Little Coppola plays huge in South win over East
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Mark Coppola is listed on the Williamsville South basketball roster as 5-foot-1, 105-pounds but the tiny freshman guard played like a four-year starter against Williamsville East on Friday.

Coppola had season-highs in points (15) and assists (13) and only committed one turnover as the Billies took over sole possession of first place in ECIC Division II with an 84-76 home win. He hit 3-of-3 three-point attempts in the first half and was 3-of-3 from two-point range.

"He played at the very least like a senior," said South coach Al Monaco, who picked up his 275th win. "It was the biggest game of his career. With the crowd and atmosphere, a lot of kids would play scared in that situation. He didn't. He seemed to relish it. He played with the maturity of an experienced veteran."

"I think he was the key," added East coach Dennis Belote. "He controlled the game. In the first half, we could not stop him. It wasn't so much him scoring but distributing the ball. He found (Frank) Pieri and (Adrian) Wood and both finish well."

Wood scored 26 points, 12 points coming in the first quarter, to move him past Mike Davis (910, '04) on South's all-time scoring list. Wood has 921 points.

Pieri added 22 points on 10-of-14 shooting to move past Greg Zapfel (499, '80), Bob Weiss (510, '72) and Scott Machemer (514, '91) for 14th all-time. Pieri has 518 career points.

Coppola sparked South's transition offense, pacing the Billies to a 23-18 first quarter lead and 45-31 halftime advantage. His biggest play came with five seconds left in the third quarter. Up 58-49, Coppola scored, stole the inbounds pass and kicked it to Spencer McIntyre, who buried a three to put the Billies ahead, 63-49.

"I thought East had outplayed us in the third and had made a run and gotten it to single figures so that was a huge play that gave us momentum and our 14-point lead back," said Monaco. "The place went nuts."

East chipped away at the lead in the fourth quarter to cut it to 81-76 but South hit three free throws to close out the victory.

"In the last seven minutes, we played with intensity, which we didn't have in the first half and shut down Coppola, which we didn't do in the first half," said Belote.

East junior Chris Schiumo held Coppola to two second half points.

South's Scott Steimer added 13 second half points, nine coming in the fourth, to go along with five steals.

As a team, South shot extremely well, making 27-of-42 two-point attempts, and 4-of-9 three's.

Brian Wallden fought threw the flu to score 29 points, 17 in the second half, along with 29 rebounds and five blocks, to lead East.

"I give that kid a lot of credit because he really gutted it out," said Belote. "He didn't have a lot of energy getting up and down the court but once he got there, he established himself in the paint, we got him the ball and he put it in the bucket."

Andy Heim scored 17 points and was 11-of-11 from the foul line. He also had five assists. Rick Silvestri added 10 points and hit a couple clutch three's during East's fourth quarter comeback.

South, winners of five out of its last six after starting 0-4, hosted Clarence in a non-league game on Tuesday but results were unavailable before The Bee went to press. The Billies travel to Iroquois at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. East (6-4, 3-2) hosts St. Joe's at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com