Basketball

Cats ‘n’ Dawgs

Graby and Murphy propel Sullivan West to a non-league win over improving Monticello

By RICHARD A. ROSS

MONTICELLO, NY—In the wild, felines and canines are predators who must use their guile, strength and speed to aggressively hunt their prey, as well as to defend themselves against attacks by others whose objective is to make them the hunted.

While the numbers of both species are diminishing in the wild, their domesticated cousins are far more prevalent. In basketball terms, that means there’s less roaring and ferocious howling these days and far more meows and yips.

For Monticello coach Karen Atack, who coaches the Lady Panthers, and Sullivan West coach Ron Bernhardt, who coaches the Lady Bulldogs, the memory of days when their teams that were anything but tame remains strong.

As the 2008-09 season winds through its nascent days, both coaches seek to imbue their teams with the hunger, relentless will, stamina and mental acumen necessary to survive the predatory world where only the strong can survive.

Harkening back to days when dangerous Panthers were on the prowl, Atack remembers the Katina Mack era. Mack’s stellar play helped fuel a run of Section Nine Class B titles in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Monticello won titles in 1987-88, 1989-90 and 1990-91 during Mack’s tenure. Mack went on to Penn State where she lent her grit, toughness and lethal scoring to another group of felines, the Lady Nittany Lions. During her time at Penn State, Mack was an integral part of a pair of Big Ten titles.

In times before Mack (1980-81) and after her (1994-95), Monticello rose to the zenith of the section. Atack would love nothing more than to have her teams take on the characteristics of their former Panther namesakes: quick, smart and deadly.

Over recent years, Lady Panther basketball has become far too tame for Atack, and game-by-game this season, she is working on those aspects that will make Monticello more like the hunter and less like the hunted. Last year Monticello was 5-13.

Though it has started out this year at 0-3, Monticello is starting to show signs that the team is rediscovering some of its fight.

Ron Bernhardt knows what it’s like to have Lady Bulldog teams that are tough and tenacious. Sitting next to him on the bench during this game was former standout April Ackermann, who personified that brand of Lady Bulldog basketball.

Bernhardt hopes that Ackermann can help his current team develop the feisty stubbornness that gave rise to former Lady Bulldog teams that literally refused to lose.

In January of 2006, Ackermann, then a senior, and her teammates defeated John S. Burke on the Lady Eagles’ home court in Goshen, NY, something the Bulldogs had never done. (That story, “The Twelfth of Never,” can be read at riverreportersports.com in the basketball archives.) A few weeks later, the Dawgs beat Burke again, this time in Lake Huntington for an unprecedented season sweep. (See the “Lakequake” story on the website). The following year, Sullivan West mounted another great assault but suffered a meltdown in the semifinals against Highland.

Last year, Sullivan West went 18-3 in the regular season and lost to Burke in the semifinals. With only three losses to Burke and one to Cornwall, Sullivan West was near the top of the food chain, but losing Sarah Lander and Jennifer Pitz to graduation, and Rachel Houghtaling who is currently ineligible, has rendered Sullivan West far less lethal.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” noted Bernhardt following his team’s 57-33 win over the improving Lady Panthers (0-3). That work centers first around defense and rebounding. Bernhardt knows it’s a jungle out there and other teams will rend and tear a team apart that can’t defend and box out.

Garnering a split in the tough tournament at Valley Central, the Lady Bulldogs showed they have potential to play tough. After losing the opener to Wallkill, they went on to beat Valley Central 52-47 in overtime in the consolation game.

With a nucleus of Katrina Graby in the middle and the deft shooting of Lindsey Murphy, the Lady Bulldogs have a pair of legitimate threats. Graby poured in 19 in this outing and Murphy added 15. Bernhardt can also count on veteran forward Vicky Argueta and Ella MacDonald who missed most of last season with a knee injury.

Lindsey Bauer and Kristen Drobysh also have varsity experience, but Bernhardt has several newcomers who are yet to be fire-tested at this level. They include Autumn Ackermann, Briana Kline, Joanna Trujillo, Rita Yewchuck and Cindy Szeflinksi.

This game featured far too many turnovers on both sides, something that concerned both coaches.

Sullivan West got on the board first with a put back by Murphy. Mandee Heal tied it up and the first of nine steals by Nyoki Tate led to an early Lady Panther lead as she sunk a free throw. A three by Murphy gave the Lady Dawgs the lead they would never again relinquish. Sullivan West’s helping man defense forced Monticello into seven first-quarter turnovers and shut them out the rest of the frame.

Following Murphy’s trey, the Lady Bulldogs reeled off an 8-0 run to close the quarter with a 13-3 lead. Murphy accounted for nine points in the period.

Graby opened the second quarter with a bucket and Tate answered back. Though Monticello has been working diligently on trying to box out its opponents, Sullivan West showed the edge on the glass. A put back by Drobysh and a nice jumper from Murphy extended the lead to 19-5.

A pair of buckets from Monticello’s Anastasia Bowden, four points from Tate, two from Valentina Rraci and one from Dorentina Rraci helped Monticello keep the game within reach. Graby came alive with nine points in the frame for Sullivan West. Using good foot skills around the basket, Graby had her way with the smaller Lady Monties who had trouble defending against her.

Both Graby and Murphy have been part of the winning program over the past couple of years. They were freshmen call ups in Ackermann’s last season.

Sullivan West led 26-14 at halftime.

In the third quarter, the Lady Bulldogs pulled away as they outscored the Lady Panthers 18-8. Graby had six and Kline had four. Bauer, Drobysh and Szeflinksi contributed a bucket apiece. Once again, turnovers hurt Monticello’s effort as it gave it up seven times in the frame. Sullivan West also showed laxity in handling the ball. It had seven turnovers as well, and by night’s end had nearly as many lost possessions as its less experienced counterparts. Had Monticello been better able to convert some of its steals into points, the game might have been much closer. At least seven layups or shots in close were missed by game’s end. “That’s 14 points,” Atack would later note.

A three by Tate and a bucket each from Yadira Montes and Dorentina Rraci were all the offense Monticello could muster in the period. Sullivan West led 44-22 at the end of the third quarter.

Tate showed the kind of intensity and hustle that Atack hopes the rest of her team will mirror. Racing to grab steals and converting them into points, Tate scored seven of the Monties’ 11 points in the final quarter as Monticello’s output came close to matching Sullivan West’s 13, a product of four each from Bauer and Graby, along with buckets from Argueta and Murphy and a free throw from Kline.

Tate had her ninth and final steal just before the buzzer signaled the Sullivan West (2-1) win.

The Lady Bulldogs were six-for-ten from the line. Monticello was three-for-eight.

Atack talked about the hustle evinced by Tate even though the team was far behind. “We’re working on it day by day,” said Atack, whose team looked much better than it did in its season-opening loss to Tri-Valley. “Boxing out was our biggest weakness and we’ve been working on that. We’re very small, so we have to try and outsmart the other team,” she said.

Reflecting back to the days of Lady Panther success, Atack noted, “Hustle and intensity is what Monticello basketball used to look like. We’re just not used to seeing that. People who are hustling out there are the ones I’m going to play, whether they’re scoring or not.”

Monticello lost to Warwick on December 12 and then will travel to Port Jervis on December 18 for its first league game.

Bernhardt viewed the win in perspective. “We didn’t show much team energy or seem to gel tonight. We played a tough tournament over the weekend and got a split. We don’t have a big margin for error. Losing Lander, Pitz and Houghtaling all at once has been tough. They took care of a lot of business. Defense and rebounding: that’s where the current work starts,” he said.

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