Albertus wins the Slam Dunk
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- December
- 29
Quite a stretch of games for Albertus. Yesterday it was Greece-Athena, an excellent team from Rochester. Today it was Lourdes, the favorite to win Class AA in Section 1. There’s a week off before the Falcons travel to Briarcliff, the Class B state champion that looks ready to repeat. Then it’s a visit from Class A champion Pearl River. Finally, the Falcons entertain unbeaten Irvington.
In Josh’s latest top 10, Lourdes is ranked 3rd, Briarcliff 1st, Irvington 6th, and Pearl River 7th. As of Sunday morning, the record of the five teams combined was 29-1. The only loss was by Pearl River to Briarcliff.
Of course you can add two more losses now that Greece-Athena and Lourdes ran into Albertus. If anyone is up for the challenge of facing those five nasty opponents in a row, it’s the Falcons. When it’s over they’d like to have handed four teams their first defeat.
Yesterday they needed an incredible comeback to knock off Greece-Athena. Down 17 points in the third and 14 in the fourth they won 62-58 to advance to the championship of the Slam Dunk. No amazing feats needed today. They beat Lourdes 65-47 in a game that wasn’t exactly a blowout, but wasn’t in doubt either.
Felicia DaCruz’s 10-point flurry to start the second half put them up 15 points, and the lead never got into single digits after that. Lourdes tried to press but DaCruz and Katelyn Spicer (left), the primary ballhandlers, beat it every time. They’d push up court and feed Alaina Walker for transition hoops that just inflated the lead more.
DaCruz and Walker had 21 points apiece. Walker got tournament MVP. I’m sure there’s no room left on her trophy case so you can probably buy the big hunk of plastic for $7.50 and a soda.
Now it’s a week off before they go to Briarcliff on Tuesday. Expect a huge crowd for that one. Both teams have been talking about it since preseason. There’s already a history because of last year’s sectional championship. It appears now that they also happen to be the two best teams in Section 1.
This entry was posted
on Monday, December 29th, 2008 at 6:56 pm by Jake Thomases. 
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Josh Thomson has done some of everything since joining The Journal News in March 2003. He began working for the Gannett weeklies during the winter of 2002 as a freelance writer. He joined the daily staff soon after and has since covered various high school and pro sports. Away from sportswriting, Josh lives in Westchester and spends his free time either with his fiancee, Sarah, or expertly managing his various championship-winning fantasy sports teams. He's visited 21 major-league baseball stadiums and insists that Fenway Park and Wrigley Field are the best by far. Josh graduated from Carmel High School in 1998, then went to Boston University, where, in 2002, he received a degree in communications with a minor in history.
Mahopac beat Brewster tonight in the Carmel tournament in spite of the worst display of refereeing ever.
Mahopac had a 12 point lead going into halftime, with Kavana pacing the offense with about 17-18 points until the refs inserted themselves into the game fouling her out mid way in the third (3 offensive!! Ridiculous!) But Mahopac was able to hold off Brewster with Felix’s strong play. Mahopac showed up tonight!
Reffing was horrible, the ‘standard’ for girls ball here in the Hudson Valley. The ref ‘Joe da nose” from Mahopac made a lot of calls and non calls for Pac down the stretch and saved their bacon…in my opinion. He stunk the joint up and his partner tried to balance things, making for a laughable outing for the men in stripes.
Oh, and while these gray-haired men entertained the fans a girls basketball game broke out. Did anyone notice?
These two are known to be two of the worst refs out there!! They should be FIRED! I as a Westchester/Putnam resident want to know why our hard earned $$$ is being given to incompetents.
When are the girls going to get a break. Both teams got killed with the “reffing”( if you can call it that). Felix should have been fouled out in the third- but the guy from Mahopac wouldn’t let that happen! These guys really do think its all about them, too bad they have to get in the middle of the game. I’m sure they NEVER PLAYED the game or they wouldn’t ref this BAD!
Brewster girls should win the Academy Award for flopping to draw the foul! That game was one of the most physical I’ve seen in HS girls bball, you can’t tell me kavana was guilty of three offensive fouls, some on sweet dishes to the center. I do not think the “Mahopac” ref was favoring Pac as they fouled out the best Pac guard on bogus calls! Would have been a blow out had the refs not taken her out of the game early in the third after she put up some big shots.
The reffing was less then stellar but it went both ways. You guys all amaze me with your talk first vs think first then talk comments. You are all focusing on the refs and not the hard play of all the girls.
Jesie had a great game coming out and hitting some big 3’s. Emily Tapio also had a great game banging it up with Felix (Emily a sophmore and Felix a Senior). Brewster had a great come back in the 3rd and there 2 freshman guards did a great job on the press. Quatrocchi also came up big in the come back with a big 3 and some long 2’s. Felix came up big in the last 3 minutes by playing big inside and earning some big baskets. This is what i was watching, not the terrible refs.
