Patience helps Mount Vernon pull away

WHITE PLAINS - Sometimes it isn't a great team's skill or will that wins out. Sometimes it's the patience and discipline.

Sometimes a team has to take what's given, even when it isn't a lot, as was the case with what Scarsdale was or wasn't giving Mount Vernon yesterday in the boys Class AA semifinal.

The Knights knew exactly what the game would look like, exactly what Scarsdale would do.

Mount Vernon coach Bob Cimmino quotes John Wooden, as a lot of coaches do: "Be prepared" for whatever comes.

And so Cimmino prepped the Knights for exactly this, a patient, hard-played game that would test Mount Vernon. And Scarsdale coach Jon Feld prepped the Raiders for the Knights' skill. Or he tried to do that.

In addition to scrimmaging an athletic, big Peekskill team, Feld brought in teachers from the district, guys who were 6-foot-5, 6-6, to practices.

"Mount Vernon is just phenomenal," Feld said. "We tried to practice, to simulate Kevin (Jones) and Sherrod (Wright). You can't do it. No matter what we tried. You can't simulate the strength and the speed and the ability. Those guys are just phenomenal players."

And yet, Scarsdale did a decent job on both of them for stretches of the game, which was only 12-6 after one quarter and in which Mount Vernon had just 30 points before a buzzer-beater basket at the half.

The Raiders did what they've done all season - they used what Feld calls his "three-headed monster" against the 6-5 Wright. It looked crazy. The three were 5-8 Jon Trock, 5-9 Evan Livingston and 5-8 Greg Garfinkel. They would get in Wright's face or, more accurately, his chest. And try to deny him. All within the rules.

"We tried to simulate that by beating him up in practice, limiting his touches," Cimmino said. "In the early part of the year, he would become frustrated in practice, and passive.

"But I've seen him start to grow and he likes the idea that he could be the leader next year, because he's the best (returning) player, and that he has to do some things. The other day in practice when we had super coverage on him, he was setting a ton of screens. So he's starting to understand that it's not always going to be up to him as to how the script goes."

Meanwhile, 6-4 Seth Goldwasser had to deal with 6-8 Kevin Jones.

Jones didn't have a point until there was 5:10 left in the second quarter, but once he got one, it was like twisting off the top of a shaken soda bottle.

Wright's explosion came in the third quarter, when he scored nine points and Mount Vernon pulled away to gain its 10th straight berth in the championship game, 78-49.

"I wouldn't say they were playing dirty but they were playing hard," Wright said. "So we had to just remain calm and not fall into all the little pushing stuff and all that. I think we did a good job with that. It doesn't frustrate me or anything. We're used to that."

This wasn't the old days for Mount Vernon and Scarsdale, a history that includes some low-scoring affairs - a classic starring Raiders Butch Graves and John Revelli back in 1979, and another Jack Kaminer-coached, even lower-scoring Scarsdale win in 1992 (32-17 final, a point total that was matched late in the first half yesterday). Those were pre-shot-clock days, when the Raiders would use the Princeton offense and hold the ball.

Current Edgemont coach Joe Galgano was the Knights' first-year coach in '92, with a rebuilding, young team.

"I don't look at it as frustrating," Galgano recalled yesterday. "They did what they needed to do to win the game, and I never begrudge any coach (for that). That's their way, and it's our job to make something happen. Kudos to them. That's basketball."

So was what Scarsdale did yesterday. It was admirable and valiant. Mount Vernon stayed patient, disciplined, and let its talent and will eventually pull away.

"When it was 10-6 in the first quarter, I felt like I was back in '92 based on what I've read and what I've heard," Feld said. "And I said, 'Keep this (that close), that's just a basket here or there, and we've got a chance.' "

The Knights have lots of experience in teams doing whatever is necessary to hang in with them. Yet, by unofficial count, they have won 100 of their last 103 games against Section 1 opponents.

"It's satisfying," Ketema Brooks said, "but it's not as precious as Sunday."

Scarsdale had a terrific year, beating White Plains, hanging with New Rochelle twice, and losing three times to Mount Vernon in a 17-6 season.

But, same old, same old. Mount Vernon goes for its 25th gold ball Sunday, against a Poughkeepsie team we dare to guess will play a dramatically different game.

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