Girls: Ossining runs past Monroe-Woodbury
WHITE PLAINS, NY- There was a good amount of concern for Ossining head coach Dan Ricci before his teams NYSPHSAA Class "AA" Regional Semifinal against Monroe-Woodbury on Tuesday. His team was coming off a pair of impressive wins to win the Section 1 Championship, and having them full ready to go against a tough a Lady Crusaders team was something that worried the legendary coach.
For most of the opening half there was reason to be concerned as his Ossining team wasn't playing strong all around basketball, but a passionate halftime speech brought out renewed enthusiasm as the Pride were able to take control in the second half to roll to a 60-44 victory.
While Ricci was worried about his team's energy level leading into Tuesday's game at White Plains H.S., he was also concerned because of the extreme contrast of styles between the two teams. Ossining is a run and gun team that likes to push the tempo and score in the open floor, while Monroe-Woodbury is a halfcourt team that likes to slow things down and keep the game as low scoring as possible.
The question was whose style of play would win out, and early on it was Monroe-Woodbury's as they were able to drag the game down into a halfcourt perimeter affair, keeping the scoring down and giving the Lady Crusaders a chance against the normally high powered attack of Ossining.
Ossining, even playing Monroe-Woodbury's style, was still able to get out to a 20-6 lead with 5:10 left in the second quarter, primarily because they were stepping up their defensive pressure and creating a good number of steals and turnovers, which in turn did allow the Pride to get enough easy baskets to take the 14-point lead.
Even with that solid start, the Lady Crusaders were able to fight their way back into it as they moved the ball better in the last 4 minutes of the half as Willow Duffell '17 was able to get the ball in positions to score down low, and with the shooting touch of both Maya Bernsley '17 and Brianna DeLeo '17 getting going, Monroe-Woodbury got themselves back in the thick of things, cutting the Ossining lead at the half to just 27-23.
It was once again anyone ball game and that didn't sit well with Ricci. He knew the first 16 minutes were far from the best they had to offer and stressed to his team that this is not the way they wanted to go out.
"I told them at the half that you got to play like your life depends on it," Ricci stated. "Right now, we are lollygagging our way through this thing and we got to come out and really play if we want to win."
Having heard many of Ricci's speeches, star senior guard Andra Espinoza-Hunter '17 called this one of his more impassioned ones, really stressing the importance of the game and getting them back focused on the job at hand, and not on the Section 1 title win 48 hours earlier.
Clearly the right words were said as Espinoza-Hunter scored 10 straight for Ossining out of the gate in the second half to put the Pride back up by double digits just over halfway through the 3rd quarter, and from there they never looked back.
So much attention started to be paid to Espinoza-Hunter that after slow starts, Kelsey Quain '18 began to find her range from deep, and Kailah Harris '19 was able to score on offensive putbacks down low as well. The lead was pushed to 14 after three quarters, and with the halfcourt sets not leading to much in terms of offense for Monroe-Woodbury, they struggled to keep up.
Duffell did all she could inside for the Lady Crusaders, but the pressure and athleticism of Ossining's began to wear down Monroe-Woodbury as the lead grew to as big as 21 in the 4th quarter, and while they had a fantastic season up to this point, coming into Tuesday unbeaten on the year, all good things ultimately come to an end as the Pride were able to fight through sluggishness early and run away with things late to take a 60-44 win.
Scoring a game high 31 points was Espinoza-Hunter for Ossining as the UConn bound star was a force throughout for the Pride, and in this game particularly, Ricci said he knew how big she truly was.
"This was a tough one because Monroe-Woodbury is a really good team who plays some really tough defense so thank goodness we had Andra on our side because she made some really big shots," Ricci admitted.
There was just too much offensive firepower on the Ossining side for Monroe-Woodbury to overcome as even with Duffell's 16 points, and the 10 points from Bernsley it wasn't enough as they fell for the first time this season, ending there year here.
It's Ossining who are moving on as they will next take on Elmira out of Section 4 this coming Sunday at Johnson City H.S. just outside of Binghamton in a game that will see the winner move on to the NYSPHSAA Class "AA" State Semifinals. It's a big game for the Ossining, and with so much on the line, Ricci says he is extremely confident that the Pride will come out with a much better overall effort than they did on Tuesday, knowing what a win there would bring once again.
"We are just one step away from states so if we still need to be getting up for games then something is really wrong. I don't think that will be an issue and I know we will be ready."
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