JAMES A. ELLIS
Duanesburg's Allison O'Hanlon (30) is challenged by Moravia's Jordan Smith (11) and Caroline Wasileski as she drives top the hoop during NYSPHSAA state championship game Friday at Hudson Valley Community College.
By James A. Ellis
TROY – Alex Moses got the buzzer-beating 3-pointer she was looking for but not the potential game-tying foul call as Section 2 champion Duanesburg fell to Section 4 champ Moravia 46-45 in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class C girls state championship final Friday at Hudson Valley Community College.
“I am extremely proud of them and what they have been able to accomplish for a small town like ours is truly incredible,” Duanesburg coach Chris Herron said. “We knew it was going to be a battle as any game at this stage of the season is going to be.” Duanesburg broke out to an early advantage with senior Allison O’Hanlon netting 11 points to give the Eagles a 13-12 lead at the end of the opening quarter.
O’Hanlon kept her scoring touch through the opening minutes of the second quarter, adding five more points, before Hannah Mulhern hit a three to keep the Eagles ahead 21-19 at the half.
The Blue Devils took the lead on Allison Kehoe’s 3-pointer to open the third quarter, sparking an 8-3 run for a 27-24 lead. Duanesburg charged back in front on the power of consecutive 3-pointers from Kate O’Hanlon, Allison O’Hanlon and Mulhern to go ahead 30-27.
The teams exchanged baskets through the final minutes of the period with Jessalyn Jones hitting a 3-pointer for Moravia with a minute left in the quarter before Allison O’Hanlon hit a basket at the buzzer to give the Eagles a slim 33-32 advantage heading into the final eight minutes of play. Moravia opened the final stanza with a 7-1 run before Moses hit a 3-pointer to close the gap to 39-37 with four minutes left to play. The Eagles pulled to within a point, 43-42, on a Kate O’Hanlon basket with just under two minutes left in regulation.
Jones connected on a baseline floater to open a three-point advantage,45-42, with 90 seconds left. Duanesburg picked up the pace on offense creating opportunities that did not fall.
After a tied-up ball under the Eagles’ basket gave Moravia possession with 29 seconds left, Duanesburg fouled Jones and she converted on one-of-two free throws for a 46-42 lead. The Blue Devils’ Jordan Smith pulled down the defensive rebound off an Allison O;Hanlon 3-point attempt and was immediately fouled. Smith missed both free throws setting up a final play for the Eagles.
Moses hit the buzzer-beating 3-pointer under tight defensive pressure but did not get the foul call and the Blue Devils celebrated the 46-45 victory. Smith led Moravia with a double-double of 11 points and 12 rebounds, all on the defensive board, while Jones finished with 12 points including three 3-pointers.
Allison O’Hanlon finished with 24 points, six rebounds, five steals and three assists for Duanesburg, while Hannah Mulhern had eight points, two rebounds, two steals and two assists and Kate O’Hanlon added seven points to go with six points, seven rebounds, two blocks and two assists from Moses.
Duanesburg finished the season with a 21-6 overall record. Moravia wrapped up its season with a 23-3 overall record.
NYSPHSAA Championships Class C Moravia 46, Duanesburg 45
Moravia 12 7 13 14 - 46
Duanesburg 13 8 12 12 - 45
Moravia scoring: Jones 4-1-12, Genson 3-1-7, G. Heim 1-1-3, Smith 5-1-11, Kehoe 2-0-5, Wasileski 3-0-6, Hess 1-0-2. Duanesburg scoring: K. O’Hanlon 3-0-7, A. O’Hanlon 8-5-247-5-24, Mulhern 2-2-8, A. Moses 2-0-6. Team scoring: Moravia 19-3-46. Duanesburg 14-7-45.
JAMES A. ELLIS
Duanesburg's Hannah Mulhern (34) drives against Moravia's Caroline Wasileski during the NYSPHSAA Class C championship game Friday at Hudson Valley Community College.
JAMES A. ELLIS
Duanesburg's Kate O'Hanlon (23) dribbles out from under the basket after recovering a loose ball during the NYSPHSAA Class C championship game Friday at Hudson Valley Community College.
Photo above is from each girls team twitter feed.
Class AA championship Hilton 73, Averill Park 71, OT
TROY – With 15.3 seconds left in regulation, Hilton’s Mallory Heise banked home a shot to send a NYSPHSAA Class AA girls semifinal game against Section 2 champion Averill Park into overtime. Arianna Veradi converted a pair of free-throws with 23 seconds remaining to put Averill Park up 71-70. The Warriors stopped Hilton’s initial drive upcourt but the Cadets got a turnover with 7.5 seconds showing on the clock.
