When I first saw the Pastor division of the Pastor -Cooper memorial tournament, I was immediately looking forward to a second round matchup between the top two small schools in my preseason poll, Grover Cleveland and St. Mary's.  Well, I'll get to see the game I wanted, in the second round, but not on the day I was anticipating.

 

After a 66-51 victory for McKinley over St. Mary's and Grover falling to Orchard Park by a score of 57-52, the top two small schools will meet on Thursday night around 8:15 pm, in the consolation game.  One of them will open its season with a mark of 0-2.

 

Early on, the Lancers looked good in transition and ran well with the fast-paced Macks.  Peter Notaro in particular, stood out because the big guy was finishing on the break.  But as the game wore on, McKinley settled in after some early erratic shooting and started hitting shots against the zone defense of St. Mary's.   Offensively, the Lancers ball movement needs to be faster in half court sets.

 

 Antonio Avery should have a very nice season for the Macks.  He plays aggressive defense, showed he can hit from outside, and can get up and throw it down (although the rim got the better of him early on).  John Black was also impressive for McKinley, playing strong inside and away from the basket.  The Macks should fair very well in both the Yale Cup and Class AA.

 

Orchard Park played good team basketball, looked patient on offense and were very consistent on the defensive end.  Matt McCormick had a nice game for the Quakers and Kyle Witkowski showed a nice touch from outside, knocking down several from beyond the arc.

 

OP head coach Bob Rumschik came in with a solid game plan and definitely had his team ready to play.  During the game, Roger Weiss of Inside High School Sports, said of Rumschik "if he's not the best coach in the area, he's the finest". 

 

It's hard to put my finger on exactly what was wrong with Grover, but generally speaking, they have to play a lot better than they did last night and want to play defense every trip down the court.  Maybe the losses of Ricky Alejandro and Jahnel Tobias from last years team will hurt them more than expected.  The Presidents aren't lacking for talent and Holland is capable of taking over games. 

 

Grover is sporting new jerseys with new colors and a new name.  I don't like them.  Grover is Grover and Grover is green.  But instead, now they're blue and called I-Prep at Grover.  Then you see Earl Schunk watching the game, sporting the green team color of his new team, Tapestry Charter.  It's all so confusing.

 

I'm excited about the first game tonight, with Hutch Tech taking on OTC Middle College.  I'm curious to see what is left of the defending Federation champs, Nichols in the second game.  Since I'm 0-2 on picks this year, don't put much stock in these picks:

Hutch Tech over OTC Middle College and East over Nichols

 

See you back at Daemen tonight.

 

-centercourt