In my season preview, I always predict division winners for every league in WNY. For ECIC I, I went with the Williamsville North Spartans, mainly because of a pair of returning players (Sean Hill & Maceo Jack) who would combine with a crop of talent moving up from a highly successful JV team the year before. But the ECIC I league race is also one that I expected to be of the most competitive in Section VI this season. Besides North, there's the defending champs from Jamestown, an experienced team at Lancaster that already won at Jamestown, and Orchard Park, who may have its best team since 2010. So when I saw that North was visiting the Quakers last night, I took the opportunity to watch some of the race unfold in person.
The Spartans put together a complete game performance and saw four players score in double figures, as they came away with an important league win on the road at Orchard Park, 64-51. The win improves North to 3-1 and 2-0 in ECIC I, while the Quakers suffered their first loss and slip to 3-1, 1-1.
The teams traded buckets in the early going and were tied five minutes into the game. The Spartans put together mini-runs at the end of the first quarter (10-4) and again before the half ended (11-4) to build a 36-22 lead at the break. The effort shown by Williamsville North in its first league road game was a sharp contrast to the way they looked on the road at Williamsville South a week earlier, when they quickly fell behind and were forced to chase the lead all game.
"I think effort is the big word," North coach Chuck Swierski said. "I told my kids, we're as athletic and as talented as anyone else I've seen - it's just a matter of the work ethic."
Orchard Park did take care of the ball and executed offensive sets all evening, but its undoing may have been missed shots. The Quakers continually worked to get good shots, many of them coming in the paint, but had a difficult time getting them to fall. To North's credit, they took advantage of those misses by regaining possession and not giving up second chance opportunities.
"We put a lot of emphasis on boxing out," Swierski said. "In the early season, we've hurt ourselves by giving up a lot of second chance points."
In contrast, the Spartans also took good shots, but saw theirs fall at a much higher rate. North shot 48% from the field in the game. Junior Anthony Maniscalco put together his best performance of the early season, leading all scorers with 17 points and adding eight rebounds.
"He was great tonight on both ends of the floor," said Swierski. "I'm thrilled - he looked like a varsity player tonight."
Sean Hill once again showed why he is one of the best with the ball in his hands, running the North offense all evening and manipulating the OP defense to continually set his team up with scoring chances. Hill scored 11 points in the game and added seven assists.
"I've been spoiled with the guards that I've had and he's another one in a great line of North guards." said Swierski.
Maceo Jack finished with 12 points and eight rebounds for the Spartans, while Jairus Huggins added 11 points in the win.
Orchard Park was led by Phil Marks, who scored a team-high 13 points, while Dylan Anderson came off the bench to chip in 10 points in the loss.
-centercourt
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