January 7, 2011 - 7


Pelham~Windham News Pelham~Windham News


Python Alex Catalano (#23) tightropes the sideline as she advances the ball against Windham’s full-court pressure


by Marc Ayotte Windham High School (WHS) was the setting


on Tuesday, January 4, for the highly anticipated Division II basketball match-up between newly established cross-town rivals Pelham and Windham. In a different format from what normally features same-gender JV and varsity action, fans were treated to a full night of varsity action. The double-header of varsity action saw the girls starting the evening off, followed by the boys’ game in the night cap. The Lady Pythons fell behind by 11 after one quarter and were never able to overcome a menacing Windham press as they fell to the host Jaguars by a score of 47-36. To conclude the evening, the Python boys, after a slow start, were able to gain some retribution for Pelham High School (PHS) as they ran roughshod over the Jags, 75-45. Girls’ Varsity Action


Prior to the game, PHS girls’ varsity head coach


Kyle Tave commented on the aggressive Windham press: “I think if we try and break the press as a team and not too much dribbling, we’ll do fine … we need to break it with passing, not as individuals.” The first points of the evening came two minutes in when Windham’s sophomore forward Bernadette Connors drove to the hoop and converted on an And 1, giving the hosts a lead they would never relinquish. Throughout the opening quarter, Pelham had relative ease breaking the Windham press, but a one-for-16 drought on field goals from the floor created what proved to be an insurmountable deficit. And when WHS’s Connors buried a ’tres’ late in the first stanza, the Jags closed the quarter up by a 14-3 score.


As the Python shooting woes continued (missing their first five to open the second quarter), it wasn’t until just under six minutes left in the half when Python Rebecca Debaldo converted on an old-fashioned three, doubling their scoring output up to that point. With Windham leading 17-6, the two teams played the remainder of the half evenly, allowing the Jaguars to take a 28-17 lead to the locker room. The first five minutes of the third quarter belonged to Windham, as their sustained defensive pressure combined with motion offense allowed them to systematically open up their biggest lead of the evening at 38-21. However, in the last three minutes, there was an Alex Catalano mini sideshow that enabled the Pythons to crawl back in, as her back-to-back hoops cut the deficit to 13 after three quarters of play.


Building on the momentum


that saw a strong third-quarter finish for the visitors, an old adage became apparent. Teams that like to press don’t like to be pressed. Pelham picked up the defensive intensity, interrupting Windham’s ball movement, and when Python sophomore Debaldo’s three- pointer followed by a long two from teammate Gina Grimes cut the Jaguar lead to single digits, it forced WHS to call a time-out with just under six minutes to play in the third quarter. Coming out of the time-out,


the Pelham team defense made an impressive stop against Windham’s Kerry White, who had been hurting the Pythons all night long with her physical inside scoring and rebounding. With another long-range jumper, Debaldo was able to cut the Jags’ lead to 39-34 with just under five minutes to play. That, as they say, was a close as the Pythons would come. A Harlem Globetrotter-like


weave offense late in the game diffused the momentum that Pelham had earlier established. The unconventional offense led to a couple of easy baskets for


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Python Stephen Spirou (#21) elevates and converts the floater for the first two points of the new rivalry en route to a lopsided victory of host Windham


Windham and an 8-2 finishing run, giving the Jags a 47-36 win. Windham scorers were led by White with a game-high 17 points. Connors added a dozen points for the Jags, while Clairee Putnam chipped in with eight. For the Pythons, sophomore Debaldo had an impressive 16-point performance, with Catalano contributing nine points.


Although his Lady Pythons went down to defeat, Coach Tave was pleased with how they played for the last three quarters. “Once they settled down, they were okay—I saw the confidence in their eyes in the second half,” he added. “Our girls are not going to back down from anything—that’s why I really like this group, they’ll battle,” he observed, concluding his assessment of the game. The Lady Pythons will next battle on January 7 at Milford and then on January 11, when they continue their six-game road swing by visiting a tough Lady Cougar team at Campbell High in Litchfield.


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New Cross-Town Basketball Rivalry Emerges Boys’ Varsity Action


Pelham~Windham News Pelham~Windham News


Not being concerned at all about this game being a ‘trap-game’ ahead of the big showdown this coming Friday night at the Python Pit against highly ranked Milford, first-year varsity head coach Matt Regan cited, “we haven’t even talked about Milford … we play every game as an equal.” However, his voice and eyes revealed the enthusiasm for the upcoming battle when he noted, “our home games are packed every night … kids come with body paint … it will be mayhem versus Milford, they’ll be turning people away,” alluding to the anticipated capacity crowd. Round two of the newly created basketball


rivalry continued later that evening when a winless Windham boys’ varsity squad took to the hardwood against an unbeaten Pelham boys’ team. Game two of the double-header featured “one of the top four players in the division,” as Coach Regan described him. He was referring to 1,300-point scorer senior sensation Stephen Spirou. Discussing the possible defenses his team and star player might face against Windham, Coach Regan said, “teams have played a box and one [defense] against him, but he’s a very unselfish player.” The Python captain wasted little time attempting to revenge Pelham’s earlier Lady loss by scoring from the baseline just 15 seconds into the game.


A hectic and mostly unproductive first four minutes of the game for both teams resulted in the game’s first time-out. As action resumed, Coach Regan squatted in front of his bench facing the court and, in apparent disbelief, said quietly, “everything is too slow – defense is too slow – offense is too slow.“ Going into the time-out, the visitors held a marginal 10-4 lead. Coming out of the time-out, inspired apparently by their coach in the huddle as well as by Spirou’s ‘tres’ with 2:28 remaining, the Pythons went on an 8-2 run to close out the quarter and built an 18-6 lead after the first eight minutes of play. A pretty up-and-under move for two by Stephen Spirou and a steal and


A textbook two-handed rebound is displayed by


Stephen Spirou (#21) of Pelham in second-half action on January 4 versus Windham


lay-up for two by Derek DeFranzo to open up the second quarter propelled Pelham to a quick, seven-point run, culminating in an overall 15-2 spurt that gave the Pythons a 25-6 lead. With around two and a half minutes left in the half,


continued to page 8 - Basketball


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