Lady Rams Tie for First in League with Suffern

The Lady Rams tied Suffern for first place in their league Thursday evening with a dominant 65-29 win over the Ramapo Gryphons.

“We distributed the ball well today,” said the Rams head coach Kerry Sullivan.  “The girls had a tough week so we were just really focused on doing things the way we’ve learned and the way we’ve been taught and today was really just in honor of Sully for the girls.”

The win caps off an excellent season for the Rams and sends them off to the Rockland County Championships on a high note.  With the passing of the long-time North basketball coach and current coach of the junior varsity John Sullivan fresh in their minds, the win had special significance.  

"Last year we were undefeated league champs and this year, we’re splitting with Suffern, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s league champs, it’s still great," said Sullivan.  "The girls are excited, they didn’t celebrate like they did last year, but it's been a solemn and tough week for them.  It’s the 25 girls that are hit hardest, it’s important that I think they’ll go back tonight and really reflect and it will probably hit them once they get home.”

The team has been coping with the loss this week with the support of each other, their coach and the school.

"We haven’t really practiced much, we’ve just been spending time together," said Sullivan.  "We did shoot-arounds, we did a lot of team building stuff at practice the other day.  When we started off we played kickball just because I needed to see them smiling and laughing and to kind of be together and their demeanor really changes when they’re together and it’s not just the varsity, it’s the JV and varsity together.”

The game started off slow, with missed shots and turnovers on both sides.  However, after Danielle Destaso put them on the board, the Rams seemed to calm down and began to execute efficient and effective offensive plays.  Though the Gryphons played solid defense, they were unable to stop North after they got into their rhythm.  Defensively, the Rams hassled the Gryphons into tough shots and turnovers.  Destaso had eight of the Rams 15 to put them up by 11 at the end of the quarter.

Play continued much the same in the second, with the Rams breaking down the Gryphons defense and scoring in transition.  The one difference was Kia Armstrong, who took control of Ramapo’s offense, stealing the ball, driving and scoring 8 of their 10 points that quarter.  Destaso, Elizabeth Baisley and Amanda Cooper led in scoring with four points a piece to put the Rams at a 33-14 advantage going into the second half.

The Rams continued to dominate in the second half. Everyone contributed to help the Rams finish with 65 points on the night. Destaso led the Rams to victory with 25 points.  Cooper, Baisley and Nicole Petri made their presence felt on the offensive end with eight points a piece.  Overall, it was an impressive performance on both ends by the Rams.

"We know they’re a scrappy team and they’re gonna look to rebound, so we came in thinking we needed to take care of the ball and really box out and make sure that we rebounded well, which I think for the most part we did,” said Sullivan.

Armstrong fought hard to get Ramapo back in it, as she lit up the boards to finish the night with 24 points.  Despite the rest of her team’s solid presence defensively and on the boards, they had a really difficult time getting their shots to fall and so they ended the night with 29 points overall.

“We just came to play," said Sullivan.  "I think that it was a 100% group effort for our girls tonight, and I think that really kind of put us over the top."

With Thursday's win, the Rams move onto the Rockland County Championships a game up on Suffern.

Varsity girls play next at South on Saturday at 1 p.m.