led Monticello with seven points. Patterson and Strong had six, Frank Feola and Matt Cravath each had 10 for Mid Valley. Monticello won the Hawley Rotary Tip-Off Tourney in 2006. The Panthers hosted Fallsburg on December 9.

Visit riverreportersports.com for an album of photos from the opening round game.