Girls: LuHi Overtakes Jamesville-DeWitt
BRONX, NY- It may not have been the complete game that Long Island Lutheran head coach Rich Slater was hoping for, but a strong defensive effort in the 4th quarter allowed the Crusaders to pull away late and take a 63-50 victory over Jamesville-DeWitt at the Say Yes to Success Showcase on Monday afternoon.
Coming off a win against Capital Prep (CT) on Saturday at the Rose Classic, LuHi looked as if they were back on track after a loss at home last Sunday to one of the nation's best in Manasquan (NJ).
That isn't to say that the Crusaders played poorly against Manasquan, they played one of their better games of the season before falling in 2 OT's, and Slater said that even in a defeat he wants to see his team play like they did against New Jersey's best more often.
"These kids have to play hard all the time and understand that everyone and every game is Manasquan," Slater said.
He sometimes has noticed lapses in his team's play on both ends of the floor, and again on Monday against the NYSPHSAA Class "A" favorites, he was seeing the same things.
Angela Bussone '17 knocked down a 3 from the left wing to open the scoring and put Jamesville-DeWitt up on top early, but luckily for LuHi Celeste Taylor '19 was rising to the challenge as the sophomore guard had 8 opening quarter points to help push the Crusaders into the lead, but they were also letting the Red Rams hang around.
Meg Hair '18 was able to attack and find driving lanes, while Julia Kelner '17 was having good success posting up in the paint and scoring with an array of moves inside.
Long Island Lutheran was maintaining a lead, but they clearly weren't playing with the effort of desire that a frustrated Slater was looking for as even with Amani Free '18 scoring 4 points as the first half wound down, the Crusaders were still only up 29-24 at the half.
Even with a 5-point lead at halftime, Slater was unhappy with most of what he had seen. He felt his team looked tired, not playing with the energy that he was wanting from them.
"It's maturity and its learning and having the confidence to do it," Slater stated. "They see we can do it so I'm not asking them to do something they can't do."
He stressed his wants from his team at halftime, but Slater still felt like he wasn't getting it. Credit goes to Jamesville-DeWitt as well as they were stepping up to the challenge and playing toe to toe with what many consider to be New York's best this season as Kelner had 6 points in the 3rd, while Hair finished the quarter with a 3 from the wing to make it just 41-38 for the Crusaders heading into the 4th.
Within just 3, Jamesville-DeWitt head man Rob Siechen was happy with where his team was as they went into the 4th quarter, but he also expressed concern that the first couple of minutes would be key.
"I was worried about late in the 3rd and early in the 4th, it was the spot in my head I was concerned about," Siechen said.
It proved to be a rightful worry as hoping to change the tempo and get easier baskets, Slater went to a full court press that clearly rattled the Red Rams as Free was able to get a bucket while getting fouled to open the quarter, and then off a steal it was Taylor who pulled up and knocked down the midrange jumper to give LuHi a 46-38 lead less than 90 seconds into the final stanza.
Siechen called a timeout to try and settle his group down, but LuHi would still score another bucket when Free pulled up and connected on an elbow jumper with 7:02 to go, giving the Crusaders their first double digit lead of the game.
Kelner kept getting in good spots down low to finish for J-D, but even when she scored the Red Rams defense couldn't seem to contain Emma Cuccurullo '18 who was able to knock down a huge three from the right corner, expanding the lead to as much as 16 with just over 3 minutes to play.
Pretty it may not have been for Long Island Lutheran, but they were able to come up with a big final quarter to open the game up, eventually coming away with the 63-50 victory.
Free paced the way for Long Island Lutheran with 23 points and 14 rebounds, while Taylor had 22 points and Cuccurullo added 13 points in what proved to a tough, and gritty, win for the Crusaders.
It may have been in a loss but Siechen felt his team really came of age and learned a lot off this one. Hair came on late to finish with 17 points to lead Jamesville-DeWitt, while Kelner had a strong game in the paint and added 12 points and 13 rebounds as well in the defeat.
Always wanting the best from his team, Slater felt that the 4th quarter was a very solid 8 minutes that they were able to put together, but outside of that he stressed that there is still a lot of work to do. They have big goals and aspirations the rest of this season and he believes that this coming week will tell a lot about his group of Crusaders.
"We have Bergtraum and on Thursday then we go to Baltimore for two games so we got tough ones coming up and hopefully we bring it and play the way we need to win."
