(Photo by Aidan Joly)

Joseph Girard III of Glens Falls broke the career scoring record in Section 2 Basketball as he dropped 50 points in victory over Schuylerville (81-64). He currently has 2692 points passing the previous record holder Kobe Lufkin of Argyle.

Girard is currently averaging over 48 points per game during the 2017-18 season.

Here are a couple links of videos clips on file, as well as other highlights, to check out to see him in action.

2017-18 Joseph Girard highlight page (1 full game of clips)

2016-17 Joseph Girard III highlight page (3 full games of clips, including Sectional Championship)

Highlight videos of when Joseph Girard III scored 22 points & 17 points in single quarters. The first is from this season, the 2nd is from last year's Sectional Semi-Final game.

By Aidan Joly

SARATOGA SPRINGS – It wasn’t the prettiest of wins but the Saratoga girls’ basketball team found a way to get the job done as they took down Bethlehem on Friday night, 64-51.

The game was close the entire way with neither side gaining a lead larger than six through the first three quarters and the advantage changing hands four times during that time, but Saratoga was able to hold onto it for the majority of the time and the few times that Bethlehem did lead, it was never by more than four.

The main issue was that Saratoga was a bit slow for a good part of that game and as a result of that struggled to get shots to fall, and struggled to rebound the ball consistently as well. However, it was Abby Ray and Dolly Cairns that provided that spark in the fourth quarter that allowed the Blue Streaks to pull away in the fourth quarter with some key baskets in the final few minutes. They out-scored Bethlehem 18-8 in the fourth.

“First couple minutes of the game I thought we looked slow and just a step off from our normal play, so we tried to get some energy and I think in the third quarter Abby and Dolly created some energy, which was great, but it took a while for us to get there,” Saratoga Springs head coach Robin Chudy said.

Cairns ended up scoring a game-high 31 points despite struggling to hit shots for a good portion of the game, 10 of them coming in the fourth quarter while Ray complemented her well, finishing off the night with 14.

“It’s obviously hard when Dolly, our best shooter and our best scorer in general is off or just not getting the looks that she usually does, but we all try and take over and try to help and if she doesn’t have the hot hand, maybe someone else does,” Ray said.

One thing that Saratoga seemed to struggle with at times was the fact that the tempo of the game was changing regularly, a theme that trended as the quarters changed. The game was 12-9 after the first and then was 34-31 at halftime, then 46-43 after three, with Saratoga leading at each break.

Ray said on dealing with that, “It’s tough when everyone is down. We had no energy, it’s hard.”

Despite not playing as well, Saratoga improves to 7-0 on the season and will look to improve themselves with the main portion of league games coming soon.

Chudy said, “It’s a lot of learning, here’s all the things that we didn’t do, our coaching staff is great about laying it out for them, here’s the things we need to do to win that sectional title, we’ve got about six things tonight that we need to fix, so we’ll come into practice and we’ll fix them.”

Catherine Cairns led Saratoga Springs with 31 points. Abby Ray added 14 points. Lauren Patnode totaled 9 points. Natasha Chudy popped in 8 points.

Caroline Wise paced Bethlehem with 13 points. Liz Mullen racked up 11 points. Maren Louridas netted 8 points. 
The Eagles made 7 hoops from long range. 

 Here are the 12 Section 2 basketball teams playing in the NYSPHSAA tournament. The teams and scores will update automatically throughout the rest of the tournament.

Boys: CBA - AAA, Amsterdam - AA, Hudson - A, Kipp Capital - B, Berne Knox -C, and North Warren - D

Girls: Shaker - AAA, Bethlehem/Troy - AA, Albany Academy - A, Corinth/Mechanicville - B, Greenwich - C, Sartoga Catholic - D

Girls Brackets

Gloversville's Cal Porter (10) is challenged by Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake's John Klopfer (13) as he drives to the hoop during Monday's non-league contest at Gloversville High School.

By James A. Ellis

GLOVERSVILLE — In a non-league sectional tune-up, Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake held off a Gloversville fourth-quarter rally to escape with a 53-47 victory Monday night at Gloversville High School.

Gloversville trailed the Spartans by 15 points heading into the final eight minutes of play. However, the Dragons opened the quarter with a 13-0 run to cut the Spartans’ lead to a basket, 45-43.

The teams traded baskets before Grady Osterlitz connected on a 3-pointer with 55 seconds left to play to push Burnt Hill ahead 52-47.

The Dragons pushed to close the gap in the closing seconds but could get no closer as Benjamin Kline added a free throw to put the final score at 53-47.

Gloversville’s Jordan Collar led all scorers with 18 points, while Rocco Insonia finished with 11 points and 16 rebounds and Cal Porter added 10 points, eight assists and five rebounds.

Myles Yannuzzi paced Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake with 15 points and six rebounds, while Kline finished with 11 points and eight rebounds and Osterlitz had 11 points and five rebounds to go with a seven rebound, six-point effort from Tristan Torres.

The Spartans finished with nine 3-pointers in the game.

Non-league

Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake 53, Gloversville 47

Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake      18  18  9  8  —  53

Gloversville    14  12  4  17  —  47

Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake: Yannuzzi 5-2-15, Torres 3-0-6, Nuzzi 1-0-3, Osterlitz 3-2-10, Skinner 1-0-3, Klopfer 2-0-5, Kline 4-2-11. Totals: 19-6-53.

Gloversville: Dorman 2-0-4, Halloran 1-1-4, Porter 4-2-10, Collar 8-2-18, Insonia 5-0-11. Totals: 20-5-47.

Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake's Tristan Torres (1) attempts to block Gloversville's Jordan Collar (22) as he leans into a shot during Monday's non-league contest at Gloversville High School.