Boys Basketball
Confident South moves on to A-1 semifinals
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

A 59-48 home victory over eleventh-seed Hutch-Tech in the Section VI Class A-1 quarterfinals on Friday gave second-seed Williamsville South another shot to end a playoff drought in the A-1 semifinals.

South (12-9), who has not won a semifinal game in a decade, will try to end its streak against Kenmore East (12-8) at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Buffalo State Sports Arena.

"When you get to this point, all of the teams are good," said South coach Al Monaco. "In some games, there were better teams that beat us and in other games, we didn't play our best. But I like the frame of mind of this year's team. We're playing with a lot of confidence."

South heads into the semifinals on a three-game win streak, which includes a 58-55 non-league home win over Maryale on Feb. 12 and a 68-58 home victory over Iroquois on Feb. 16 to close out the regular season.

"I think when we beat Maryvale, it gave us a huge confidence boost," said Monaco.

Monaco said his team also gained confidence by beating Depew, who is 19-1 this season, in a scrimmage on Feb. 20.

South needed to play with confidence to overcome an ugly first half against Hutch-Tech. The Billies trailed 22-21 at halftime but went on runs at the beginning of the third (21-9) and fourth (13-4) quarters to lift the Billies to a 55-35 fourth quarter advantage.

"We really executed outstanding," said Monaco.

South 6-foot-4 center Frank Pieri had 10 of his game-high 20 points in the third quarter, many on layups coming off of assists in transition from Mark Coppola and Adrian Wood. Pieri also held Hutch-Tech 6-foot-5 center Julius Bryant, who scored 10 in the first half to no points in the third and 14 points total. Pieri's 20 points moves him past Chris John and Chris Creahan for tenth al-time in scoring at South with 661 points. Pieri also grabbed six rebounds.

Wood, who finished with 18 points, hit two three-pointers and had eight points in South's third quarter run. He also grabbed five rebounds and dished out six assists.

"Adrian may have played his best all-around game," said Monaco.

Mark Coppola hit a three in South's third quarter run and only finished with five points but had 12 assists, eight in the second half, and one turnover. The freshman guard has 130 total assists, which is good enough for sixth all-time for a single season at South.

"To only have one turnover the entire game against a city school that was trying to pressure him was outstanding," said Monaco.

Monaco also credits Mark Coppola for shutting out Hutch-Tech guard Christian Klenke, who had been beating Wood down the lane in the first four minutes of the game.

"I think that's something that a lot of people would not have noticed but that was a key defensive thing for us," said Monaco. "Mark did a fabulous job on him."

Monaco also lauded the work of Mark's older brother, P.J. Coppola, who came off the bench and had two huge tip-in buckets that cut the Billie deficit to 16-12 and 21-18 in the first half. Coppola finished with 10 points.

Pat Pidgeon added four points, four rebounds, a steal and provided great defense.

Overall, Monaco was most proud of his team's defensive effort.

"Our defense was solid the entire game," said Monaco. "To hold a team like that to 48 points was outstanding. They didn't have a three until we had a 55-35 lead and we had our reserves in."

The winner of the South-Ken East game faces Amherst or McKinley at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Buffalo State.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com