Hilton got the ball in, drove toward the basket before kicking the ball out to Elena Graziano in the corner and the junior responded with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to advance Hilton to the Class AA title game Saturday against the victor of the second semi-final between Albertus Magnus and East Meadow.
GBB Class AA: Semifinals
— NYSPHSAA (@NYSPHSAA) March 16, 2024
HILTON (V) DOWN BY 1 GETS IT DONE IN THE LAST SECOND OF OVERTIME
They edged Averill Park (2) and advance to the finals!!!
Watch it tomorrow night at 8:45 PM!#NYSPHSAA pic.twitter.com/SH9ZjH9COs
By Aidan Joly
Ballston Spa --
After a tight first three quarters, CBA finally pulled away in the final eight minutes and grabbed a 48-35 win against Ballston Spa on Friday night at Ballston Spa High School.
Owning just a two-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, the Brothers scored the first five points of that stanza to give them a 35-28 lead, its largest lead since the first quarter. It was a personal run from Leonard Buddington III, who scored all five of those points.
After that, CBA used their two big men, Ayden Harrison and David Clement, in the paint to out-score the Scotties 18-7 in the fourth quarter. Harrison finished with a team-high 17 points, while Clement had 15.
“We made a couple stops and got a couple baskets and that put us in a pretty good position for them to have to rush some things, so that was good for us,” CBA head coach Dave Doemel said. “I thought Ayden Harrison had a couple excellent moves right when we needed them.”
CBA was in control of the lead most of the game right from the jump, scoring the first eight points of the game, but Ballston Spa clawed back slowly but surely, never trailing by more than seven throughout the second and third quarters. At one point, they owned a slim lead late in the third quarter before CBA scoring the final four points of that frame, a 9-0 run that bridged the end of the third and beginning of the fourth.
Ballston Spa did have to fight through some adversity, getting in some foul trouble and losing 6’7” forward Jaxen Potter in the first quarter due to injury. Despite all of this, they still kept it a game.
“A lot of things just went against us through the first 24 minutes of basketball but it’s what I like most this group of guys, it never slowed them down. It was still a basketball game the whole way, even with those chips falling against us,” Ballston Spa head coach Ben Eldridge said. “We just had to play a different game than we’re used to playing and eventually ran out the tank.”
Ballston Spa was paced by Nick Verdile’s 19 points, the only Scottie to finish in double figures. Blane Zoller had eight points. With the loss, they drop to 6-2.
CBA improves to 9-2 with the victory.
“I’m very proud of the guys because that’s about as hard a team as you can get,” Doemel said. “I was very pleased with our defensive effort and I was happy we did that because our offense was a little stagnant.”
Shyla Sanford and Madeline Malicki lead Shaker to 50-41 win over Albany
By Sean Martin
Albany
The one-two punch of Shyla Sanford and Madeline Malicki got Shaker off to a good on the road against Albany and when the Blue Bison turned up the defensive pressure in the second half, Shaker was on its way to a season-opening win over the Lady Falcons.
Sanford and Malicki scored 19 points apiece with each contributing four steals as Shaker knocked off Albany 50-41 in Suburban Council play Tuesday night.
Shaker led 22-19 at the half before finding its rhythm on both ends of the floor in the second half.
“We have a little different look this year, we come out small and play a little more zone,” Shaker coach Ron Beaudoin said. “The second half was a better defensive effort overall, we switched up to man, it was just a great overall effort by everyone.”
Shaker (1-0, 1-0) took control in the third as Malicki hit two of her three 3-pointers in the period and with Albany forced to defend the perimeter, Sanford found room to roam down low, scoring 12 points in the second half, including eight in the fourth quarter.
“My 3’s weren’t falling tonight so I decided to do something else,” Sanford said. ““They had to come out and now, the middle was wide open. Everyone was finding me down low and that is when I got all those points.”
Malicki’s hit a 3-pointer with 3:41 left in the third to give Shaker a 31-25 lead and another with 2:04 left to give the Blue Bison a 36-27 lead, its biggest margin of the game to that point.
“We shot terribly in the first half, it was awful and I know we are a better shooting team than that,” Beaudoin said. “Maddy got a little roughed up and I think she likes that because the next couple plays were back-to-back 3’s and then going to the foul line hitting over 50-percent of her foul shots.”
Shaker’s pressure defense clogged the Albany (1-1, 0-1) passing lanes and dictated the tempo of the game and led to numerous layup opportunities, helping the Blue Bison earn a 27-18 margin in free throws attempted.
“Our motto is always defense, that is what we always work on in practice,” Malicki said.
Alexandra Debeatham added nine points while leading Shaker with 10 rebounds and helped defend Albany center Haille Hart, who finished with 10 points.
