Junior Matt McCormick and the OP boys basketball team will host one final home game this season on Tuesday.

The Orchard Park basketball teams will host a playoff doubleheader versus North Tonawanda on Tuesday, Feb. 22.

The boys team lost the coin flip to West Seneca West at the playoff seedings meeting Saturday morning. The news is not bad as the Quakers will be able to host one more game this season.

The Quakers, ranked #12 as a result of the flip, will host #13 North Tonawanda in the tournament’s play-in game on Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m.

If the Quakers win, they will travel to #5 Kenmore West on Wednesday.

Check out the full bracket at the Buffalo News

The Lady Quakers, ranked fifth, will take on #12 North Tonawanda at 6 p.m.

Girls bracket at the Buffalo News

Orchard Park senior Ryan Lindquist drives against Mitchell Hatten of Frontier during the Quakers' 56-53 loss to the Falcons on Thursday night.

In its final regular season game of the 2010-2011 campaign, the Orchard Park boys basketball team lost in dramatic fashion at Frontier, 56-53, to earn its sixth straight loss.

The Quakers trailed the entire contest until a pair of jumpers from Ryan Lindquist and Kyle Witkowski tied the game, 45-45, a minute and a half into the fourth quarter.

Orchard Park was slowly able to creep back into the game with strong perimeter defense. Junior Patrick Hogan, a very physical and vocal defender, did a nice job of disrupting Frontier ball-handlers verbally.

“I’m yelling, trying to make it so they can’t hear each other; just throw them off,” said Hogan.

Orchard Park eventually captured the lead when Ryan Lindquist put the game in favor of the Quakers, 51-50, with just under three minutes remaining.

With the game tied, 53-53, and just eleven seconds left on the clock, Frontier’s Bryan Antonik got an open look from the corner in front of his bench and hit the game-winning bucket.

The intense rivalry that exists between the Quakers and Falcons was exactly the type of playoff-like atmosphere that Orchard Park needed with the post-season set to begin next week.

“It’s definitely the craziest game we’ve been in all year,” said senior Kyle Witkowski. “This will help us for the playoffs. It’s exactly what every playoff game will be like no matter where we go. Hopefully next time we’ll come out on top.”

Nine Quakers scored in the loss with Lindquist leading the offense with 16 points. Junior Matt McCormick scored 15 points, eight of which came in the second half off free throws.

The defeat drops Orchard Park to a 6-12 overall record with a 2-10 mark in ECIC Division I.

Orchard Park won the previous meeting between the two teams, 46-43, back on Jan. 29.

Senior Taylor Swiatek led Orchard Park with 23 points in Thursday's win over Lancaster.

The Orchard Park girls basketball team snapped a four-game losing streak with a 51-39 win over Lancaster at home on Thursday night.

The win ended a difficult stretch of games against the likes of Williamsville North, Jamestown and Hamburg.

“We’ve been working hard, but we’ve run into a tough stretch of teams,” OP Coach Josh Dannecker said of his team’s recent slide.

A key factor in Orchard Park’s losses was the team’s inability to win battles under the glass.

Dannecker pulled Jill Michael up to varsity to improve the team’s rebounding and the sophomore responded with ten boards. It was Michael’s second game on varsity. She played with the top team against Clarence in the holiday tournament over winter break when she grabbed nine rebounds.

“I’m trying to bring aggression and rebounding,” Michael said after the win.

Dannecker said Michael’s abilities in the post are much needed for a team who has had its guards out-rebounding the forwards.

“I need that presence on the glass,” the coach said of Michael. “That’s what I’m looking for is her get on the glass and be a presence down low.”

Teammates were excited with the youngster’s efforts. During Michael’s post-game interview, junior Bridgette Cullen exited the locker room with a huge smile on her face and ran over to congratulate her friend and teammate.

“Did you see the sophomore out there shaking her stuff?” Cullen joked.

Taylor Swiatek led Orchard Park with 23 points. The senior has averaged 21.7 points-per-game over the last three contests. Against Hamburg on Tuesday, Swiatek surpassed the 1,000 career point mark.

The Lady Quakers (7-9, 5-6) will travel to play Williamsville East tonight and will host Frontier on Tuesday, Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m.

Ryan Lindquist

Ryan Lindquist is a senior at Orchard Park High School who plays soccer, basketball and baseball. He will be blogging periodically to provide insight into the boys varsity basketball season. This is his second installment.

What a season so far. I don’t think anyone could have imagined our season playing out like it has.

We have had our rough spots. Jamestown and Clarence are games I wouldn’t mind forgetting about, and now we are stuck just waiting for a chance at redemption.

We seem to have realized that the key to winning (or losing) any game is not beating ourselves. Countless turnovers and missed lay-ups are what led to our recent losing streak. There were games where we were missing over ten lay-ups a game. That’s twenty points that we couldn’t capitalize on.

