Memo Zabala becomes 1st Ram to hit 1,000 career points

That milestone goes along with his school record 60 points as season highlights

February 7, 2024 at 9:21 p.m.

High-scoring Dominican Republic senior transfer Guillermo (Memo) Zabala is flanked by his father (left) and Port Chester head coach Greg Cole during a pre-game ceremony Tuesday, Feb. 6 honoring him as the first player in Ram basketball history to score 1,000 points during his two-year varsity career. The Rams lost Tuesday's home game to Horace Greeley with Zabala the top scorer with 18 points. (Courtesy photo of James Ryan)

It was too good to last. And it didn't. But what Port Chester's high-scoring Dominican Republic transfer senior Guillermo (Memo) Zabala did with a basketball will last forever.

Zabala averaged 41 points per game in his last three games on his way to becoming the first Ram to ever score 1,000 points over the course of his two-year varsity career as a Ram.

Hits mark against Foxes

Memo needed to score 15 points to go over the 1,000-point mark and hit for 19 against Fox Lane during a 67-33 loss away.

He followed up by scoring 49 points in a 77-60 away loss to Lincoln last Friday (2/2), the same team he scored a school record 60 points against in an earlier home loss 74-68 the previous Friday (1/26).

But he was held to 18 points in his latest home game Tuesday (2/6) during a 73-40 loss to a very good Horace Greeley team.

Ironically, Zabala was given a basketball before the game honoring his historic 1,000 points-and-counting feat with head coach Greg Cole and athletic director James Ryan making the award of the ball with Memo's record-setting effort inscribed on it.

Place in Wall of Fame

A similarly inscribed ball will go into the school's Wall of Fame, right alongside the ball honoring Kayleigh Heckel's legendary feat as the only female Lady Ram to ever score 1,000 points over a two-year-career.

Heckel famously transferred to Long Island Lutheran, a national prep school powerhouse, to enhance her college athletic scholarship potential, a move that paid off with her making the McDonald's All-American team as a point guard who has committed to play for the University of Southern California next year.

Zabala, who came to the U.S. without knowing a word of English, stayed home to play with a losing Rams team while learning the language at the high school in the blue collar melting pot that is Port Chester and is hoping to be recruited by a prep school or junior college.

Stifling 1-3-1 zone

His 18-point performance against Greeley was sub-par for him unless you watched closely and saw what Greeley was doing to him and what Memo was selflessly trying to do for the Rams in return.

Greeley had obviously scouted Port Chester and threw a 1-3-1 at Zabala that was designed to stop him from the opening minutes.

What that means is they threw a body at him from the moment he got the ball and clogged the middle with three other shifting players so Zabala couldn't drive for the basket, basically daring the other Rams to beat them.

Zabala, being a team player, kept passing off to his open teammates, but they seldom hit and Greeley was right—the rest of the Rams couldn't beat them.

Run rings around Rams

That became apparent from the get-go. Greeley raced off to a quick 7-0 lead at the outset and never looked back, running rings around the Rams, making them look like a playground team out of their league against one of Westchester's better squads. That has been the case all season long. The Rams can hold their own, more or less, against the lesser teams, but, except for Zabala, can't compete against the ranked squads.

And Greeley is a top-10 caliber team. And it showed.

    Senior Samantha Munoz (#2) was determined to play in her senior game last Friday, Feb. 2 against Lincoln, despite her injury in the previous game. She scored a career high 22 points in the game and played for the majority of the four quarters.
 By Lennon Anderson   

Greeley kept hitting long threes, the Rams kept missing theirs. Greeley was a smooth-passing, tough-rebounding give-and-go team, the Rams weren't. And the score kept mounting, Greeley led 22-10 at the end of the first quarter, 34-18 at the half, 54-36 at the three quarters mark and 73-40 at the end.

Battling till end

But no matter what was happening, Zabala kept passing, cutting, driving, setting up plays, trying to keep the Rams in the game while battling for rebounds and steals and drawing fouls that had him sitting for around five minutes towards the finish.

But he couldn't do it alone. And that was that.

But it's not over until it's over and there are still a few away games to go with the Rams going up against White Plains Friday (2/9) at 5 p.m. and Harrison Saturday (2/10) at 3 p.m. as the curtain comes down on a dismal losing winter season that is mercifully coming to an end with little to cheer about except Zabala.

Lady Rams take two
of their last 3 games

The Lady Rams have had better luck in winding down their losing season. They beat Lincoln twice in the past week by scores of 60-26 and 49-21—that's the same Lincs whose male counterparts beat the Rams twice. In the first beatdown, Port Chester's eighth grade wunderkind McKayla McLoughlin scored a season high 35 points. In the second Lady Rams win over the Lincs, senior Samantha (Sam) Munoz scored a career high 22. And on Monday night, Port Chester forward Elise Thomas scored a career high 19 points during a 79-53 loss to Yonkers Montessori, the team that won Port Chester's annual Louie Larizza Memorial Tournament.

It's important to note that Lady Rams head coach Danny Davis’s well-drilled and disciplined team had three different high scorers in their last three games, each helping one another, a luxury Zabala has never had. But they have the same problem the Rams have had all season long—they struggle against Westchester's better teams and usually are competitive against the lesser lights. That means it could be a long bus ride home for the Lady Rams after the Carmel away game season finale Friday (2/9) at 5 p.m. because the up-county team ranks in Westchester's top 10.