As to Jessie’s offensive fouls, go to the tape if you can get one and you will see, two of them were clearly offensive fouls, one of them was questionable and could have went either way (the 3rd one). It was a shame to foul her out on this one. But the refs also missed Quatrocchi being pushed out of bounds on a break down court which would have extended Brewster’s come back to a 3 point lead instead the missed call gave the ball back to mahopac and Mahopac went back on top by 1, and they missed Felix shoving her elbows into Tapio’s ribs … it was a veru physical game palyed by teo teams that both wanted the win
Bottom line, it was an exciting game to watch, great job girls, and Mahopac won and Brewster lost … too bad they are not in the same league, i’d love to see a re-match
Jake
Albertus a class B school playing in A beat Lourdes an A school playing up in AA.
A little research bud
For those of you anonymously beating on the refs: Any one of you cowards can sign up for the classes which usually begin in late September. And to BALANCE: Giving the name of a particular official is CLASSLESS!
refs at the AM – Lourdes game were so obviously in favor of AM. cheap calls, no calls on AM for fouls when they were clearly knocking players to the floor (3 players were collapsing on the post)and they were banging bodies on lay ups no calls. refs called a foul on Dweck and she was not even within 2 feet of Walker, Walker fell on her own. Crittenden had 2 cheap calls that put her on the bench with four fouls in the 3rd, she is critical on defense and rebounding. Dweck and Whittaker were on the bench and fouled out in the 4th, they are key to pacing the team. refs knew who to get off the floor and when, it worked, gave AM an advantage. no excuses, refs don’t lose games, but they sure helped AM at this one. Lourdes did not play their usually strong defensive game. they had key players on the bench in foul trouble and AM took advantage of that. good for them. AM played great, Lourdes looked like last years team, selfish offense, lack of passing. they focused too much on Walker and let 3 pt. shots get off. hopefully they’ve learned something from this loss. i am sure they had someone tape the game, the team should review it.
good luck to AM this season they are well coached and are a great team!
Fan,
Please don’t post stuff like that. AM completely outplayed Lourdes for the entire game. The refs, who were bad but what can you expect, had no effect on the outcome of the game. Sounds like the usual sour grapes to me.
Here we go again——
Stanner Grad “For those of you anonymously beating on the refs: Any one of you cowards can sign up for the classes which usually begin in late September. And to BALANCE: Giving the name of a particular official is CLASSLESS!”
This is the same argument every time Ref;s are called to the carpet for the “JOB-PAID JOB AT THAT”. Why don’t you come up with a new line!!! They were horrible and they continue to be horrible. Maybe calling them out by name is just whats needed so that everyone knows what their gonna get as soon as the guy shows up in the gym. Oh yeah, where is the “class” in inserting yourself in a game that the girls are playing. Calling Jessie on a 5th foul was STUPID. Lets stop this crap about them calling it bad for both teams. IF that’s the case call them what they are incompetent and FIRE them. I don’t pay for bad service at a restaurant why should we PAY for this horrible service. The AD of each and every school in Westchester/Putnam/Rockland, should be taking this up with the company that they contract out to ref. Its time parents contact the AD’s to get something DONE!!
Hey Stan,
A complete lack of accountability and oversight is not in vogue in our society any more. It’s out of date, and its harmful effects are reverberating throughout the land, with many a harmful effect to come…watch what they do with school budgets for 2009. We might not have basketball to disagree on…
People here post the names of players, who are minors, all the time. To refer to a ref without using his full name is totally within bounds in this realm. He is:
a) An adult.
b) Paid to do a job.
c) Accountable to someone.
The worst refs trickle down to the girls game. I spoke with some other influential persons in the crowd and they all knew ‘the worst’ refs were on hand…no mystery.
Accountability for the good of the kids, is that lacking “class”...nope. You are soaking wet on that one. Pressure on them to clean up their act is a civic responsibility, and called for by people that care about the game and the athletes.
If you ever questioned the President…you simply MUST run for office using your own infantile ‘logic’. You didn’t like your wife’s cooking last night…get a sex change in your view.
Yes the refs were horrible but that had nothing to do with the lost, lourdes took a 8-0 lead by working the ball inside, AM called timeout went to zone and packed the middle, Lourdes with no outside game, didn’t have a chance. This will prob be the formula, pack the inside, don’t let Whitaker and Dweck penetrate and dare them to beat you from the outside. They haven’t shown they can do that to date.
