A close battle between Starpoint and Orchard Park saw the Lady Spartans take down the Lady Quakers on Thursday night 48-40 at Maryvale High School.
The Lady Spartans’ victory set up a showdown between themselves and North Tonawanda at Buffalo State University on Sunday for the Section VI Class AA title, and Starpoint coach Megan Reed expounded upon the type of team that has allowed them to get this far.
“We have a lot of talent on this team – I'd say we have four or five players who are really good shooters,” Reed said. “Sometimes we're an outside team, where we shoot a lot of threes, and then sometimes we're an inside team. I think we're really decent on defense as well.
“I have so many great kids who bring something to the table. That's why I call us a comprehensive team – you never know what you're going to get with this team. So it doesn't make it easy to prepare for us.”
On the flip side, Orchard Park coach Gary Janas believed that in time, his team will learn from the loss and come back stronger.
“We knew they were going to come out with their full court pressure, and I think about 80% of the time we were able to break it and get some opportunities, but then we would overpass,” Janas said. “We're also prepared for their two-three zone defense. We had ways to get some outside looks for shots. But we beat ourselves a little bit against a team with length, speed and athleticism, and they’re a well-coached team. What I told them with Starpoint is, we have to minimize our passes. It's screen a guard, get downhill, look for one pass and a shot, and when we made one pass and a shot we scored. When we made three passes, it resulted in a turnover, and I think we were getting tired and pressing a little bit. So we’re still maturing and this experience should help us down the road.”
The first three quarters of the game were very close, resulting in being deadlocked at 32 all entering the fourth. Every time Starpoint would make a shot, get a rebound or convert a free throw, Orchard Park would do the same.
Then came the fourth, in which the Lady Spartans would outscore the Quakers 16-8. But it wasn’t without some shrewd tactical moves by Reed, as she called a timeout about a minute into the stanza of play just as her team was starting to make a run.
“I think we started the quarter out strong, but she was just trying to remind us to do what we need to do to finish the quarter out and play good defense,” Sophia Waliszewski said. “She always tells us to not over-extend ourselves and keep up our energy, and that’s what we did.”
10 of those 16 points came from Megan Milleville, who finished with a team-high 18. Milleville also took the time to let her leadership come into play.
“I kept saying to the girls in the fourth quarter, ‘Right now,’” Milleville said. “I just kept saying it because it was for seven of us seniors, it’s right now or it's never going to happen again. So we just needed to work our hardest and do it for each other, and I think that's what kind of pushed us through.
“I just trust all of them, and that was what I was trying to tell them, is just to trust yourselves, because I'm right behind you.”
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