New players step up for Sweet Home, South
Boys basketball
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

The Sweet Home and Williamsville South boys basketball teams are debuting a ton of new players on the court this season. But judging by their season opening wins last week, neither team has missed a beat.

Sweet Home, who returns one starter and four players overall from its Section VI Class AA championship team, routed Niagara Wheatfield, 67-41, at home last Saturday. South, which lost all but two players from its Section VI Class A finalist squad, edged Hutch-Tech at home, 65-57.

Sweet Home coach Paul Schintzius and South coach Al Monaco each were happy with their teams' debuts.

"We have a lot of new faces who stepped up and did a nice job," said Schintzius.

"It was a very satisfying win because I started two freshmen and a sophomore," said Monaco. "The team is going to get better and better."

Schintzius said the blueprint for his team's success over the last few years (Sweet Home won the Section VI Class A title in 2006) has been holding teams under 50 points a game, and that's exactly what they did to the Falcons. The Panthers were ahead, 16-11, after the first quarter, 37-19 at halftime, and 54-24 after three quarters.

"The biggest thing we have been focusing on in training camp was playing good defense," said Schintzius. "The kids bought into it and held them to 24 points through three quarters. It carried us on offense."

Ten Panthers scored, led by 18 points each from seniors Brian Pappagallo and Ali Ramdan.

It was Pappagallo's first time starting at point guard.

"I thought he was dynamite," said Schintzius. "I figured he would be jittery with it being his first start, but he did a good job at both ends of the floor. On defense, he had his hands on a lot of deflections."

Senior shooting guard Jamel Werts, also a new starter, scored all 12 of his points in the first half.

It doesn't get any easier for the Panthers (1-0), who play Rochester East at 7 p.m. on Friday as part of the Cataract Classic at Niagara Falls High School and Canisius at 8 p.m. on Tuesday at St. Mary's of Lancaster in the ECIC-MMA Challenge. Sweet Home beat Rochester East two years ago in the Cataract Classic.

Four underclassmen came up huge to secure South an opening game win.

Freshmen Phil Stasiak and Joe Licata scored 18 and 14 points, respectively, and Aaron Adams, another freshman, hit a three-pointer and two free throws with 4:30 left in the game to break a 49-49 tie and maintain the Billies' victory. Adams, who played modified last year, also came off the bench and drained a three in the first quarter to spark South's offense.

Sophomore point guard Mark Coppola, the only returning starter, scored seven of the team's last 11 points. He finished with 12 points and nine assists.

"They were composed and confident," said Monaco. "Their basketball instincts really showed on Friday night."

South trailed Hutch-Tech, 9-4, in the first quarter but led by seven points from Stasiak and five from senior Brian Webb, South led 19-18 after the first quarter. Webb finished the game with nine points and eight rebounds.

It looked like the Billies were going down in the second quarter, trailing 30-21, but Licata hit three threes in the last minute to send the game into halftime tied at 31-31. Licata also grabbed six rebounds in the game.

The score went back and forth in the third quarter with Hutch-Tech leading 47-46 by its end.

South finished shooting 52 percent (16 of 31) from two-point range and 40 percent (8 of 20) from three-pointers. They also committed only 13 turnovers.

Senior 6-foot-5 Tim Krempa, who never played basketball for the school before this year, had an all-around great game with four points, five rebounds, and three blocks.

"He altered a lot of their shots," said Monaco. "His improvement in the last month has been remarkable. In some ways, we couldn't have won without some of the plays that he made."

South beat Hutch-Tech, 59-48, in last year's Section VI Class A-1 quarterfinals.

South (1-0) started a four-game road trip at Bishop Timon-St. Jude on Tuesday, but the result was unavailable before The Bee went to press. They play at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday at Sweet Home.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com