Hey CleanPlay,
If an argument is made repeatedly it isn’t necessarily invalid. No need for a “new line” when the “old line” remains accurate. Is your bitching about the officiating in girls basketball making things better? I agree that some officials are better than others. Some mechanics are also better than others; some cashiers are better than others; some teachers are better…you get the point. You want to FIRE some officials? Perhaps if you do some research you will find that there aren’t enough to cover all of the games in section one on any given day. Younger officials are needed but are perhaps unwilling to come into the system because of anonymous malcontents like you and others.
And Balance,
If you don’t like the incumbent then vote him out. If you don’t like the officiating in girls hoops then either join the board, come up with a plan to make the board better or stop being holier than thou like some of your counterparts.
Your argument is invalid. If we all followed your logic… I don’t like my mechanic.. well I’m going out to sign up to get my mechanics license?! Stop being ridiculous. Your just sound like your either a ref or a ref wanna be. Maybe if the officiating was held to a higher standard you might actually get people of integrity to come forward and look to become refs. Right now they do not get or deserve our respect. It has nothing to do with people like us on this board who do not ACCEPT this apathy or constant excuse making. Refs make bad calls but when the bad calls constantly out way the good calls, by the same BAD officials, something must be done. You still don’t get the fact these men and women are being PAID for a service. A service our daughters are not recieving. As far as voting out the incumbents, there is no contact information for anyone to call to file a complant regarding any ref. If you wnat to let that information out please do. Post it here. I”ll be happy to contact someone by phone or even send them video tape of these games where they can clearly see how bad the officiating is.
Just to add my two cents. I know some male refs, usually the younger more energetic ones, choose not to ref girls games, because of the slower pace.
“Refs knew who to get off the floor and when” sounds like a parent! Players HAVE to realize how refs are calling the game and adjust how they are going to play. That can go both ways!! Teams that can’t adjust their style are going to lose. Everybody thinks reffing is easy-it isn’t! You call them the best you can. As far as this game, when you get beat by 18 you can’t blame refs. I really thinks most refs could care less who wins! Pack it in on Lourdes-thanks for the tip!
FYI, the coaches rate the refs of their games
Still no contact information. I wonder why????
I attended the game and did not think the refs were that bad.
Total fouls—Our Lady of Lourdes 21, Albertus Magnus 18. Technical
fouls—Our Lady of Lourdes-None, Albertus Magnus-None.
I have the video, Dweck fouled out with a few minutes left, and Whittaker with a minute left in the game. Lourdes did not play a very good game. AM shot 42% Lourdes 27%. What really hurt Lourdes was long range shooting.
3 point range
AM 50% 7 of 14
Lourdes 11% 2 of 17
Here is the official box score and play by play
http://www.gse-nyc.com/slamdunk2008/wlourmag.htm
Lourdes only shot 27% for the game on 54 shots. A-M only got off 45 shots and shot 42% for the game. 42% is a high percentage for a ladys game. A-M will not go far only getting off 45 shots in a game in the long run. Most girls hs games are get off 60-70 shots. That must have been one ugly game! How many 30 second violations were there!!!!! Who is going to come out of section 1 AA this year to advance?
PlayD,
Greece Athena was a very good team they shot 55% against Cornwall, and 49% Vs AM. They lost to AM because they got into foul trouble early. AM shot 75% from the line for 15 points and GA only managed 50% for 10 points.
As for the getting shots off in all four games no team was able to get off 60 shots. I assume this is attributed to the quality defense? What’s amazing is GA only got off 34 shots against Cornwall. Many of the Lourdes fouls came in the 4th Q as they were trying to stop the clock. They only other sect 1 AA team I have seen is Ursuline imo they would do well against Lourdes.
Shots taken
Cornwall
53 54
Lourdes
47 54
GA
47 34
AM
56 45
Full girls and boys stats at the slam dunk
http://www.gse-nyc.com/slamdunk2008/tourstatg.htm
Jake,
Thanks for the stats-always interesting. In the Lourdes/A-M game, Lourdes turned the ball over 20 times and A-M had 21. Lourdes had 8 steals and A-M had 14. Turnovers kill a team because it is a missed opportunity to shoot the ball. Even if you miss the shot you have a chance for the rebound. Teams that got off 60-70 shots usually have strength inside and get offensive rebounds. That attributes to the additional shots-multiple shots per posession. That alone can wear down an opposing team when your team is hitting the offensive boards. Good defense can cause the turnovers. However, girls HS teams just throw the ball away sometimes. The boys are more athletic and can make saves on arrent passes. For GA to only get off 47 and 34 shots, I hope they get to the rim and are shooting layups! Even if they shot 40% for the game that is only 16 baskets (47 shots) and 12 baskets (34 shots). 40% for a HS game is a great percentage.