In the Section II Class AA title game, the Shenendehowa girls’ basketball team needed a last-minute comeback.
To win a regional title, the Plainsmen knocked off one of the two teams tied atop the state rankings.
Friday’s 68-25 state semifinal victory at Hudson Valley Community College came against previously undefeated Williamsville North.
Nothing gets easier in Saturday night’s state championship game. Ossining, the three-time defending champion, is Shenendehowa’s opponent. An illness that is traveling through the Plainsmen’s roster kept senior forward Morgan O’Brien, a key contributor, out against Williamsville North and will also keep her from tonight’s game.
Shenendehowa will be the underdog. The Plainsmen don’t care.
“We realize we can hang with these teams,” said Shenendehowa senior guard Carly Boland, who scored 20 points and collected five steals against Williamsville North.
“We don’t feel like there’s a weak link on our team,” Shenendehowa senior guard Sydney Quinn added.
The Plainsmen (23-2) demonstrated that right away against Williamsville North (24-1, Section V). After the Spartans scored the game’s first basket, the Plainsmen unleashed a 13-0 run during which the Spartans missed nine shots and had three turnovers.
“The defense from the start was tremendous,” Shenendehowa head coach Joe Murphy said.
Shenendehowa struggled to start the second quarter, but never saw its lead dwindle to fewer than eight points after taking a 15-6 advantage into the period. Late in the quarter, the Plainsmen surged into halftime with a 17-point lead following a half-closing 9-0 run capped with a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Alexandra Tudor.
The second half started with more of the same for Shenendehowa, which scored the third quarter’s first 10 points.
“We just brought a lot of energy,” said Shenendehowa sophomore guard Cam Tooley, who had nine points. “We really knew what we wanted to do, knew what we wanted to accomplish.”
Shenendehowa entered the fourth quarter with a 33-point lead and gave its starters most of the period off. In place of the Plainsmen’s traditional game-closing players, junior guard Julia Zachgo had seven of the Shenendehowa bench’s 13 fourth-quarter points.
“Not only did we win by a large margin today, which means we could get some rest for some of our starters, but I think it gives us a lot of momentum going into the next game,” Boland said.
Junior forward Sydney Brown and Quinn each had eight points for Shenendehowa, while Brown added seven rebounds. For Williamsville North, senior forwards Ally Delano and Ericka Taplin each had nine points.
The Plainsmen will seek their program’s fifth state championship Saturday night in a contest scheduled to start at 8:45 p.m. against Ossining (25-2, Section I), which advanced past Commack (22-3, Section XI) with a 72-55 victory. That game will take place back at Hudson Valley Community College.
“It’s very surreal, but we’re very thankful for the opportunity,” said Boland, whose Shenendehowa program last won a state title in 1999. “So we’re just going to give it our all for our school and [our] team.”
WILLIAMSVILLE NORTH
Delano 4-1-9, Taplin 3-2-9, Ahern 1-3-5, Craffey 1-0-2. Total: 9-6-25.
SHENENDEHOWA
Boland 9-2-20, Tooley 4-1-9, Brown 4-0-8, Quinn 4-0-8, Zachgo 3-1-7, Tudor 2-0-5, Sangare 1-0-3, Gillooley 1-0-2, Macken 1-0-2, Ryan 1-0-2, Smith 0-2-2. Total: 30-6-68.
Williamsville North 6 7 5 7 — 25
Shenendehowa 15 15 21 17 — 68
Three-point goals: Taplin, Sangare, Tudor.
Categories: -News-, High School Sports
