By Ted Waddell
FALLSBURG — January 25, 2002 – There’s undefeated, and then there’s “defeated.”
Unfortunately for the Lady Comets (0-12) girls’ varsity basketball team of Fallsburg Central School, they fall into the latter category, as they are so far winless this hoops season.
Tuesday night’s 64-33 non-league loss to the Monticello Lady Panthers (4-8), extended the Lady Comets’ losing streak. However, Fallsburg played in a spirited manner – as one would expect from a team still in search of their first victory of the year.
Ashley Frunzi, a 16-year-old junior power forward was high scorer for the Lady Comets with 14 points.
“I think we’re starting to work as a team as opposed to last year,” she said. “Our coach emphasizes team spirit and it shows, especially in this game.”
Asked what it felt like to be her team’s high scorer (and only player to make it into double digits against Monticello) Frunzi replied, “It feels good, but it was a team effort . . . if my teammates hadn’t passed me the ball, I wouldn’t have scored.”
Several Fallsburg hoopsters had problems passing the ball. Quite a few lengthy passes, which were the basketball equivalents of a football game’s ‘Hail Mary’ pass sailed down the court and into the hands of fans in the stands or off the walls of the gym, causing the officials to duck for cover.
Add scores of fruitless attempts at getting the ball through the hoop, and the Lady Comets had a hard day’s night on the floor against Monticello.
At the half, the Lady Panthers led Fallsburg, 36-14.
Fallsburg did enjoy an advantage from the foul line, however. For the game, the Lady Comets made nine-of-12 free throws (75 percent), while the Lady Panthers were 10-of-24 (42 percent).
On the way to victory, four Monticello players scored in double figures. Deirdre Smith scored a game-high 22 points, Brady Dollard had 13 points and Christa Billias and Nakita White each netted a dozen. Dollard and Smith each recorded a double double as each pulled down 10 rebounds to go with their point totals.
B. J. McKline also grabbed 10 rebounds for the Lady Panthers and a trio of hoopsters earned double digit scorebook fame with 10 rebounds.
Smith, a 15-year-old sophomore forward, wants to improve her game even more.
“I think I should have played a lot harder . . . if we play harder in these games, we should win a whole lot more games,” said Smith, who has played all five positions this season for the Lady Panthers. “In the first half of the season, we went into a little losing streak, but hopefully we’ll be able to pick it up in the second half.”
Monticello Coach Karen Atack said of the game, “I’m pleased with their performance . . . my outstanding players were Deirdre Smith and Christa Billias . . . it was Christa’s best game of the year.
“We have a lot to work on,” added Atack. “We’re tied for last place with Liberty, (but) we hope to surprise some people in the second half (of the season).”
Fallsburg Coach Lee Smassanow summed up the season’s progress.
“We’re ‘defeated’ (in that) we don’t have any wins,” he said. “I thought the girls played very well. Unfortunately we missed a lot of baskets, or the score would have been much closer and we would have been in it. The girls need to work on making their shots.
“It’s a heartbreaker, because they really came to play as a team,” said Smassanow. “Hopefully before this season is out, we’ll be able to convert what would have been lost points into positive points.”