We were also throwing away the ball and simply giving away opportunities with upwards of fifteen turnovers a game. These are the sort of things that can turn a game around. They are also very correctable and because of that everyone should be ready for a revamped Quaker squad.

Luckily, we are on the rebound. We had a strong showing this week. The team played three solid games and although we couldn’t hold on at the end against Lancaster, we didn’t let it break us.

We were able to earn two solid wins over Frontier and Hamburg. The most important thing about each of the two wins was that we played four complete quarters in each game; breaking away from our trend of disappearing for periods of time during games.

From here on out, we are going to need solid team play, lots of rebounding and strong defense, especially. Our past two games have been two of our lowest scoring games, but they have also been W’s, which is more important than anything.

“Defense fuels your offense.” – That’s Coach Abel’s favorite saying, and also very true.

Basketball is a simple game. Whoever controls the pace, takes care of the ball, and makes the most of their opportunities while preventing the other team from doing the same will win the game.

So I guess we have our work cut off for us. No one is really expecting a lot out of us at the moment. It looks like we will have to prove them wrong.

With each win comes more confidence. We can play with anyone if we get our game on track. But for now we are happy with the back-to-back wins and are ready for the next challenger.

As Jeremy (Kuhn) says: “We on that winning train.” Let’s keep it rolling.

See you all courtside,
Ryan Lindquist #13

Junior Leah Tychinski drives past Nikki Attea of Williamsville North during Orchard Park's loss on Friday night.

After taking down Lancaster on the road Thursday night, 51-37, the Orchard Park girls basketball team suffered a tough loss to Williamsville North at home on Friday night, 57-47.

The Lady Spartans bounced out to an 8-0 lead with some solid pick-n-roll play between point guard Corrin Genovese and Nikki Attea.

Both the Lady Quaker offense and defense struggled early, but changes allowed the girls to battle back late.

“I think we were more physical and didn’t let her push us around,” forward Bridgette Cullen said of containing Attea after the team’s initial deficit.

On offense, Orchard Park tried to free up space for senior Taylor Swiatek, who finished with 13 points.

“We just needed to change so we started doing screens, because they were all over Taylor,” Cullen added.

On the team’s slow start, Cullen said with a laugh: “We had a team dinner before (the game) and I think we all ate too much.”

Kelsey Schaffstall scored 13 points for Orchard Park – ten in the fourth quarter.

The loss drops Orchard Park’s record to 6-6 (4-4 in ECIC I Division).

The Lady Quakers will play the second of back-to-back contests against the Lady Spartans on Monday at Williamsville North.

Senior Charles Mosey drives in for two of his ten points in Wednesday's 58-43 loss at Lancaster.

The Orchard Park boys basketball team played its first game after a 15-day layoff on Wednesday night losing at Lancaster, 58-43.

The Quakers had their previous three games postponed due to school cancellations and showed few signs of being off for more than two weeks.

The Quakers came out in a 2-3 zone, but quickly changed their defensive alignment after Lancaster scored the game’s first two buckets.

The press allowed the Quakers to create turnovers and deny the Redskins from getting the ball down low to six-foot-seven J.J. Harrington.

The Orchard Park offense struggled in the second quarter sinking just one field goal and two free throws the entire frame. Ball movement was slow and shots were not falling despite hard work in the post by forwards Jeremy Kuhn, Zach Schenk and Ryan Lindquist.

OP trailed at half, 23-16, and come out of the locker room to score 20 third quarter points through a combination of transition points created by solid perimeter defense from Mosey and Matt McCormick.

“We were really pressuring the ball hard,” said Mosey. “They couldn’t seem to get the ball past half court.”

The passing was crisper and the team hit on three 3-pointers in the quarter to grab the lead, 36-33. Kyle Witkowski hit a three that gave the Quakers the lead with a little over three minutes left in the third.

Unfortunately for the Quakers, the same struggles they saw in the second quarter came back in the fourth.

“We got the momentum in the third,” said Lindquist. “In the fourth, we just lost it. We couldn’t hit a shot.”

The Quakers scored just six points in the final quarter – two from the field and four from the line.

Orchard Park starting missing on outside shots and could not seem to finish on shots in the paint.

For a small team, Orchard Park did a commendable job working hard in the post.

“A lot of the focus is on the fact that we don’t have a giant on the team,” said Lindquist. “All of us have to work to get rebounds. We got a few today, but we couldn’t put it back and finish.”

Twenty-two of OP’s 35 points from the field came in the paint. Several of the scores were due to layups in transition, but it was also attributed to gutsy work in the down low.

McCormick led Orchard Park scorers with 13 points. Mosey scored ten points.

The loss moves the Quakers to a record of 4 wins and 6 losses (1-4 in ECIC I Division). It is the team’s fifth straight loss.

