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Springside hoopsters end Inter-Ac drought
by TOM UTESCHER
Venture on a space odyssey back to 2001. To be exact, into the Springside
School gymnasium on January 16 of that year. It’s late in the afternoon,
and sophomore guard Maggie Koch has fired seven three-point field goals
to lead the host Lions to a 55-32 victory over the Bears of Baldwin School.
Springside supporters didn’t know it then, but it would be their
basketball team’s only victory in the Girls Inter-Ac League that
season, and more than that, it would linger as the Lions’ last league
win for the next four years.
Return to the present day, when Maggie Koch is a junior at Georgetown
University and is the starting goalie for the Hoyas’ lacrosse team.
Her younger sister Maeve is a senior and a three-sport athlete at Springside,
and with the Lions off to an 0-4 start in Inter-Ac league play, she’s
running out of chances to enjoy a positive outcome to an Inter-Ac basketball
contest.
For the younger Koch and fellow upperclassmen Rachel DeBerardinis, Maggie
Kyle and Delia Langan, the wearisome victory vigil ended last Friday afternoon,
when the Lions won on the road, 75-48, against those very same Baldwin
Bears. Gathering momentum after the first half ended in a 27-all tie,
the locals attained a record of 6-12 overall, and rose to 1-4 in the Inter-Ac
with a league bout against Agnes Irwin still on their agenda. Despite
an effort from junior Emma Hamm that produced 26 points, nine rebounds,
and five steals, Baldwin fell to 0-2 in the league and 4-7 overall.
The Lions, curiously, received the bulk of their scoring from a trio
made up of an eighth-grader and two players who had literally been an
ocean away less than a week before. The youngster, guard Kristen Fuery,
is one of Springside’s best homegrown talents ever, and she stung
Baldwin for 19 points and pulled down six rebounds. The other two are
Nadya Grisheava and Ulya Savelieva, Russian exchange students who touched
down at JFK Airport last Monday (see sidebar). Grisheava, an imposing
center, deposited 17 points, grabbed 10 boards and recorded three blocked
shots, while Savelieva, a guard, rang up a game-high 28 points and 15
steals.
The game did not begin in such an auspicious manner for Springside. A
three-pointer by freshman Amanda Walker (seven points total) got the Lions
on the board, but Baldwin ran off six straight points, and the new arrivals,
who did not start, entered the game with about four-and-a-half minutes
left in the opening quarter. The second round began with the Bears up
16-13, and after Fuery fed Koch for a fast break lay-up to make it a one-point
affair, the teams went through the period neck-and-neck.
In those early minutes, it became clear that the Russian girls were still
adapting to their continental shift, and to the differences between U.S.
and international basketball rules. Not used to waiting for free throws
to strike the rim before stepping in for the rebound, a frustrated Grisheava
was called for lane violations several times. Aware of the more restrictive
traveling statute here, Savelieva seemed at first to consciously count
her steps when moving with the ball, and by the middle of the second quarter
she’d also picked up three personal fouls.
It was Fuery who led the Springside scorers with 13 points as the interlude
arrived with the scoreboard balanced at 27-all. Baldwin’s Hamm,
an all-purpose battering ram of an athlete, already had 15 points in the
book.
Regrouping and absorbing advice from coach Steve Flynn, the Lions came
out to score the first 17 points of the second half. Having gotten her
timing down, Savelieva proved as deft as a subway pickpocket, taking the
ball off Baldwin time after time, and eventually scoring eight fast-break
lay-ups directly off of steals. Grisheava also settled in, and began to
exercise control in the paint.
The visitors ended the third quarter with a 50-38 lead, then launched
the final period with a lay-up by Nan Weisel and kept on pulling away.
Once the Lions really started to roll, the excitement on the Springside
bench was palpable. On the court, each player on the team seemed inspired
to extend her personal limits, reveling in the first rays of dawn at the
end of Springside’s long Inter-Ac night.
As the Lions were learning, hope is a powerful thing.
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