Hot Flames eliminate Vikings from playoffs

Story and photo by Larry Austin
Grand Island Dispatch, March 3, 2006

Grand Island’s Dana Szczepaniak tries to rip the ball away from Williamsville East’s Kaitlin Roseti. (photo by Larry Austin)

A year ago, Grand Island crushed Williamsville East 42-29 to win the Section VI Class A-1 title in girls basketball. Last Saturday, the Flames exacted a measure of revenge in beating the Vikings 45-32 in the Sectional semifinals at Lockport.

Williamsville’s 6-foot-1 center Kaitlin Roseti was the best player on the court according to her coach, Chris Durr. The junior had 19 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots.

Grand Island led 11-4 in the first quarter before Donovan picked up her second foul with 1:12 left. Without Donovan in the game, East went on a 14-4 run to close out the half ahead 21-15. The Flames held the Vikings to just two Ashleigh Frieday free throws in the second quarter.

“Courtney got in foul trouble. That’s a big difference on both ends of the floor,” said Grand Island coach Jenepher Banker. “You have to be able to overcome those things. They did a good job, and we didn’t respond to it.”

“We didn’t give up and we played with intensity the whole game and everyone contributed,” Roseti said. “It was close at the beginning.

“We were nervous. We didn’t really know what to expect from them. So we just had to get used to them it just kind of went from there.”

“I think there’s no doubt they were nervous, and they should be,” Durr said. “It’s a chance to go to a Sectional final against a team that beat us pretty bad last year.”

Between Roseti and 6-0 senior Nicole Ostanski, East enjoyed a significant height advantage over Grand Island.

Grand Island used a triangle-and-two defense, playing a triangle zone in the lane with man-to-man defense on East’s perimeter guards, Alanna DeVaughn and Megan Lankes. The Vikings switched to a two-three zone without Donovan.

“We went triangle-and-two to start, which was pretty effective in the first quarter,” Banker said. “It’s a big difference when you have somebody 6-2 in there than when you don’t.

“They did a good job of making adjustments and attacking whatever we went to.”

Donovan finished with five points. East limited her to one free throw in the final three quarters after she scored two hoops in the first quarter.

“She contributes a lot to that team, and without her in the game we were able to take advantage of it and score some points,” Roseti said of Donovan.

Defending the Vikings was a key to the second quarter run, East coach Chris Durr said.

“We knew that we had to defend them to be able to compete. We knew we weren’t going to be able to outgun them, outshoot them,” he said.

“We’ve defended teams all year,” he added, noting East held Honeoye Falls-Lima, the defending state champs, to 58 points, 14 below their average.

Frieday led the Vikings with 13 points, below her average.

“I thought we didn’t give her a lot of good looks,” Durr said of defending Frieday. “She got frustrated sometimes, but she’s had a great career. She killed us last year, and the kids really played well today.”

Donovan picked up an offensive foul two minutes into the third quarter.

Meanwhile, Grand Island could not get on the board until Kara Rossi sank a pair of free throws to cut East’s lead to 27-17 with 4:52 left in the quarter.

Donovan was whistled for her fourth personal foul, her third offensive foul of the game, dropping the shoulder into a defender on a move to the hoop. She fouled out with 3:11 on a blocking foul.

“Donovan’s a very good player. She had a great year, and we’ve taken a lot of charges this year, more than any other year in my career,” Durr said. “I think the kids have bought into really playing defense and really being able to shut teams out.”

“We rebounded very well today, and that was another key going into the game.”

Grand Island was hoping for a repeat of the Class A titles it won in 2004 over Olean and in 2005 over Lewiston-Porter. The team graduates seven seniors.

“They’ve won a lot of games,” Banker said of the Class of 2006. “They’re great kids, and that’s what I’m going to miss. They’re great kids, they worked hard, they’ve been committed, and we’ve had a lot of fun. So we’re going to miss all of that.”