Upcoming games:
Hamburg (away) – Friday, Jan. 28 – 7:30 p.m.
Frontier (home) – Saturday, Jan. 29 – 1:30 p.m.

Jenny Clesse

Jenny Clesse
Senior, Orchard Park HS
Basketball

Favorite sports team:
Green Bay Packers
Favorite movie:
Pride and Prejudice
Favorite Orchard Park athlete: Laura Clesse
I would like to visit: Italy
Favorite teacher: Mr. Agnew
I would like to have dinner with: Jake Gyllenhaal
Hobbies other than sports: Snowboarding
Fondest sports memory: When I made a three-pointer to win the game
I am looking forward to: College
Favorite quote: “Reach for the moon, if you don’t succeed, you’ll land among the stars.”

Kyle Witkowski

Kyle Witkowski
Senior, Orchard Park HS
Football, Basketball, Baseball

Dream job: Runway model
Favorite Orchard Park athlete: Kyle “The College Guy” Jeziorski
Favorite OP hangout:
The Reese’s house
Favorite sports team:
New York Giants
Hobbies other than sports:
Video games
Favorite number and why:
15, because my game resembles Tim Tebow
Favorite school subject: Math
I want to visit: Tokyo
I am currently looking forward to: Official visits
Favorite quote: “Oh, this isn’t a whiteboard.”

Apostrophe Fail

On Tuesday night, I arrived early for the Frontier girls basketball game to chat with the varsity players about an upcoming article.

As a result, I caught a good chunk of the junior varsity game, which Orchard Park lost by one or two points. I cannot recall.

According to the game’s officials, you can take an inbound pass after an opponent’s basket, walk the ball out of bounds and in-bound it a second time without getting called for a violation.

In the varsity contest, Orchard Park won by one point, 62-61, while Frontier tried to substitute on the fly twice. Seriously.

I was impressed with the media man’s musical selections. He played a little Michael Jackson and Metallica to go along with a bit of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Not bad.

I conducted a post-game interview with Jenny Clesse while the fire alarm sounded. This was a first in my brief journalistic career.

The one thing that stood out to me more than anything was Frontier’s championship banners and the improper use of punctuation.

Ryan Lindquist

Ryan Lindquist is a senior at Orchard Park High School who plays soccer, basketball and baseball. He will be blogging periodically to provide insight into the boys varsity basketball season. This is his first installment.

So here we are in early January and our basketball season is well underway. Through seven games we are 4-3 overall and 1-1 in league play.

Some people may look at that mark and think we should be proud to have a winning record, but for us, 4-3 is simply not satisfactory. We work too hard, sweat too much and practice too long to only show a 4-3 record. However, I am glad we have experienced some turbulence; a little dose of reality can go a long way.

We are not the same team we were last year. We do not have the best player in Western New York anymore (Troy Nowak). People who watch us aren’t going to see one player drop thirty points nightly, but what we do have is a strong team mentality and a desire to get better.

There are eleven of us on this team and I don’t think I’ve ever been on a team where everyone contributed as much to the team as this one. We have our scorers, Kyle Witkowski and Matt McCormick. We have a tremendous rebounder in Jeremy Kuhn. Shot blocking threats are supplied by Zach Schenk and Ryan “Paps” McPoland. Our defense is led by captain Charles Mosey. Neil Farrell and Trey Cimorelli are three-point threats while Pat Hogan is an excellent passer.

One of the most important players on our team is a player who receives little recognition.

Paul Nunn is the heart of our team. He’s always working and always cheering us on during games. I don’t think I’ve ever been around someone who cares so much for the game and it is truly inspiring.

A key for us as we move later on in the season is to play inspired and to remain a team. We are about a month and a half into the season and we’ve come to the realization that our team can’t afford to rely on skill alone. Quite frankly, we simply don’t have the ability to win that way. What we do have is heart. We are determined. We work and fight for every ball out there on the court.

I really hope people will come to the games and see that when five Quakers are out there talking and working together we are an incredibly strong team capable of showing our league why we are the defending division champions.

Hope to see you all courtside,
Ryan Lindquist #13

Senior Charles Mosey defends Sterling Taplin of Will. North during Tuesday's loss to the Spartans.

It was evident in Tuesday night’s 68-43 win over the Orchard Park boys basketball team that Williamsville North was well-deserving of its number-six ranking in the latest Buffalo News poll.

Of course, the Quakers’ effort was not helped with a hobbled Matt McCormick and an injured Ryan Lindquist.

Orchard Park needs these two players to be 100 percent in order to contend among top teams in what appears to be a strong ECIC Division I this season.

After the loss, junior Pat Hogan said the Quakers did not do what was needed to contend in the contest.

“Our main focus was talking,” said Hogan. “No one really talked. It would’ve been a lot better game if we talked more.”

