Youth serves purpose for South Jefferson

ADAMS — Rachael Bassett played in her first sectional final two years ago and scored 22 points to help the South Jefferson girls basketball team claim a sixth consecutive championship.

She was the best player on the floor that day at Onondaga Community College. She was also a freshman.

Spartans coach Pat Bassett considers many factors in his yearly effort to assemble a roster that can not only dominate Section 3 opponents, but also consistently contend for state titles.

A player's age isn't one of them.

"I'm trying to find the 10 best basketball players in our school," Bassett said Tuesday as the Spartans prepared for Saturday's Class B state quarterfinal against Section 4's Oneonta. "A lot of times that happens to include a freshman and a sophomore or two."

Throughout the past decade, the Spartans have enjoyed the luxury of receiving significant contributions from underclassmen, and that trend hasn't changed this year.

Sophomore Amanda Roberts and freshman Brooke VanCoughnett have each netted just over 5.0 points per game to help the Spartans (21-0) enter the state playoffs with a perfect record.

While not eye-popping, those numbers represent an important part of a South Jefferson attack that averaged 45.7 points in the Section 3 tournament.

Oneonta, which won the Section 4 final 30-27 in overtime, doesn't appear to be offensively explosive, either, so the roughly 10 points the pair provides could determine if the team's pursuit of a third state title continues past this weekend.

Such situations are a bit intimidating, VanCoughnett said, but not overwhelming.

"My teammates help me out a lot," she said. "And they were welcoming of me. Knowing they're always behind me is good."

Pat Bassett said he promoted VanCoughnett to varsity, after two JV seasons, to give the Spartans a defensive lift off the bench. Her offensive production, and ability to become a 3-point threat have been, "pleasantly surprising," he said.

But not every Spartan underclassman in the past received the development time VanCoughnett and Roberts have enjoyed. It usually depends on which holes need to be filled in any given year.

Rachael Bassett discovered that fact at the beginning of the 2007-08 campaign.

"I was thrown in as the starting point guard," she said. "Our program has been so successful that there's a lot of expectations for you to be successful, too. It can be hard sometimes."

Coach Bassett said his system, some years, calls for instant results.

"Linsey Niles was our starting power forward when she was a freshman and we had to have at least 10 points a night from her," said Bassett of the former Spartans standout who went on to St. Bonaventure. "We've been fortunate to have younger kids play important roles for us."

Success isn't always measured on the stat sheet in the Spartans' substitution-heavy, high-energy system. But each player that sees the floor must at least play solid defense and have a strong grasp of the game plan.

"If they can go in, play their minutes, and not make mistakes, that's good," Pat Bassett said.

The coach also believes that promoting younger players better prepares them for the intense postseason trips the Spartans seem to take every year. And, perhaps the best preparation for facing the pressure of playoff free throws, or getting one last defensive stop, is having done it before.

"By the time they're juniors and seniors, they've played in big games," Pat Bassett said. "We should have a certain comfort level in those games."