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Midlakes Sports
by Ginny Konz
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The Midlakes freshmen took on their counterparts from Livonia on Dec. 28. We jumped out to an early lead, but Livonia tied the game at 12 on two free throws with only 15 seconds left on the clock in the first period. Then, using their height and strong shooting to the fullest advantage, they opened up as much as an 8 point lead before settling for a 26-21 advantage at halftime.
Midlakes employed a more effective defense early in the second half and the turnovers that created coupled with some good shooting helped us tie the game at 28 and then take the lead. However, questionable shot selection in the final four minutes of the period left us barely hanging onto a 34-32 lead. Livonia regained the lead about 2:30 into the fourth quarter and, thanks to our cold shooting they gradually added to it for a 48-41 win. This team will be home again on Tuesday, Jan. 11 and Jan. 18; both games begin at 4:15.
The 7th graders hosted Wayne on Dec. 29. Wayne had a height and weight advantage plus they were good shooters, and we were cold early. Fortunately our defense slowed then down so their advantage was only 9-8 after one quarter. We managed to grab a two point lead after about 2:30 minutes but lost it 1:30 later on their good free throw shooting. They were up 15-13 at the half.
We tied the game early in the third quarter and from that point on we traded baskets and the lead. Neither team managed to get more than a 3-point lead, and the period ended with us up, 26-23. That state of affairs continued into the fourth quarter and led to a fantastic finish. The lead changed hands twice in the final 40 seconds. We had a one point lead with 8 seconds left when Kyle Consolie made 2 free throws, but Wayne scored with 2.5 seconds to go and we were literally saved by the bell, a 36-35 escape.
This team played their final game of the season on Jan. 7 against undefeated Canandaigua. Our defense was pretty good, but they had a lot of pretty good shooters and ball handlers and had a 10-4 lead after one quarter. In the second quarter we caught fire and were actually ahead, 12-11, for a few seconds. The game was tied at 16 with 40 seconds to go in the half when Canandaigua made a free throw, stole the inbounds pass and made a lay up for a 19-16 lead. The game was tied at 25 after three quarters. For much of the final period we traded baskets and the lead until Canandaigua eked out a 4 point lead with 1 minute to go and extended it with free throws to a 40-32 win.
The "Got Milk" Christmas Tournament began on Dec. 29 with the jv games. Campbell-Savona won easily over South Seneca in the first game. The crowd was entertained and impressed by the ability of the two acrobatic "cows," Stephanie Vavra and Ali Hemminger, who back-flipped and round-offed their way up and down the floor between games and at halftimes.
Mike Benzer had arthroscopic surgery that week and will miss the rest of the jv season. The surgery was to repair a torn ligament in his knee that apparently happened when he was injured last spring in a collision on the baseball diamond. The surgery at that time sidelined him for the entire summer, but this tear was not discovered until he began stressing it in basketball.
In our jv contest with School of the Arts, SOTA went on a 7-0 run to start, thanks to their quickness and good shooting which let them run a very effective fast break off the steal. We shook off our lethargy and tied the game at 11 with 3 minutes left in the first period, which ended in a tie at 15. The second period remained close, though we had a slight lead for much of it. Thanks to a trey, SOTA took 28-24 lead to the locker room at the half.
The game remained a cliff-hanger. We were ahead, 33-32 after the third quarter, and the game was tied at 46 with 50 seconds to go in regulation. Neil Scheible hit a jumper with 25.7" to go; SOTA missed 2 free throw opportunities, and in the ensuing rebounding melee the ball was forced out of bounds by them. We inbounded the ball and Ben Sheppard madly dribbled around the court, killing the clock for 8 seconds before they caught up with him to foul. He hit both free throws to give us a 50-46 lead, and that's how it ended.
In the varsity games that evening, Campbell Savona again won big over South Seneca, and then we took on The Park School, from the Buffalo area. Park started with a 9-0 run; we were causing turnovers, but no one could connect with the net early. We finally managed 6 points to their 20 in the first period. We outscored them 18-12 in the second quarter (36-24), played them even at 12 in the third, and lost 3 points on them in the fourth for a 57-46 loss. Basically the game was won in the first period, though we did get hot and cut their lead to 4 in the third before they rallied.
The next afternoon, following South Seneca's defeat of SOTA by a 44-42 score, the jv team played Campbell-Savona for the championship. Midlakes took off on a 10-0 run to start the game before we cooled down and let them in, 12-6 after one quarter. CS took advantage of turnovers and our momentary cold shooting to cut into our 10 point lead. Then both teams went into hyper mode, and we handled the craziness better than they did to regain the 10 point lead, 27-17 at the half.
