Jeff-Y Shocks Fallsburg
55-45

By Frank Rizzo
LOCH SHELDRAKE — August 22, 2000 – The big court, everyone agreed, made the difference as Jeff-Youngsville shocked Fallsburg 55-45 in the boys’ finals of the Sullivan Generals Summer League.
The contest was played August 10 at the Paul Gerry Fieldhouse.
In their regular season encounter, Fallsburg had prevailed thanks in part to an effective trapping defense. However, that game was played on one of the fieldhouse’s small courts, making it easier to stifle the Jeff-Y ballhandlers.
The championship game was a different matter, and Fallsburg coach Les Hyde admitted his charges — previously unbeaten — weren’t ready for the big court.
“They (J-Y) beat my zone, and beat my halfcourt defense,” Hyde said. “They really broke our press and beat us at our own game. They played a great game.”
Not only was it the first contest which Fallsburg lost, it was also the first in which the regular season champions were behind.
J-Y took a 29-22 lead at halftime, and never let Fallsburg come within four the rest of the night.
Fallsburg fell behind 38-27 when Matt Parks sank a 3-pointer from the corner with 8:50 left. Then Fallsburg roused itself from a cold spell to score six straight points, the last on a pair of free throws by John Hinton with 7:32 to go.
But J-Y responded with a bucket by Gregg Semenetz, couple of foul shots by Craig Corigliano (he made eight from the charity stripe overall), and then another basket by Semenetz, following a feed off a steal by Jon Fanning. The score was now 44-33.
Fallsburg cut it to eight, but J-Y had the game locked up.
Hyde admitted that his squad began to play less as a team and reverted to some playground style individual antics in a bid to make up the points.
“A little bit of the ‘street’ came out again,” Hyde said. “All season long I’ve tried to suppress it, but under the championship game pressure it came out.”
Jeff-Youngsville was “student-coached” by ’99 alumnus Julio Ortiz and 2000 grad Chris Rodriguez.
“Our plan was to give to our post guys,” said Rodriguez, referring to 6-foot-7 Jason Ahnstrom and 6-4 Alex Van Loon.
The pair combined for 14 points in the paint and dominated the boards.
“(Fallsburg) beat us by 15 and intimidated us the first time,” said Ortiz. “We had to come out tonight and show we could play with them.”
Ortiz said his team had gone up to Brockport to take part in a tournament the previous weekend, finishing 4–2 against bigger schools.
“If the kids keep playing together, they’ll have a good season,” said Rodriguez, referring to the upcoming varsity basketball campaign.
Among the interested spectators were longtime J-Y varsity basketball coach Rick Ellison and his assistant, Bob Menges.
Roscoe downed Dowsnville in the consolation game. No details were available.
League organizer Dean Smith praised the work of Daytop Village personnel, who kept the scorebooks and supplied and ran the portable scoreboard.
“They did 66 games worth of scorekeeping,” according to Smith.
Jeff-Youngsville 55 • Fallsburg 45
Jeff-Youngsville — Craig Corigliano (14), Brent Rose (2), Mike McCardle (4), John Fanning (7), Mike Ahnstrom (10), Neil Snedeker (0), Matt Parks (6), Jared Hart (0), Tom Gain (0), Gregg Semenetz (8), Alex Van Loon (4).
Fallsburg — Jesse Hinton (1), John Hinton (15), Darren Kenney (2), Brooks Whittaker (5), Lionel White (9), Vernon Poole (4), Scott Akene (0), Donald Frasier (7), Courtney Frasier (2).