Prattsburgh avenges lone loss
BY BOB BENZ THE LEADER

ERIC WENSEL/THE LEADER Prattsburgh's Doug Lewis splits the Batavia Notre Dame defense for a layup during Saturday's, Jan. 12, game.

PRATTSBURGH - The spectators who filled Prattsburgh's tiny shoe box of a gym beyond capacity Saturday, Jan. 12, likely overlooked any discomfort from being packed in like sardines.

The second meeting between two of the state's top 3-ranked teams in Class D had enough twists, turns and momen tum shifts to make the raucous crowd forget - or at least overlook - any lack of comfort.

In a game where each team traded runs throughout most of the contest, Prattsburgh enjoyed the last such spurt, opening the fourth quarter on an 11-0 run to post a 43-36 victory over Batavia Notre Dame.

In fact, Prattsburgh - the state's second-ranked team - nearly pitched a shutout in the final quarter, limiting third-ranked Notre Dame to just two points in the final eight minutes. The Fighting Irish avoided the final-quarter goose-egg, scoring an uncontested bucket with 25 seconds left in the contest.

With the win, the Vikings avenged their only loss of the season - a 15-point setback to the same Fighting Irish - in their season opener. Prattsburgh also denied Notre Dame coach Mike Rapone his 500th career win. Only two other coaches in Section V history have ever won 500 games.

"This is the best crowd and the best sort of atmosphere you can have for high school basketball," said Prattsburgh coach Jim Burke, who had the game stopped with just seconds left to pay tribute to Rapone, who Burke called, "a great coach and an even better person."

Prattsburgh opened the fourth quarter trailing 34- 32 after Notre Dame closed the third quarter on a 12-2 run.

While the Fighting Irish owned the first and third quarters, the Vikings were even more dominant in the second and fourth quarters.

Prattsburgh finished the first half with a 15-0 spurt to grab a nine-point advantage at halftime and enjoyed similar success in the final quarter, outscoring Notre Dame, 11-2.

The common denominator in the Vikings' successful quarters was the team's decision to go with man defense.

"In the last four minutes of the game, we put everything on the line and played man defense," Burke said. "We knew they were gonna make a run, we just had to counter it ourselves."

Following a shaky finish to the third, Prattsburgh tied the game and slowly pulled away.

Doug Lewis knocked down a short jumper to knot the score at 34 and Marshell Stanley buried a pair of free throws with 6:29 to play to give the Vikings a lead they would not relinquish.

And that's when senior Wade Fuller took over to help put the game out of reach.

Fuller's pull-up jumper stretched the Vikings' lead to four. Moments later, Fuller came up with a steal, went strong to the basket in transition and dished off a nolook pass to Stanley, who converted the layup. Fuller then drilled a 3-pointer to give Prattsburgh a ninepoint lead with less than three minutes to play.

Fuller finished with nine points, while Stanley led the Vikings with 12 points. Lewis chipped in with nine points and teammate Ryan Caron added nine points.

"We have a lot of respect for their program," Burke said. "This gives us some confidence, especially looking at the way they beat us the first time around."

Christian Bochicchio led Notre Dame, who enjoyed a 14-11 lead after the first quarter, with 14 points. Joe Pawlak drained three from long distance and finished with 10 points for the Irish.

"We never really got on track all night offensively," Rapone said. "We were ahead after the first and then we got outscored 15-0 going into the half and we came back and played pretty well in the third quarter, and then the fourth quarter, it just didn't happen for us."