Shenendehowa basketball beats Shaker, takes Suburban Council

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Big game, bigger effort from Shenendehowa.

The Lady Plainsmen wrapped up the Suburban Council North girls’ basketball championship Tuesday night with a stunningly easy 81-46 win over Shaker at Siena College.

With the win, Shenendehowa finished league play at 15-1, avenged a homecourt overtime loss to Shaker last month and likely wrapped up the top seed for the Class AA tournament. SC South winner Bethlehem also finished 15-1 in the league, losing to Shenendehowa.

When Samira Sangere banked home a three-pointer to open the scoring, it elicited different feelings from the opposing coaches.

“I think they started the game with a banked three, and that’s never a good start,” said Shaker coach Emily Caschera-Blowers, whose team closed Suburban Council play at 14-2.

Shenendehowa rarely missed in the opening half, breaking open a 17-13 game with a 10-0 run to end the first quarter. The second quarter was more of the same, as the Lady Plainsmen led, 50-24, at the break.

“When Samira hit that banked three, right from the get-go, we were really going,” said Shenendehowa point guard Erin Hulbert.

“We came out shooting very well. I think that’s what got our confidence up to keep shooting and penetrating the rest of the game,” said reigning league MVP Carly Boland, who again led Shenendehowa with 21 points. “Coach told us if we came out and hit a bunch of shots, it would help our confidence.”

“We shot just like this in the final against Albany last year, so we have that potential,” said Shenendehowa coach Joe Murphy. “Any time you get four or five kids getting double figures against a good team, you’re going to do really well.”

It wasn’t so much that Shenendehowa scored, it was more that they rarely failed to cash in on a possession.

“At halftime, I was looking at the stats, and they were 50 percent from the three-point line and 60 percent from the field,” said Caschera-Blowers. “Usually, teams that are hot, cool off. It didn’t seem like that was going to happen.”

Everyone on Shenendehowa contributed, whether it was scoring, playing defense or rebounding.

Sydney Brown added 13 points, Sangare had 12 and point guard Erin Hulbert totaled 10.

The other starter, Sydney Quinn, played a big role in silencing Shaker forward Becky Rossier, whose double-double was the deciding factor in the previous meeting.

“We really stressed boxing out and staying in front of her,” said Hulbert. “She’s a tough player.”

“We focused our practice this week on her and CeCe [Mayo],” Murphy said. “CeCe went off in the first quarter, so we made some adjustments.

“We also got a break because they both got in foul trouble. They’re two very, very good kids.”

Mayo got nine of her team-high 16 points in the first quarter and none in the second. Rossier only had nine points for the game.

Trying to soften the blow, Caschera-Blowers used recent postseason history.

“I did remind them that it is just one game, and the most important games are sectionals,” she said. “I also reminded them that last year, we beat Shen twice and they came back and beat us in sectionals.”

That might be difficult if the Lady Plainsmen play as well as they did Tuesday night.

“This is a huge win. If we can beat a team as good as Shaker, we can beat anyone else,” Boland said.

“To win by as much as we did, I think it was a perfect storm for us,” Murphy said. “Everything went wrong in the first half for Shaker, and everthing for us went right.

“This was a big. Obviously, we have bigger things down the road, but this was a big win tonight.”

SHENENDEHOWA

Boland 8-3-21, Brown 4-5-13, Quinn 2-0-5, Hulbert 3-3-10, Sangare 5-0-12, O’Brien 3-3-9, Guiry 2-0-5, Patchell 1-0-2, Lee 2-0-4. Totals: 30-14-81.

SHAKER

Mayo 7-1-6, Rossier 4-1-9, Smith 2-0-5, Sanford 2-0-5, Martino 1-0-2, Barrett 2-4-9, Totals: 18-6-46

Shenendehowa 27 23 18 13 — 81

Shaker 13 11 11 11 — 46

Three-point goals: Boland 2, Quinn, Hulbert, Sangare, Guiry, Mayo, Smith, Sanford, Barrett.

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Categories: High School Sports