Without Lindquist, who Hogan calls the team’s best communicator, in the lineup, the Quakers allowed a season-high 68 points.

In their previous contest against Riverside, the game in which Lindquist injured his ankle during the second quarter, the Quakers gave up 65 points. The team allowed just 46 points per game through the first five games of the season.

McCormick played with a tender ankle yet seemed to move pretty well. The junior scored nine points in the loss to Williamsville North.

Lindquist expects to be out two weeks with hopes to return for the team’s next contest which is scheduled for Friday, January 7 versus Jamestown.

The Quakers are now 4-3 overall with a 1-1 mark in division.

Maggie Holly

Just four games into the girls basketball season and I already have about ten photos of junior Maggie Holly fighting for possession of rebounds and loose balls.

After a recent contest, Holly said her objective is to work hard in the post.

“I think we need to get a lot of rebounds and work hard on the boards; just making sure we win everything on the glass,” she said.

Two exciting sporting events will take place this weekend for Orchard Park High School athletics.

On Friday night, both the girls and boys basketball teams will host contests on the same evening in a rare varsity doubleheader.

The girls team will play Clarence at 6 p.m. with the boys scheduled to host West Seneca West at 7:30 p.m.

Last season, both basketball teams played on the same night at Clarence in what turned out to be an incredible evening of basketball between two successful athletic programs.

At Clarence, the charm of having both teams play back-to-back games in one night was helped by the fact that each contest was close, but the allure of playing on the same night and in the same gymnasium added to the enjoyment of the evening.

On Saturday afternoon, the girls hockey team will play its first game in its existence after last week’s snow storm postponed its debut.

The OP-Frontier team will have a tough challenge against a Monsignor Martin team that has won all three of its games convincingly against Williamsville (5-1), Lancaster (11-1) and Kenmore (4-0).

Puck-drop is scheduled for 3 p.m. at the North Buffalo Ice Rink on Tacoma Avenue.

Laura Clesse

Laura Clesse
Senior, Orchard Park HS
Basketball

Favorite book: Harry Potter
Favorite movie character:
Jack Sparrow
Dream job: Journalist
Favorite Orchard Park athlete: Jenny Clesse
Hobbies other than sports:
Video games and snowboarding
Fondest sports memory:
Dream Team 2010. Last year, we nicknamed ourselves the “Dream Team”. So every day on that team was a fond memory for me.
I want to visit: Backpack throughout Europe
Heroes: 2nd Lieutenant Steven James Wax of the United States Army
Favorite quote: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Here is a quick slideshow of photos from the boys basketball game versus Grover Cleveland in the Pastor-Cooper tournament on Monday night at Daemen College.

And a few photos from the girls win against West Seneca East in the WSE Tip-Off tournament Tuesday night.

To see more photos from both games and throughout the season visit my new photo site.

Rebecca Higgins

Rebecca Higgins
Freshman, Orchard Park High School
Volleyball, Basketball

Favorite tv shows: What Not to Wear
Talent I’d like to have: The ability to sing
Favorite sport other than what I play: Football
Favorite Orchard Park athlete: Natalie Meyer, Tyler Eagleton, Peter Brady
Favorite sports team: Penn State
Favorite OP sport to attend: Boys volleyball and Football
Best concert I attended: Have not attended a concert yet
Favorite place in OP to eat: Panera Bread
Favorite meal: Pasta and salad
I want to visit: Cruise to Europe

Ryan Lindquist

Ryan Lindquist
Senior, Orchard Park High School
Soccer, Basketball, Baseball

Favorite tunes: Magic by B.o.B., anything by All Time Low
Favorite OP hangout: Mighty Taco
Favorite book: Ender’s Game
Talent I’d like to have: To play the guitar
Favorite sport other than what I play: Football
Favorite Orchard Park athlete: Tommy Comfort
Favorite sports team: Cleveland Cavaliers, Buffalo Sabres
Favorite meal: Tacos
Favorite school subject: History
Hobbies other than sports: Xbox360 and watching tv

Matt McCormick

Matt McCormick
Junior, Orchard Park High School
Volleyball, Basketball, Baseball

Favorite TV shows: SportsNation, Scrubs, Tosh.O
Favorite tunes: “Not Afraid” by Eminem, “Remember the Name” by Fort Minor, “Dream On” by Aerosmith
Favorite movies:
Miracle, More Than a Game, The Other Guys
Talent I’d like to have: Any artistic ability
Favorite sport other than what I play: Football
Favorite Orchard Park athlete: Joe Kwitek
Favorite vacation spot: San Diego, California
Heroes: J.J. Redick
I wish I could play this sport: Hockey

Here are some photos of Orchard Park basketball players at the Gus Macker basketball tournament last weekend.

The following photos were submitted courtesy of Patti Looney. Thanks!