The Rye Country Day girls’ basketball team is stampeding through the Fairchester Athletic Association, and are poised to take the league title if they continue playing like they did in January 24’s 55-46 defeat of visiting King.

 

By Kevin LaManna

The Rye Country Day girls’ basketball team is stampeding through the Fairchester Athletic Association, and are poised to take the league title if they continue playing like they did in January 24’s 55-46 defeat of visiting King.

 

From the opening of the first half the teams seemed evenly matched in conditioning and ball handling. Then the first foul of the game sent the Wildcats’ prolific scorer, Carolyn Binder, to the line. She sank both free throws to put RCDS on the board. This set the tone for the foul-heavy game to follow.

 

Just three minutes later, the superior ball control, defense, and foul shooting of the Wildcats allowed them to widen the gap to 13-2. Every time the Vikings drove or passed into the paint the Wildcats either stole the ball, intercepted passes, or boxed out effectively to take the boards. This forced the Vikings to rely on their less-than-stellar outside shooting.

 

King emerged from the locker room invigorated to start the second half. As their shooting improved, the lady Vikings closed the gap from 15 to tie it all up with around eight minutes left.

 

Their resurrection was short-lived. Within two minutes the lead was back to five, and soon grew to ten, where it remained for most of the remainder of the contest.   

 

As the game clock dwindled so did the morale of the King. As is common in basketball strategy, the Vikings committed an abundance of fouls in a last-ditch effort. Unfortunately for King, Wildcats’ head coach Margaret Scarcella has her players take at least 50 shots each from the charity stripe at their daily practice. Binder and freshman Nereida Mendez led RCDS to victory, though all rallied together and played superlative full court basketball, buzzer to buzzer, to make this win a reality.

 

“We’re all working hard and looking forward to the tournament,” said Mendez. “Trying to take it all the way – two claps!” (this is the rallying cry the team shouts during their huddle break.)

 

Binder was fouled hard and had scratches on her arms to prove it, but she still managed to sink 17 of 20 at the line and scored a game-high 20 points.

 

“No one got frazzled, we played our game,” said Binder. “We want to continue the momentum into the FAA tournament and make it to the NYSAIS State tourney.”

 

Scarcella was thrilled with the game’s result, as well as the season overall, but admitted to having sweated just a little.

 

“A little too close for me at times,” she said with a laugh. “But I started three freshmen and one of them, Zoe Verni, gave me ten points! It’s my first year after moving up from assistant to head coach, and we’re 9-2. Winning is great, but I always push my girls to raise the bar. You want to play an all-around great game of basketball and these girls have.”