By Ted Waddell
ROSCOE — February 19, 2002 – On Valentine’s Day, the Lady Blue Devils had their hearts broken.
In Thursday evening’s final regular season girls’ varsity basketball game between the Lady Blue Devils of Roscoe (17-3) and the visiting Sullivan West Lady Bulldogs (19-1), the “dawgs” took a 49-45 bite out of the home team hoopsters.
The non-league loss was an end of an era for the Lady Blue Devils, as it represented the final girls’ varsity bastketball game on their circa 1939 ‘bandbox’ court.
In a fiercely physical game, SW jumped out to a 13-7 lead in the first quarter, only to see Roscoe fight back in the second period to outscore the Lady Bulldogs by a 12-8 margin.
However, the Lady Bulldogs enjoyed a 21-19 advantage at the half.
In the third period, SW outscored Roscoe, 9-6. But the Lady Blue Devils closed the gap to 45-43 with 24 seconds remaining in the game on the on the heels of a quintent of three- point shots by Kelly Ahart (one), Staci Fersch (two) and Cheyenne Smith (two).
The closing seconds became a dual at the free throw line, as both teams stepped up to the charity stripe after getting fouled in a desperate situation.
Despite the heart-breaking loss, Roscoe, which won the OCIAA Division V crown with an unblemished divisional record, will be among the Class D teams competing in next week’s Section IX Tournament.
(Sullivan West, meanwhile, will face Tuxedo on Friday night at Pine Bush in a playoff game to determine the OCIAA Division IV champion. And the Lady Bulldogs and Lady Tornadoes could very well meet again next week in the Class C tournament.)
Two players from each team reached double figures Thursday night. Roscoe’s Christine Rosencranse scored 13 points and teammate Rose Miesner added 10. For Sullivan West, Tiffany Hauser netted a game-high 19 points and Aileen Sementz finished with 11 points.
“I thought it was an excellent game,” said Lady Blue Devils coach Becky Ahart. “It was very physical, and the kids on both sides played their hearts out . . . they gave it all they had.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game coming in, and we had good support from our rotation of players,” she added. “Sullivan West has a nice ball club.”
Asked to predict their chances at the upcoming sectionals, Ahart replied in predictable fashion.
“I make no predictions, we play one game at a time,” she said.
“Sullivan West is good competition, (and) I thought it was a good game all together,” said Rosencranse, a 16-year-old junior point guard. “We had good teamwork, and (being the) ‘high scorer’ doesn’t really matter to me as long as we play well as a team. Lately, we’ve gotten things together, and we’re working together like a real team should.”
In addition to their aforementioned point totals, Hauser had 17 rebounds and Semenetz grabbed six rebounds and dished out three assists for SW. Teammate Megan Moran also grabbed six rebounds in the contest.
“It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win,” said SW Coach Ron Bernhardt. “We went to the line a bunch of times . . . we got beat up (on) just about every possession. You couldn’t really run anything, because they were pounding away on us physically.”
“Roscoe made a great run in the last few minutes,” he added, referring to the late barrage of three-pointers that nearly won the game for the Lady Blue Devils. “They have a lot of confidence of their home court . . . we knew it was going to be a dogfight.”