Warriors Win Behind Dominant 2nd Half

March 5, 2021

Averill Park 69, Guilderland 45

It's been a busy few days for most of the Suburban Council, and most of upstate NY girls' basketball teams for that matter. With schedules designed to make up for lost time to begin with and this being the first week of the season where weather didn't impact schedules, things got pretty packed for many. This also goes for Averill Park & Guilderland, who each had pretty rigorous schedules. In my second time watching both this week, Averill Park used a big 3rd quarter run to break open a close game & roll forward to the finish line.

Anna Jankovic was offensively assertive, scoring in the twenties in AP's win, & made a major two-way impact.

The Warriors reeled off 8 straight in the game's first two minutes to start on the right foot. Valencia Fontenelle-Posson (Guilderland 2021, Siena signee) opened the scoring with two free throws, and AP went to work against Guilderland's press from there. Averill Park scored eight in 60 seconds of action, four from Amelia Wood (Averill Park 2022), as much of their early scoring came on layups after breaking the press. They led by as much as six in the quarter, but the offensive exploits of Fontenelle-Posson, who scored 13 in the opening frame, kept Guilderland tight at 18-15 after 1.

The Averill Park lead opened up a little more in the first few minutes of the 2nd with more production going to the rim. Anna Jankovic (Averill Park 2021, D'Youville commit) built on an 8 point 1st quarter with two more buckets in the opening minutes of the 2nd, helping the margin extend to 9 at 27-18. They would be held to one field goal for the rest of the half though, a Michelina Lombardi (Averill Park 2022) three late in the shot clock, as Guilderland did a better job getting back & preventing transition opportunities against the press. Fontenelle-Posson, who continued her scoring outburst through the half, hit two free throws after being fouled on a last-second heave to cut Guilderland's deficit to 30-24 at the break.

It wouldn't take long in the 3rd quarter for Averill Park to have its game changing run. Fontenelle-Posson canned a three to make it 31-27 with 5:59 left, but Guilderland would be held scoreless for the next 4+ minutes. In that time, Averill Park would reel off 14 unanswered points, 7 off the left hand of Jankovic. By the time Allison Lapinski (Averill Park 2021) buried a three, AP's lead ballooned to 45-27. Bella Gitto (Guilderland 2022) briefly stopped the Guilderland bleeding with a right wing trey - the first time a Guilderland player other than Valencia scored in nearly 18 minutes of game time - but the visitors scored the last 6 of the frame to go up 51-30. Except for two brief moments, the cushion remained in the twenties in the 4th quarter, with a Wood bucket giving them their largest lead at 66-40 with just over two minutes remaining.

Per my note keeping, Anna Jankovic led Averill Park with 24 points, including 8 in a 21-6 3rd quarter. Amelia Wood added 14 points, and Michelina Lombardi contributed 11 in the win (I think the official book has 22 for Anna & 13 for Michelina). Valencia Fontenelle-Posson led all scorers with 31 points for Guilderland, including 25 of their first 27 as a team.

Valencia Fontenelle-Posson continued her stretch of scoring outbursts, as she led all scorers with 31 for Guilderland.

#ThoughtsFromTheBaseline

- I'm doing something here that I don't think people are doing enough of & giving everyone on the court credit for continuing to battle through the shortened season. I understand that many players are used to the AAU format of multiple games in a day/weekend so the condensed schedule of games isn't a foreign concept, but so many of them were locked down in the winter, limited or no access to a gym, too cold/snowy to get it in outside, and we're now asking them to play 4 games a week for numerous weeks consecutively. They were tired. All of them. They may not say it or even realize it, but you could see it in everyone's legs. No lift on jumpers, the clear look of occasional sloppy play due to fatigue, all of the general go-to signs. Everyone is happy to have the opportunity to play and I'm glad to see them back playing of course, but going forward this season, I'm keeping in mind that we're asking a lot out of these girls physically at the moment. Everyone making it through the next week healthy (or out west, the next three weeks) is a W for me.

- How Averill Park handled Shen's pressure Monday vs. Guilderland's pressure Friday was night & day. Granted, Shen & Guilderland are different animals with Shen's ridiculous length & consistent discipline, but Guilderland's pressure bothers the heck out of a lot of teams. AP broke the press & turned it into a layup drill early. Guilderland started to improve with getting back into the play after initial pressure was broken & forced AP to score in the half-court for a while, but at the end of the day, AP turned it over directly due to Guilderland pressure maybe a handful of times. That number was at least a handful each quarter on Monday; great improvement.

Amelia Wood had 14 points and put her stamp on the game in various ways for Averill Park.

- Another AP point... really solid overall half-court defensive effort. I didn't watch Guilderland's game vs. Shen, the only other one where they didn't at least get into the 60s, but this was by far the best I've seen a team play them defensively this winter out of the three Lady Dutch games I've watched. Valencia scored a lot, which is kinda par for the course, but they locked up everyone else & even most of V's scoring wasn't because of a defensive breakdown - hustle points, 2nd chances, transition, and a couple 'good defense, better offense' 1v1 moves & shots. It was a good day for the Warriors.

- As always, thank you to Guilderland athletic administration, including AD David Austin, for allowing media (and myself) in the gym to cover the game!