At Monday night’s game against the Broadalbin-Perth Lady Patriots, every Amsterdam Lady Rams basketball player scored, had at least one rebound, and one assist, helping the team to a 75-35 victory at Amsterdam High School.
“I think that shows no matter who we face, we play hard each game,” Amsterdam senior Giuliana Pritchard said.
Pritchard led the way with a game high 15 points and four rebounds doing most of the damage in a first half that ended with the Lady Rams leading 45-16. She had plenty of help especially from Amsterdam’s trio of freshman, two who are featured in Amsterdam’s starting lineup including Antonia May, who started the scoring with a long range three, and Jackie Stanavich, who scored eight of her twelve points in the first quarter. Six points from Pritchard (four on free throws), and four from junior Elena Fedullo allowed the Lady Rams to open the contest on a 21-3 run to complete the first quarter. Amsterdam’s defense smothered many BPHS scoring attempts, and was better under the boards holding a 43-17 advantage in rebounds for the game.
“Turnovers and rebounds hurt us,” Broadalbin-Perth coach Tucker Gifford said. “Amsterdam is a very good team.”
Amsterdam kept getting that same effort on both ends of the floor in the second quarter as Fedullo and Pritchard connected from the free throw line after outworking their opponents for rebounds. A put back by Fedullo and a steal by Stanavich boosted the AHS lead to 29-3 before May dialed in with the second of her three triples increasing the advantage to a remarkable 32-3 before Nyah Thompson scored again for BPHS. Taylor Flint took an assist from Pritchard giving AHS a 34-6 lead, and freshman Charli Beekman scored the first points of her varsity career to make it a thirty point lead for the Lady Rams. Beekman finished with five points helping the AHS freshman collect 26 of the teams total. All three AHS underclassmen played significant minutes in only the second game of the season.
“Our ninth graders are learning,” Amsterdam coach Eric Duemler said. “We’ll keep pushing them. I know they can do great things in the future.”
With the Lady Rams comfortably ahead, the AHS reserves had a chance to get plenty of playing time. Starting point guard Lucia Liverio got in the scoring column late in the first half, and just before the buzzer assisted on a three point shot by junior guard Kim Lopez, for her first points as a member of the Lady Rams varsity team. As the second half opened, only senior Gianna Derosa and junior Madi Carmona had yet to score for AHS.
Broadalbin-Perth began the third quarter with a 6-0 run getting points from eighth grader Emma Goebel, and freshman Caroline Iannotti, both of whom were in the Lady Patriots starting line up along with eighth grader Makenzie Smith as the Lady Patriots showed a mix of youth and veteran leadership of their own, with junior Adrienne Morreale and senior Lola DiCaterino on the floor from the start to lead the young team. Goebel finished with six points, Iannotti and Smith each had four, with Smith posting a team high six rebounds.
“We’re trying to change the program,” Coach Gifford said. “We’re a work in progress.”
Smith spent plenty of time battling for rebounds with AHS starters Pritchard and Fedullo and showed the strong front court presence the Lady Patriots need as one of the building blocks of the future.
“Makenzie (Smith) is a good player,” Coach Duemler said of the BPHS eighth grader. “According to Coach Gifford she always works hard in practice, she’s growing, and she’s going to be good.”
Amsterdam finished the game with both Derosa and Carmona on the floor for last five minutes. With just over four minutes remaining, Carmona took a pass from Derosa and drilled a three point shot from the corner baseline for her first varsity points breaking a five point BPHS run, and leaving Derosa as the only Lady Rams yet to score. Moments later the AHS senior moved to the basket and scored on a pass by Beekman, and then netted the free throw to put all ten AHS players on the board. Derosa later rounded out the scoring with two more free throws to finish with five points. The four AHS seniors: Pritchard, Liverio (5 points), Flint (7 points), and Derosa teamed up for 32 of the AHS total.
“We’re more confident,” said Pritchard, who continues to climb on the school’s all-time scoring list. “Everyone saw they could do things they didn’t do before.”
At 748 points, Pritchard is closing in on passing Sue Blazejewski (774 points) on the all-time list. That moment could come as early as Thursday when the Lady Rams play Johnstown.
Jackie Stanavich finished with 12 points and nine rebounds for AHS. Elena Fedullo put up 11 points and hauled in seven rebounds, May added four rebounds to her nine point effort, and Flint added another four boards to her seven points for Amsterdam. Carmona, and Lopez each finished with three points and a pair of boards.
Nyah Thompson led the Lady Patriots with 13 points and one rebound. Morreale finished with six points and a pair of rebounds, and Lola DiCaterino and Ganiha Tirado had one point each, with DiCaterino bringing down four rebounds for BPHS.
Amsterdam (2-0) plays in its first road contest on Thursday. The Lady Rams face the Johnstown Lady Bills at the Warren Street Elementary School gym with the varsity contest set to tip off at
