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' ' ,, I .I \ i ! ,, t' THE RECORD- JANUARY 2. 1991 19 ON DECK: .·o··· Who will be the local stars in 1991? Read about them in The RECORD. . . Ruck Leads NP Past Sachem By Brad Halfond Repons of the demise of the Nathport girls' basketball team have been greatly exaggerated.. The two-time defending county champions proved that before a lou<l home crowd oo Saturday night as the Tigers defeated Sachem 50-45 to win the inaugural Suffolk shoot-out basketball tournament · With the victory, Northport (7-0) temporarily put aside any thoughts that League I power Sachem (6-1) was the team to beat in Suffolk this season. \All that talk about [Sachem] being the favorites took some of the pressure off us,\ said Northport junior forward Cami Ruck. \But it . also motivated us.\ Ruck, the tournament MVP, scored six of her 15 points in the fourth quarter as Northport held off a furious Sachem rally in the closing minutes of the game. Northport closed the third quarter with a 9-0 run and entered the final period with what appeared to be a comfortable 38-29lead. And victory seemed assured when Ruck increased that lead to 11 with just over five minutes remaining. \We played much·better in the second half,\ said Northport for- ward Renee Raleigh. who finished with 15 points. \But they're a team that would come back. They played with intensity.\ Sachem put together a 7-0 nm and cut the lead to 44-42 with 2:16 left. But clutch free..throw shooting by Raleigh and Debbie McCabe in the· final minute helped secure the victory. Keri Farley - Sachem's all-county forward - had one final chance to send the game into overtime. but her three-point shot bounced bannlessly off the back of the rim with three seconds left in the game. Roc:oroPboto By JOB SUUIVAN 'CWe proved we could be good at some points but not the. whole game,\ said Farley, who finished with a game-high 19 points. Sachem was hurt by a total of 22 turnovers- many coming at the hands of the Tigers' full-court press. And Northport turned at least five of those turnovers into transition points. Northport's Renee Ralel&h (30) .corecl16 polnta and helped direct the TJ&ers to a 50-46 victory agaiMt Sachem Saturday. lot of support from the bench. Cami had a great tournament, and McCabe and [Erica] McKeon did a great job inside rebounding.\ uA good team like Northport will take advantage of turnovers,\ said Sachem coach Risa Zander. ·we just didn't execute offensively and became tentative near the end. Northport is more disciplined at both ends. They did the things they bad to do.\ Both teams will be busy with their league schedules for the next two months, but the speculation of a potential rematch during the county playoffs has players on the two squads looking ahead to the March tournament. \We both sent messages to each other,\ said Ruck. \I think we~ll \'We can bend, but we can't break.\ said Northport coach Rich Castellano. \Winning this close game is important to us. We had a be meeting them again.\ • Whitman Wins Gugliotta Tourney By Roger Mooney The tournament was named in honor of a well-known teacher and basketball coach, and the high-profile center earned most- valuable-player honors. But when it came to crunch time~ it was a sophomore guard. playing in only his sev- enth varsity game, who calmly hit the free throws that enabled the Walt Whitman boys' basketball team to capblre the title at the second annual Frank Gugliotta Memori- al Basketball Tournament. Jim Schwartz came off the bench during Saturday's championship game between Comsewogue and Whitman and scored 15 points - 11 in the second half - as the Wildcats rallied for a 59-54 victory. · \He's a tough kid, and he played hard,\ said Whitman coach Thomas Kenny of Schwartz, a 6-foot-2 guard. ul feel he's going to be a good player so why keep him on the bench?\ Schwartz scored six consecutive fourth- quarter points, all within the linal two min- utes, to clinch the victory. With the Wildcats leading 51-50, Schwartz stepped to the free- throw line and sank both ends of a one-and- one. \Oh yeah, I was nervous,\ Schwartz said afterward. \But somehow they fell through.\ Schwartz gave Whitman another three- point lead when he followed a Comsewogue score with a driving baseline jumper. Then with 24 seconds remaining, the sophomore found himself back at the free-throw line for another one-and-one:'rm not the best free- throw shooter, but I'm all right,\ Schwartz said. \I just tried to hit the bottom of the net'' Schwartz made good on both attempts, and the Wildcats had their fourth victory of the season and their first Gugliotta tourna- ment championship. •'This was a big win for us,\ said 6-8 cen- ter John Brennan, who scored 14 points in the finals, blocked three shots and altered several others. •'They're good competition, and it's our own tournament\ Comsewogue (3-4), which lost in the finals of the county Class A playoffs last winter, defeated Oceanside in the opening round and looked to be headed toward its second Gugliotta title - it won the tourna- ment last year. The Warriors rolled off 17 straight points during the flfSt half and led 20-6 before Whitman got its offense on track. \\We were just real flat,\ said Schwartz. \But then we picked it up a notch and put the ball in the basket.\ David O'Donnell scored 16 points for Whitman and kept the Wildcats in the game during the first half. Brennan did not get his first points until midway through the sec- ond quarter and had only four at intennis- sion as Whitman trailed 27-24. The Wild- cats cut the lead to one entering the final period. O'Donnell and point guard Tim Green- man made the all-tournament team along with Comsewogue's Wilson Acosta (22 points) and Anthony Macena (13). Whitman (4-3) opens the League II sea- son tomorrow at Lindenhmst •