Campbell came out aggressive and hot in the second, outscoring us 6-2 in the first 1:30 before things settled down and we adjusted to the different pace, pushing our lead to 10 again before some lazy defense and poor shot selection gave them some life again. We managed to have a 39-31 lead at the end of that quarter, and two quick steals for scores cut into our lead to start the fourth, but we hung on for a 47-40 win and the championship trophy. Things had gotten ugly at times; Ben Sheppard hit 3 of 4 Technical Foul opportunities. He shot 12/16 from the charity stripe and threw in some 2 pointers for a total of 20 points in this game (17 the afternoon before). Albert Hollis added 12 points this day, while Neil Scheible was the other player in double figures the previous day with 10.
The varsity team, having lost the night before, played South Seneca in the consolation game. The crowd was again treated to Samantha Price at the mike singing the Star-Spangled Banner, then Midlakes took off on a 10-2 run to open the game. South Seneca kept at it, helped by some poor decisions on our part to tie the game at 10 with about 3 minutes left in the first quarter. They were shut out again, and the quarter ended with a 17-10 score. We were able to push the score to 24-10 at the 6:30 mark and kept going for a 35-18 lead at halftime.
South Seneca did not cave in and outscored us 17-10 in the 3rd to close our lead to 10, 45-35. The score with 1:45 to go was 55-42, less than a minute later it was 55-47. Tim Jopson made all four free throws in the waning seconds, while they missed three of five free throws, but they did make some field goals. The final score was 59-53, Midlakes. Tim finished with 18 points, Doug VanderBrook added 16 before he fouled out very late in the game, and Caleb Frederick had 8.
On January 4 the boys' teams from Pal-Mac were in town for some very good games. Our jvs led, 15-12, at the end of the first quarter. We had several defensive breakdowns that left them with some easy lay ups and wide open jumpers, but they were unable to take the lead. We started the second period with some cold shooting, but they were worse, and we were up 24-20 at the half.
Pal-Mac started their third period scoring with two treys and tied the game at 26. We traded baskets for a while until we were able to put some distance between us and had a five point lead when the period ended. Our rebounding went south in the 4th for a time, giving them lots of extra shots, but they weren't making the resulting free throws. Ben Sheppard, meanwhile, was making a living at the charity stripe (11/14 in the second half, 2/4 in the first), and his 32 points were a big reason we walked away with a 57-47 win.
The Pal-Mac varsity's Anthony Hall is the league's leading scorer overall and the leading 3-point shooter, but we did not throw in the towel. Tim Jopson was 3rd in league scoring, but they kept him very heavily covered, and he was only able to put in 13 points. Kevin Lowry, tied for 3rd in 3-pointers when the game began, probably moved up because he hit 6 of them en route to 31 points. Caleb Frederick had 14.
Pal-Mac made 5 points in the final minute of the first quarter to take a 20-18 lead; we scored the first 5 points of the second quarter and later missed some easy shots while they pounded it inside for a 37-34 half time lead. Torey Pieters blocked their final shot at the buzzer to prevent another score. We hung tough and were still down 3 after three periods. We pulled to 64-63 with 3 minutes to go; then their inside game took over, and they made their free throws down the stretch for a 74-68 victory. The boys' teams will be home next on Friday, Jan. 14, against Newark.
The girls' jv and varsity teams hosted Canandaigua on Jan. 7, and the results were not pretty. In the jv game, Canandaigua started with a 3, made another shot from just inside the line, added 4 free throws, another field goal, and it began to look as though we would be shut out. Sam VanderBrook made a 3 with about 20 seconds to go in the period for an 11-3 first quarter score.
We had about 90 seconds at the end of the first half and 60 seconds to begin the second half when we were actually shooting well, but that won't get it done. Neither will 35% free throw shooting in the first half matched against their 100%. We shot better from the charity stripe in the second half, and they were much worse, but their jumpers were dropping with no problem for a 41-29 final. Shannon Sweeney led our scoring with 10, Meredith Burns added 9.
The varsity game was similar. Our floor defense was quite good, causing turnovers, but our shooting was COLD. Rebounding was a problem and there were some suspect passes, resulting in a 13-2 hole after one period. With about four minutes to go in the second period we seemed to shake off the lethargy and began scoring off the turnovers, rebounding and blocking shots, outscoring them 15-10 for a 23-17 halftime score.
The run continued into the third. With 2:30 to go in the third Canandaigua had only scored 6 (all free throws), whereas we had scored 8, but suddenly the dam burst and they ran up a 35-26 third quarter margin. We slipped back to make all the early mistakes and they won easily, 45-35. Two of their usual starters were injured, so it might have been worse. The girls will be home next on Wednesday, Jan. 12 against Wayne.
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