If a tournament is seeded correctly, there isn’t much difference between the eighth and ninth seeds.
Duanesburg and Galway made the Section II girls’ basketball committee look good Wednesday, when the Western Athletic Council rivals battled until Samantha Tomeck’s shot in the closing seconds gave No. 8 Duanesburg a 39-38 win in the opening round of Class C play.
Tomeck got the rebound of her miss as the clock wound down, and made sure her second chance would be the winning basket, sending the host Eagles into a Saturday quarterfinal at No. 1 seed Voorheesville.
“All I could I think about was we had one shot to win the game,” said Tomeck, who raced upcourt with the ball after Tatyana Rodriguez had made one of two free throws with 19.1 seconds to play to give the visiting Eagles their first lead since the second quarter. “When the ball came back to me, I knew it was going in. It was such a relief. We’ve worked hard this season, and we wanted a chance to play Voorheesville.”
On the other bench, Galway coach Debbie Wilday was looking for a favorable bounce that would have sealed an improbable comeback from an 11-point deficit early in the fourth quarter.
“All we had to do was hold on to the ball, but their first instinct is to turn and try to get upcourt,” she said of the scramble that knocked Tomeck’s first shot back to her in the lane. “You can’t do anything about it. They’re just caught up in the game.”
The basket was Tomeck’s first since the first quarter.
Duanesburg coach Joe DeGiule thought about calling his final timeout as Tomeck and a teammate came downcourt on a two-on-one.
“I usually just go with the flow of the game,” he said. “I’m glad I didn’t call it.”
After playing to a 16-16 tie at the half, Duanesburg got the jump on Galway in the third period. Dani Hennel hit a three-pointer, and Duanesburg made seven of eight free throws before Galway got a second-half point.
“We don’t practice foul shots much anymore,” said DeGiule. “I haven’t seen much improvement, so we’ve been spending time on other things.”
Wilday could only watch as the halftime tie turned into a 26-16 hole for her team.
“We talked about watching out for certain plays, and their coming out strong the second half,” she said. “We took a timeout, and I just looked at them and I said, ‘Didn’t we talk about these things?’ ”
With senior center Karenna Martin getting more involved, Galway chipped away at the deficit, getting to within six points on Martin’s first basket of the second half.
“Sometimes, it takes her a while to get going, but in second half, she decided she was going to battle for every rebound and contest shots,” said Wilday. “She didn’t want her senior season to end.”
Duanesburg again took a double-digit lead, as senior Grace Rutagengwa had a basket and two free throws, Stephanie Rice converted a follow-up and sophomore Madeline Kenyon took a rebound away from a Galway player and scored for a 34-23 advantage.
Kenyon only had seven points, but she was a presence in the Duanesburg defense, coming up with steals and rebounds at key moments.
“We don’t win tonight without Maddie,” said DeGiule. “She doesn’t show up big in the boxscore, but she gives us a spark.”
Down, 34-23, Galway again fought back. Senior point guard Jade Cowper — who moments earlier was in tears on the bench, thinking she had fouled out — hit her only basket of the game, a three-pointer from the top of the circle to tie the game, 37-37, with 1:16 to play.
“We can play better, and we’ll have to play better against Voorheesville,” said DeGiule. “But give Galway credit, too. They played us tough. They didn’t want their season to end.”
GALWAY
Cowper 1-1-4, Rodriguez 5-1-11, K.Martin 4-5-13, Chase 0-4-4, McDonald 1-2-4, McFadden 1-0-2. Totals: 12-13-38.
DUANESBURG
Hennel 1-2-5, Kenyon 3-1-7, Tomeck 2-2-6, Rutagengwa 4-2-10, Rice 1-4-6, Sanders 2-0-5. Totals: 13-11.39.
Galway 9 7 4 18 — 38
Duanesburg 10 6 10 13 — 39
Three-point goals: Cowper, Hennel, Sanders.
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Categories: High School Sports
