by Dick Sterling
The Gouverneur Ladycat varsity basketball team had one more opportunity to play a game in front of their hometown fans. Last Friday, Gouverneur welcomed the Massena Lady Raiders into their local gym for a huge Section 10 Class A playoff game. The Ladycats jumped to a big early lead and then hung on for a hard-fought 42-29 victory and a shot at playing the state-ranked Malone Lady Huskies in the Championship game. That contest played out Wednesday, at SUNY Potsdam. We’ll have details of that game in next week’s edition.
As usual, there was plenty of excitement in the Section 10 Girls Class D playoffs, with three area teams, Hammond, Edwards-Knox and Harrisville all advancing to the semifinals… we’ll have reports on those semifinal games in next week’s edition.
Here’s what happened this week:
The Ladycats
Monday’s game started with Massena’s Meghan Firnstein and Gouverneur’s Renisa Richards exchanging three-pointers. Massena would then go stone cold from the floor, managing just a pair of Firnstein free throws for the remainder of the quarter, meanwhile the Ladycats would score 13 more points in the opening quarter, eight of them coming from Ashlyn Besaw, including an end-to-end drive that finished at the buzzer… after one it was 16-5 in favor of the hometown Ladycats.
The second quarter featured a big highlight for the visiting team… and very little scoring. The Ladycats managed inside shots from Arianna Wood and Raegan Devlin to up the lead to 20-5. Midway through the quarter Firnstein connected on a three-pointer and the game was stopped as she and her family and coaches celebrated her 1,000th career point. Massena would manage just one more basket in the opening half as Gouverneur headed to the halftime break with a 20-10 advantage.
Five different Lady Raiders scored in the third quarter, including three-pointers from Firnstein, Aubrey McGee and Sophia Greco, with Greco’s shot cutting the Gouverneur lead to two points, but Devlin stopped the rally with a three-pointer of her own to close out the quarter with the Ladycats on top 27-22.
Firnstein scored on a short jumper to open the final quarter, but the Ladycats then put together an 11-0 run to open a double digit lead and cruised to the 42-29 victory, making their last home game of the season something to remember.
Besaw scored 14 to lead Gouverneur. Electa Fitzgerald, who netted six points in that fourth quarter run, finished with eight. Wood scored seven and Devlin added six. Richards scored five. Firnstein scored 14 to wrap up her career with 1,006 points. Greco added five points.
On Wednesday, the Ladycats headed to SUNY Potsdam to battle the state-ranked Malone Lady Huskies, who have put together a 15-1 season so far. We’ll report on that game in next week’s edition.
Ladycat Head Coach Sean Devlin commented on the girl’s performance after the victory, beating Massena at home in the playoffs was a huge win for us. Our team defense has really improved in the past few weeks. We have spent a lot of time at practice on that, and it has shown. We ended up in second place in the league with the opportunity to play in the Section 10 Championship Game at Maxcy Hall for the fourth year in a row. That's a pretty good season."
Class D Quarterfinals
Last Thursday a handful of Gouverneur area teams played some exciting games as the Section 10 Class D quarterfinals unfolded across the North Country.
Hammond 38 Hermon-DeKalb 30
At Hammond, the third seeded Lady Red Devils, who are two-time defending New York State Class D champions, entertained the Hermon-DeKalb Lady Green Demons, the six seed. The two teams had split their regular season games and this one would prove to be most interesting. Hammond, who are used to scoring points in bunches, simply couldn’t manage any offense in the opening quarter. Pressure defense from Hermon-DeKalb and the fact that the shots simply weren’t falling added up to a 10-2 lead for the Lady Green Demons, which included a pair of three-pointers from Hailey Brabaw.
Mia Tulley brought the home fans to life by opening the second quarter with a three, the Lady Demons responded with a pair of baskets to up the lead to nine, but Hammond fought back with eight straight points, including a pair of three-pointers from freshman Addison Webster, but Hermon-DeKalb hung on to a 18-13 lead at the break as two teams known for their high-scoring offenses simply had trouble finding any points in the opening half.
It appeared that the Lady Green Demons would be the ones to end Hammond’s hopes of three-peating as state champs as they built their lead to 24-16 with less than two minutes to play in the third quarter, but Webster knocked down a three, Kayla Vaughan hit a short jump shot and Ava Howie, who joined Hammond’s 1,000-point club this season, drove up the lane for a layup with six seconds to go in the quarter, cutting the Hermon-DeKalb lead to a single point at 24-23.
A pair of free throws from Howie gave Hammond their first lead since 2-0, and they would close the game on a 15-6 run to advance to the Class D semifinals by a final score of 38-30. Foster connected on five three-pointers for her 15 points. Howie finished with 10 and Mikayla Jones added seven for the Lady Red Devils. Hannah Coller scored seven to lead Hermon-DeKalb. Brabaw added six.
Edwards-Knox 51 Heuvelton 42
The second seeded Lady Cougars appear to be hitting their stride at the right time of the season and appeared to be getting ready to blow out the Lady Bulldogs as they raced to an 18-6 advantage after one quarter of play with Cam Huckle scoring eight in the quarter and Kiana Hogle adding four more. Heuvelton came to life in the second quarter as their top scorer, Cassidy Pray heated up by scoring eight of the Lady Bulldog’s 10 second quarter points as the two teams headed to the halftime break with E-K on top 26-16.
A three-pointer and a free throw from Addison Foster helped the Lady Cougars to their largest lead of the game at 30-16 before the Lady Bulldogs began to chip away. Heuvelton closed the third quarter on an 11-3 run to cut the lead to 35-29 heading to the final quarter. Lilliann Brossoit scored early in the quarter, was fouled and completed the three-point play and Miah Scott followed with an inside shot to force E-K to take a timeout with the score 35-34 with 6:45 to play.
A three from Huckle gave E-K a little breathing room and four straight free throws from Huckle iced it as the Lady Cougars hung on for a 51-42 victory and a matchup with Hammond in the semifinals. Huckle, who converted eight of her 12 free throw attempts, scored 17 to lead the way. Addison Foster finished with 10, Kiana Hogle netted nine and Sophia Bullock scored eight and played a great inside game. Pray led all scorers with 19 points to lead Heuvelton. Brossoit added eight.
Harrisville advances
The Harrisville Lady Pirates, seeded fifth, had little trouble getting past fourth seeded Colton-Pierrepont as they won a 51-22 decision at Colton and earned a semifinal battle with top seeded Chateaugay, which beat ninth seeded Morristown 55-34. We will report on the Class D semifinals in next week’s edition.