Rasile’s ‘clones’ remain perfect

By Joe Scalzo

The Blue Devils wore down Wellsville, 59-43, for their fifth win of the season.

McDONALD — McDonald High boys basketball coach Jeff Rasile seems like the type of coach who has a hard team keeping his dress shirts white.

He spends each game pacing back and forth along the sidelines, yelling at officials, yelling at his team, soaking the shirt underneath his blue coach’s vest (he twice had a girl in the stands go outside the gym to refill his water bottle), hoping a little of his hysteria rubs off on his players. And it seems to.

When asked whether his team’s energy comes naturally or is a product of, say, something (or someone) else, Rasile cracked a smile and said, “I think I’m pretty crazy.”

His lone returning starter, senior Lance Ronghi, agreed.

“We feed off his craziness,” Ronghi said, laughing. “He just wants to win. He puts his heart into it.”

Friday night, Rasile unleashed his team of clones on Wellsville, which entered the season (along with McDonald) as one of the favorites to win Tier Two of the Inter Tri-County League and exited the Blue Devils’ gymnasium knowing they have a lot of work to do.

“I think we were able to wear them down,” said Rasile after his team stayed unbeaten through five games with a 59-43 win. “The big sign was they started missing free throws.

“I don’t know what they were on the night, but it seemed like they were no better than 1-for-2.”

Pretty close. Wellsville made 10 of 22 from the foul line and committed 25 turnovers. The Tigers had only a handful of easy shots and they had to first break McDonald’s press to get them.

“They lost their composure,” said Wellsville coach Bug Thompson of his players. “If they don’t do what you tell them to do, I guess they want a different coach.”

Thompson spent 3 1/2 hours of practice this week on press-breakers, only to watch his young team make hurried passes, rush shots and play a lot like a group that only has one senior, which it is.

“It was a poor display of basketball,” he said. “They didn’t put forth the effort McDonald put out tonight.”

The Blue Devils have just 10 varsity players and they all see plenty of action. Part of it is depth and part of it is necessity — the Blue Devils don’t really have a dominant player and only three are taller than 6-1.

Most of the players were on the football team — Ronghi ran cross country — so Rasile focused his attention on June and July, when his team worked overtime to get ready for the winter.

“We thought we had 10 guys and we weren’t sure there was much of a difference 1-10,” Rasile said. “We just rotate, rotate, rotate and wear teams down.”

Ronghi, a 5-foot-7 guard who earned second team all-league last season, had 10 points while sophomore Matthias Tayala and senior Tommy Orr each added 12 for McDonald (5-0, 3-0).

“We wanted to make a statement tonight,” Rasile said.

Deshon Pullie scored 12 points for the Tigers (2-2, 1-2), who went 21-2 last season but start five juniors. Jeremy Carter, who averaged 16 points per game last season, scored just five against McDonald.

When asked if he could take anything positive from Friday’s game, Thompson thought for a second, then shook his head.

“No,” he said. “None at all.”

scalzo@vindy.com