Hoop Rams lose both games in Larizza Tournament but Memo Zabala excels as one the tourney's stars
December 13, 2023 at 11:48 p.m.
Edgemont beat the Port Chester Rams 60-40 in the consolation game of the third annual Louis Larizza Jr. Memorial Basketball Tournament Saturday (12/9) at King Street School. And if it's any consolation, the Rams’ dynamic senior Guillermo (Memo) Zabala led all scorers with 40 points despite Edgemont's double and triple teaming him and a ref's overzealous whistle forcing a foul-plagued Zabala to sit out almost half the game.
Edgemont's winning basketball strategy was as simple as it was obvious: Stop Memo Zabala and you stop the Port Chester Rams.
"I want somebody always in front of him, I want somebody in back of him at all times—I don't want Zabala to touch the ball," the Edgemont coach kept shouting to his players before just about every inbounds play, before almost every Rams possession.
Biased zebra whistle
He may as well have been shouting to one of the officials as well. Because the ref kept calling fouls on Zabala, and when the Rams’ new coach Greg Cole exhorted the ref to call fouls fairly on both teams, the zebra pompously said: "I am impartial, I favor no team." Even as almost every call he made favored Edgemont and the fouls he whistled on Zabala, real or imagined, started in the game's first minute. That's when the ref called a contact foul on Memo that never happened. It wasn't the last time.
What happened after that came down to the fact that the Edgemont players kept wrapping themselves around Memo like they were human scarves and rarely got a foul called against them.
And the ref kept whistling Memo for fouls that nobody else saw as the game progressed.
The see-no-Edgemont-evil ref also never blew a whistle when Memo was hammered to the ground on a drive, hit high, low and in between even as Zabala sprawled on the ground under the basket looking for calls that never came.
Strategy hits, misses
And guess what: the Edgemont strategy worked, albeit not perfectly.
Memo had four fouls on him before the first half ended. And Zabala had to sit out almost half of the second half because Cole couldn't risk Memo fouling out.
But when Memo was allowed to play, in between zebra whistles, it was like watching a Ferrari racing against amusement park kiddy bumper cars in a basketball version of the Indy 500. Zabala's acceleration and various gears of speed, twists and turns left the Edgemont players trying to double and triple team him looking like amateurs trying to stop a pro. And when Memo ran into a wall of Edgemont players blocking him from the rim, he just stepped back and hit a three from long range.
When the game ended, even with the zebra in his way, handicapping him with that too quick whistle, and the hounding Edgemont players doing their best to corral him, Memo still had 40 points, the rest of the Rams had 10 and Edgemont had 60, most of them scored while Zabala was on the bench because Edgemont kept stealing the ball and converting those steals into layups.
The noticeable difference
Without Zabala on the court, the Rams had trouble inbounding or even passing the ball. And when they did pass, they telegraphed their throws so Edgemont kept making easy steals that resulted in what amounted to a layup drill.
With Memo in the game, the score was 13-11 in favor of Edgemont at the end of the first quarter with Memo scoring eight of those points. But Zabala kept getting called for fouls. And had to sit out a good portion of the half because he was in early foul trouble. "The calls have to go both ways," Cole called out to the ref as his ace kept getting hammered. To which the zebra memorably said: "I am impartial. I favor no team."
But the ref certainly was impartially calling a very different game than the one this observer was watching.
Because while the foul-plagued Memo sat, Edgemont scored, and scored, and scored, mostly off steals off sloppy Ram passes. It looked as though the Rams were throwing the ball to Edgemont jerseys instead of Port Chester's. It was as though precision bounce passes didn't exist for the undisciplined Rams, at least not on this day, not the way Port Chester was playing playground ball because they flooded the air with long, loopy passes that Edgemont timed, caught and converted to layups and easy scores. Angel Mata hit two jumpers for the Rams and Ryan Gagnon nailed two one handers from outside while Memo sat, but that was just about all Port Chester had going for them offensively. It isn't that the Rams weren't or aren't trying hard, they are trying and playing hard, but so far without results.
Pass or fail test
Without Memo, the game became like a pass or fail test, and the Rams flunked what could and should have been a slam dunk.
They flunked an even earlier test in the featured opening game of the Larizza Tournament when the Rams lost to Rye Neck 60-27 Friday (12/8) with Zabala scoring 23 of Port Chester's 27 points despite being double and triple teamed as Port Chester's main scoring threat. In fact, Memo, last year's Conference Player of the Year and one of the leading scorers in Section One, is just about the Rams’ entire offense, the rest of the offense being somewhat offensive in the true definition of the word. It is as though Zabala is a player in search of a team although Memo would never say that because Zabala is a team player, loves his teammates and loves playing for Port Chester. But there is no denying that Memo brings the ball up the court on almost every play, tries to get the other players involved as both the point guard and shooting guard, and works to set up the plays like a traffic cop directing traffic although it seems like nobody pays attention to him. He keeps passing off on drives to the rim when he is being overplayed, only to often see his passes to uncovered teammates either dropped or the easy layups or put backs he has set up simply missed. But if he is discouraged or dismayed, he doesn't show it. He keeps urging his teammates on and keeps coming back for more. No matter what happens. And a lot does. And has.
Story behind story
Zaballa is a true baller, a hard-working student-athlete out of the Dominican Republic who really knows and loves the game he learned playing up against older boys on elite age group teams in the Dominican and beyond. He now plays fast-paced off season travel team ball across Westchester to stay sharp and keep getting better. He sees basketball as the next step out of the melting pot. Because he is one of the few Westchester area players ready for the next ultra-competitive collegiate Division 1 basketball level—but first he has to graduate and then comes quite possibly a year of intensive prep school hoops and maybe even community college ball. It is going to take time for Zabala to make it to the next level. Because when he first came to Port Chester to live with his father and his new family in the projects, he could barely speak a word of English. And he left part of his heart back in the Dominican with its sun, sand and surf as well as most of his family and friends. So he works hard at everything he does because he knows he just needs more time to get comfortable with the English language while making headway with high school academics to the point where he is honor roll material as a senior and near college ready.
That immigrant drive back story makes Memo the heart of any Port Chester basketball story.
The road ahead
Those in the know realize Memo is a player to watch. And if it is any real consolation, or vindication, shortly after the Larizza Tournament consolation game ended, Zabala was named one of LoHud's players to watch as the best of the best players in Westchester and the lower Hudson Valley and a candidate for the LoHud Super 7 team. The players on the list were named in alphabetical order. Zabala was the last name to be mentioned. But he is at or near the top of every recruiter's list. Memo was named to the Larizza All-Tournament team despite the Rams losing both their games. But no one from Edgemont or Rye Neck was named to that LoHud players to watch list. Nor was anyone from Blind Brook, the team that beat Rye Neck 58-41 to win the Larizza Tournament Saturday night (12/9) at the high school. And that should tell you something about who the best player in the Larizza Tournament really was.
But for now, the Rams are doing their best to learn from what happened in that tournament and forget the rest. And concentrate on the road ahead.
Earlier in the season, Cole, the Rams’ new head coach, said it was going to take time for the Rams to play the kind of ball he wants them to play, but they were going to work hard to play the game the way it should be played and would never quit until they got there. They get their next steps in that work in progress in their next two home games against New Rochelle Thursday (12/14) at 5 p.m. and Ramapo Monday (12/18) at 4:30 p.m. Hopefully, those pass or fail tests will produce better results than what happened against Rye Neck and Edgemont.
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