Fairport Remains undefeated with a rout of Spencerport

By: David Premyslovsky/Staff Writer

Fairport's Alex Grejda putting up a layup. (Photo: Jake Giudice)

SPENCERPORT, N.Y. - The Fairport Red Raiders dominated from start to finish in a 77-38 victory on the road against the Spencerport Rangers. The fast-paced play of Fairport allowed them to open the game on an 11-0 run and never gave Spencerport a chance to make the game close. The Red Raiders built a 23-3 lead after the first quarter and took a 43-15 lead in the locker room, putting the game away early. 

Senior forward Hadi Dergham led the way for Fairport with 18 points. Also getting to double figures for the Red Raiders were Jon Roessel with 16 points and Alex Grejda with 13 points. Rounding out the scoring for Fairport were Gannon Culver, Antonio Nurse and Jeremiah Crocker, all with five points, Noah Meabon had four, Sam Roselli added three and Tony Bauza, along with Ryan Fay, each scored two. 

“This group is hungry. They're a group that wants to get better. We continue to push, up 30 or up 15, it didn't matter, we were going to play hard,” said Fairport Coach Scott Fitch on his team’s mentality even in a blowout victory. 

Fairport was clinical all night long in the transition game, taking advantage of their depth to put the game out of reach early on. “We’re very good at running out. We have a lot of depth. When I get a rebound, my point guards trust me to just go with it," said Meabon on the fast-paced game Fairport likes to play. “I got people running down all sides of the court I can hit, it just leaves you with a bunch of options and teams can’t really keep up with us for 32 minutes.”  

Coach Fitch also emphasized the importance of transition for this Fairport team, specifically the play of his two starting forwards, Meabon and Dergham. “They’re running down the floor and giving us rim pressure. The other piece of that is they’re getting the ball, credit to the other guys for finding them.”  

Defensively, Fairport was hounding Spencerport all night long, applying a full-court press and a pesky man-to-man defense that restricted Spencerport’s ability to get into a rhythm all night long. “I’ve got guys that love to compete. We tend to wear people down. It's hard to play with us for 32 minutes at that level.” Added Coach Fitch on the importance of Fairport’s full-court defense.  

Leading the way for Spencerport was Eric Schuyler with 13 points. Also scoring for the Rangers were Jah’Mere Pritchett with 9, Kamariel Labord had five, J’Mari Dyson added four, Christopher Harris with four, and Jay’Von Buntley along with Eli Schuyler each had two. 

With the victory, Fairport improved to 12-0 on the season. The NYS Class AAA, 15th-ranked Red Raiders will be in action next on Friday, Jan. 30, at home against Victor with tip-off set for 7:30 p.m.  

Spencerport falls to 5-10 on the season with the loss. They will be back on Friday, Feb. 6, as they travel to face Churchville-Chili with tip-off set for 7 p.m.