“I thought, Lexi Debeatham, Hannah (Malicki), Lexi Ratigan, Julia Debetham really did a great job containing Haille,” Beaudoin said.
Trailing by 10 entering the fourth quarter, Albany chipped away at the Shaker lead and cut the gap to 42-36 on a Hart basket with 3:12 left to play but the Lady Falcons could not draw any closer with Sanford leading the Shaker charge.
“We tried to tell her (Sanford), this year, make a goal for yourself,” Beaudoin said. “She’s got a couple of goals in mind, she’s really trying to work on driving more, pull up jump shots and rebounding more. She had a career-high five rebounds (tonight).”
Aubrey Halloran led Albany with 14 points and Junasia Lanier chipped in 10.
Sean Martin is a local freelance writer
SHAKER-
M. Malicki 4 8-13 19, J. Debeatham 0 1-2 1, Sanford 6 7-10 19, A. Debeatham 4 1-2 9, Morrell 1 0-0 2. Totals 15 17-27 50.
ALBANY
Lanier 2 5-6 10, Harris 0 4-6 4, Halloran 6 1-2 14, Hart 5 0-4 10, Estrada 1 0-0 3. Totals 14 10-18 41.
Score by Quarter 1 2 3 4 F
Shaker
Albany
3-point goals – M. Malicki 3; Lanier, Halloran, Estrada
-Gloversville 45 -Scotia 36
By ROB JONAS
SCOTIA – Scotia-Glenville High School's gym has been a house of horrors for the Gloversville boys basketball team over the last several years. Time and again, the Dragons entered the Tartans' lair, only to leave with a loss.
That all changed Friday night, Dec. 8. Gloversville used an 11-0 run in the third quarter to take control, on its way to a 45-36 Foothills Council victory over the Tartans.
“It's big. I don't remember when was the last time we beat Scotia at their place,” said Gloversville sophomore guard Dante Bouchard.
The game was a match-up of two young teams – one (Gloversville) which went through growing pains last year, and one (Scotia) that is experiencing them now.
“Last year, we played three freshmen,” said Gloversville head coach Aric Kucel. “Those three (Bouchard, Joey Rowback and Anderson Jones) are now sophomores and showing leadership on the floor. And we're getting good leadership from our three seniors (Esean Brown, Broderick Royal and Buck Galster).”
Scotia coach Mark Sausville has only one player – senior guard Christian Corker – with extensive varsity experience. The rest of the starting five includes two sophomores (David Fresoni and Robert Barrera) and two juniors (Brendan Caldwell and Andrew LaMorta), who have to deal with the weight of expectations that comes with wearing the Scotia uniform.
“It's hard. These (championship) banners are looking down on them every day,” said Sausville. “I just hope the fans are patient with them. They are very good kids.”
The key to Gloversville's victory was stopping Corker. Whenever Corker tried to take a shot, there were at least two Gloversville defenders in the near vicinity getting their bodies in his way or sticking their hands near his face. The end result was an 11-point night for Corker – far below the 24 points he averaged in the Tartans' first two games.
“We just denied him the ball,” said Bouchard, one of the Gloversville players who defended Corker on a regular basis. “We knew he was their heart, so we just tried to deny him every time.”
Corker's determination grew with every shot he missed, but that only led to more mistakes, said Sausville.
“Christian got a little frustrated tonight,” said Sausville. “He's our only returning starter, so obviously he's going to be the focus of other teams' defenses. We need our other players to start scoring.”
Gloversville's one-two punch of Bouchard and Rowback got hot at key times of the game. Bouchard scored eight of his game-high 17 points in the first quarter to help the Dragons (1-2) take an early 10-2 lead. Then with Gloversville trailing 21-18 early in the third quarter, Rowback fueled the Dragons' decisive 11-0 run by scoring seven points, including a wide-open three-pointer from the left corner.
“Those are definitely our two main guys, but we have other guys who can hit shots,” said Kucel. “Dante was huge getting us off to a great start, and then Joey made some big shots for us in the second half.”
Following Gloversville's 11-point spurt, Scotia (1-2) closed the gap to 29-26 on Brendan Caldwell's three-pointer and Andrew LaMorta's driving layup. However, consecutive threes from Bouchard and Rowback effectively put the game out of the Tartans' reach.
“They put the ball in the basket, and they moved the ball around well,” said Sausville. “We defended them pretty well to hold them to 45 points. On the flip side, we have to learn how to put the ball in the basket. You're not going to win too many varsity games scoring only 36 points.”
Rowback scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half to help Gloversville earn its first victory of the season. Caldwell and LaMorta each chipped in with eight points for Scotia.
