Rotary Club of Williamsville Tournament
North too strong for South, wins event for third year
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Williamsville South’s Frank Pieri, right, battles for a rebound with a Starpoint defender during the Billies’ come from behind 61-56 win in opening round action of the Rotary Club of Williamsville Tournament held Dec. 28 at South. South lost to Williamsville North, 53-47, in the finals on Friday. Pieri won the sportsmanship award. Photo by John Rusac

Williamsville North won the battle on the boards against Williamsville South and left South as three-time Rotary Club of Williamsville Tournament champions.

Tournament MVP Ryan Young almost had as many rebounds as the entire South team, 17-20, as the Spartans won, 53-47, in Friday’s final. Young also had 10 points.

“They abused us on the boards,” said South coach Al Monaco. “I mean that as a compliment for them. In the entire first half, we had five rebounds. For the game, they may have had as many points on putbacks of off offensive rebounds then everything else combined. They just were bigger, stronger and more physical and wanted it more rebounding wise. That’s to me where we lost the game. Bad rebounding and bad shooting (1-for-17 from three-point range) equals a bad combination.”

South jumped out to an early 12-3 lead thanks to transition baskets, three coming from Frank Pieri (18 points, 9-of-15 shooting, 7 rebounds), and were up, 16-11, by the end of the quarter. But North’s switch from a man to man to 2-2-1 half-court defense, along with dominating the boards, cut the deficit to, 27-26, by halftime. The Spartans also denied the Billies many chances to run its transition offense and generate space for South’s leading scorer, Adrian Wood.

“They were definitely quicker than us and more comfortable in that up-tempo game than we were,” said North coach Chuck Swierski. “Our thought was, ‘let’s try to slow them down and get them into more of a half court game’, and it seemed to work.” Wood, who passed Andre

Graves, Brandon Woods and Chris Barrett to move into fifth all-time at South in scoring (895), was held to a basket and two free throws in the first half, and 13 points overall.

“They always knew where he was,” Monaco said. “We like to get him the ball in space and we weren’t doing a good job doing that. When he got space, they collapsed on him and if he would kick it out, nobody else picked up the slack.”

Swierski said his point guard John Piaggione (five points) did a good job defending Wood.

“We know Wood’s a talent and we focused on him,” he said.

The third quarter saw six lead changes with South ahead at the end, 39-38. Only Wood and Pieri scored for the Billies.

Tied at 43-43 in the fourth, the Spartans outscored the Billies, 10-6, the rest of the way, including an Alex Calderon basket and a putback from Young off a missed Alex Barth free throw that put them ahead, 51-43.

P.J. Coppola drained South’s only three with 45.6 seconds left to cut the lead to 51-47, but Zach Boron (11 points) added two free throws to seal the Spartans’ third straight win.

“Earlier in the season, those are the plays that teams were doing to us instead of us doing to them,” said Swierski.

Alex Barth led North with 13 points.

South point guard Mark Coppola dished out seven assists.

North and South made it to the finals with different kinds of wins on Thursday. North dominated Fredonia, 72-48, while South had to come back to defeat Starpoint, 61-56.

North made 21 steals en route to a 31-17 halftime lead and 51-36 advantage after the third quarter.

“Our defense keyed the offense,” said Swierski.

Piaggione led North with 16 points, six steals and five assists and held Fredonia’s best player, Pat Mahany, to 10 points. Young added 15 points and 16 rebounds.

South trailed Starpoint after the first three quarters, 10-7, 29-27, and 49-43, but scored the first 10 points of the fourth, eight from Wood in transition, to go up, 53-49, and never looked back. Wood finished with a tournament record and career-high 35 points on 16-of-25 shooting and eight rebounds.

Pieri added nine points and 11 rebounds. Mark Coppola had a career-high 11 assists to go along with eight points and no turnovers. He turned the ball over twice against North.

Wood, Mark Coppola and Boron made the all-tournament team. Pieri won the sportsmanship award.

North and South each return to action at 7:30 p.m. Friday with huge league games. South (3-1, 4-5) hosts Williamsville East. The winner will be in first place in ECIC Division II. North (1-3, 5-5) is at Sweet Home. The Spartans beat Sweet Home twice last year.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com