By Ted Waddell
ROSCOE — February 1, 2002 – The Roscoe girls’ varsity basketball team has a good thing going.
While a lot of area basketball teams are struggling to reach the .500 won-loss mark for a berth in the upcoming sectional tournament, the Lady Blue Devils are undefeated in league play with a 6-0 OCIAA Division V mark. They are 13-2 overall on the season.
In Wednesday night’s Division V contest against the Lady Lions of Chapel Field (6-8, 1-3 OCIAA), Roscoe continued its winning streak by defeating the competition 53-46 in a hard-fought game.
At times, the contest resembled a soccer match or a homegrown edition of roller derby, as players collided and went spinning across the polished wood floor of Roscoe’s tiny gym. In all, the players stepped up to the free throw line a whopping 40 times.
In the first quarter, the Lady Blue Devils picked up a narrow 19-14 lead. In the second period, they outscoring the Lady Lions by an 18-8 margin to take a 37-22 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The second half was a different matter, as Chapel Field clawed their way back into the game as the Lady Blue Devils seemed to lose a bit of their focus.
In the third period, the Lady Lions outhustled the Lady Blue Devils 10-2 by make it a 39-32 ballgame. The fourth quarter action was so fast and furious that both coaches had one eye on the game clock and the other on the floor. The teams racked up 14 points apiece in that final quarter as the clock ticked down to an exciting finish.
At first, Roscoe used a man-to-man defense to contain the Lady Lions, then switched to a zone before finishing up the game with their man-to-man ‘D’.
Two players from Roscoe made it into double figures: Cheyenne Smith (18 points, including a couple of three-point shots) and Rose Miesner (17 points).
For the Lady Lions, Stacy Kuperus netted a game-high 20 points and Laura Bast had 12.
Roscoe shot better at the foul line, converting 12 of 15 free throws (80 percent), while Chapel Field converted only 14 of 25 (56 percent.)
“I think we started out a little slow, but we put up a good fight at the end,” said Chapel Field Coach Rachel McDuffie.
According to McDuffie, Laura Bast “stepped it up tonight with a lot of rebounds and putbacks” and Kuperus “played well.”
“We’re a really young team, mostly freshmen and sophomores,” she said. “We’re getting better and hopefully we’ll make the secionals.”
Roscoe Coach Becky Ahart noted that both teams played well.
“I thought it was a very tough, very physical ball game,” she said. “They made some good plays and got back into the game.”
Asked how she accounted for the close win, Ahart replied that her Lady Blue Devils simply “had more points on our side than they did on theirs.”
Smith, a 16-year-old junior point guard, is in her first season on the Roscoe varsity squad.
Her take on the game?
“It was very physical,” said Smith. “I think we had a lack of communication among the teammates. We had a pretty good first half, but we let down a little bit in the second half.
“We were getting out-rebounded, but we pulled it out,” she added with a winner’s grin.